Prof. Ting Fa Margherita Chang Section of Economics and Landscape DICA - Deparment of Civil Engeenering and Architecture Address: Via delle Scienze, 208 University of Udine 33100 Udine (Italy)
Ting Fa Margherita Chang graduated cum laude in Economics and Business at the University of Pavia (1972). Since 1991 she is full professor of Agricultural and Landscape Economics in the Faculty of Agrarian Sciences - University of Udine. She held also the chair of "Agricultural Economics and Policy" and the course of "Urban and Rural Appraisal" in two of the most prestigious Italian Universities (Turin - Fac. of Economics and Business - and Polytechnic of Milan - Fac. of Architecture). She was from 1983 to 1986 member of the National University Council, the advisory body of the Italian Ministry of Education as representative of university researchers. She has served as Liaison Officer for Italy of the International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE -from 1992 to 2000) and as Director (2006-2010) of the Department of Biology and Agribusiness Economics at the University of Udine (Italy). At present she is Editor of the International Journal "Agribusiness Landscape & Environment Management". She has been member of the Administrative Council of the University of Udine since 2003 as representative of Full professors. Since 1998-99, she has been serving as Coordinator of the research doctorate program (Ph.d.) in "Economics Ecology and Protection of the Agricultural and Landscape-environmental Systems" of the University of Udine. T.F.M. Chang is Author of numerous publications in the following fields: a) agribusiness economics; b) agriculture in underdeveloped overcrowded countries (especially of East Asia); c) resources and landscape planning; d) methodological problems concerning the implementation of hierarchical algorithms (triangulation of I-O matrixes, cluster, clumping and so on) and the systems of national accounts (environmental included; e) landscape and environmental economics.
Abstract: Civic Agriculture: a Theoretical Approach between Community and Neodurkheimian Theories. The Experience of Community Gardening. The crisis of conventional agriculture has highlighted the opportunities and the challenges for developing a locally-based agriculture, leading to: a) re-locate part of locally based (in situ) agriculture in order to increase self-sufficiency, differentiate production through specialization in gardens for vegetables, small fruits (berries) and kitchen (eggs, poultry etc); b) avoid competition with conventional farming (mainly cereal production); c) reduce transportation costs that became prohibitive; and d) promote direct sale to local people (farmer markets). After examining the theoretical basis of the concepts of â local communitiesâ and of âcivic agricultureâ, we attempt to identify the contradictions of both of them and to formulate a new concept of civic agriculture resulting from a synthesis of U.S. and European experiences about community gardening. Full text in Italian Language
Abstract: The European model of agriculture comprises heterogeneous realities and economic actors characterised by different local conducts. Schematising this model, we can distinguish two agriculture typologies: modernised agriculture and traditional agriculture. The first agriculture typology has reached high levels of productivity but it is also a big producer of negative externalities. On the contrary, traditional agriculture is based on virtuous and sustainable productive activities but lacks in terms of productivity. In this article, we will develop a theoretical framework which encompasses the different patterns of endogenous development in both agriculture typologies. For this reason, initially we will refer to the theory of rural endogenous development. This theory searches phenomena of âself-centredâ and âconservativeâ development, which can occur in less favoured agricultural areas excluded by the modernised processes (such as mountainous areas). In regards to the European dualistic model, the paradigm of rural endogenous development will be extended to typologies of modernised agriculture. Finally, we will analyse the neoclassic doctrine of the economic growth and its evolutionary course, stressing the pros and cons of such doctrine by explaining rural endogenous development phenomena.
Abstract: Horizontal and Vertical Agriculture in Rural and Urban Areas: Scenarios, Contradictions and Impacts. The aim of this work is to describe the current crisis facing the globalized conventional agriculture tightened in the grip of the so-called
agricultural squeeze, which compresses farmer income. This paper, after studying problems of globalized agriculture in rural areas, called horizontal agriculture, attempts to highlight the role of the same type of agriculture in urban areas. Urban
agriculture, which works also in peri-urban areas, in the towns is a real alternative to conventional agriculture at least for horticultural, small fruits and animals breeding such as poultry. The paper aims also to identify the challenges and opportunities
of both urban horizontal and vertical agriculture in order to outline three future scenarios: Scenario I - conventional horizontal agriculture of commodities in rural area and urban vertical agriculture in urban areas (agro-technocratic model); Scenario II- Organic horizontal farming and urban horizontal agriculture (traditional agriculture model); Scenario III - coexistence of scenarios I and II in the landscape and cultural mosaic(predominance of one model or merge between the two models). The aim is to verify the alternative hypotheses of the dominance of one of the two basic scenarios against the convergence towards the third scenario, characterized by larger attention to population welfare and environmental protection.
Full text in Italian languare: please pic the link.
Abstract: Peaks of Unicity in the Uniformity Sea. In the present paper first of all we defend uniformity, recalling that most of modern
comfort of life relies on it. In particular communication is possible in virtue of some level of uniformity. The second section is
devoted to analyse some models of diffusion of uniformity: heat equation, but also some more modern models, which glue
together global behaviour, uniformising, and local behaviour, affected by randomness. The third section is devoted to the
analysis of a Sylos-Labini model applied to the space of attributes, according to a weak form of Hotelling competition. It is
shown thus that globalisation leeds to local phaenomena by itself, as a structural consequence. The fourth section finally recalls
some fundamental facts about the creation of uniqueness, that can be constructed, also educating the customer.
Abstract: This paper is based on the general outline of the call of papers in view of the conferenceâUnicity, uniformity and universality in the identification of the landscape-cultural mosaicâ, proposed and organized by the Department of Biology and Agro-Industrial Economy, in association with the Inter-Regional Association Agribusiness, Landscape and Environmental Studies IPSAPA/ISPALEM and the Ecoinstitute of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region. The conference was held in Aquileia
during two intense days of debate, namely 18-19th September 2008. Its purpose was to encourage indepth scientific analysis as well as promoting the cultural debate regarding the objective of the conference. For quite some time now these conferences have been based on the concept of the landscape-cultural mosaic. âMosaicâ is the key word which evokes the encounter between the
uniformity of material components and the unicity of the single and unrepeatable work. In order to have the whole picture one must submit to the rules and techniques which are universal, universal as the laws of perception and psychology that are implied.
Abstract: Suppose M is a non-negative square matrix. To each permutation P of its rows and columns (the same for both) we associate the sum S(P) of the cells that lie above the diagonal. By âtriangularization of the matrix Mâ it is meant the combinatorial problem of finding a permutation that minimizes S(P). Computationally the problem is NP-hard unless the trivial case of a matrix associated to an order relation. Up to now there existed only heuristic techniques, but it was not possible to have good estimates of their goodness. The problem has a deep meaning in macroeconomics according to Leontiefâs input-output theory.
The new methodology presented here finds the exact (absolutely optimal) solution, joining two techniques: graph theory and integer programming. Releasing integrity condition and passing to the dual problem allows a powerful simplification through a proper analysis of intersectoral cycles. Mostly the released solution is integer, thus solving exactly the original problem; otherwise it supplies a very good upper estimate of the degree of linearity.
Abstract: Atti del Convegno Internazionale (8-9-10 Giugno 2007)indetto dal Polo Museale della Tecnica e del Lavoro in Agricoltura - MUSA - C. da Piano Cappella - Benevento
Abstract: Abstract: In order to give a contribution to the problem of defining urban-rural
interrelations, the authors use census data concerning daily flows of commuting workers.
Hsu's Cell-mapping method, transferred from physical dynamics to areal analysis, allows
us to obtain a consistent hierarchy of clusters of municipalities. Some archetypes of areal
interrelations emerging from this analysis are described, and it follows an overview of the
results obtained working on the whole of Italy. In the case of Milan metropolitan area a
comparison with other methods shows that Cell-mapping is sharper in analysing urban-rural
competition and therefore it can be used to help the decision maker.
Notes: The paper of Chang Ting Fa and Piccinini of the University of Udine (Italy) reflects
the need of a model that predicts the future spatial flows of people, goods and information.
Why? Such a model reveals how cities, countrysides and regions become more and more
connected to each other in time and space.
Their method, Cell Mapping, is derived from the physics of chaotic dynamic
systems. The fuzzy method is fairly data-driven, although assumptions behind 'cluster'
process are important. The results show a clustering of cities, countrysides and regions into
functional regions, as well as the structure within the regions. The authors remain down to
earth with regard to the predictive value of their method. Firstly, they claim that describing
the development of a system is not the same as explaining the critical events that trigger
new landscapes. Secondly, they argue that their contribution is part of a long-term research
agenda.
Abstract: Intensive breeding by pursuing unconditionally productive objectives causes relevant
negative externalities. It is necessary to introduce physical fixed capital (plants for
biogas production) and immaterial capital (nets of knowledge/skills). These inputs of
capital are necessary to limit in some way the persistent erosion of natural capital
and to transform the negative externalities into a resource. This contribution aims in
the first part to choose within the Italian context the most remarkable territorial
realities of animal biomass production. We then calculate the production barycenters
of animal biomasses in order to determine the optimal position of biogas production
plants, purification and the re-utilization of waters and their relative induct (e.g.
physical capital for the connection to the energetic network). The introduction of such
plants in the barycenters and the relative nets of energetic connection on the territory
can be considered from the local community as an inadmissible imposition. In the
second part, our contribution will deal with the theoretical analysis of the most
innovative instruments. This can allow for the implementation of the procedures for
the adaptation of the exogenous element (biogas plant) to the âlocal feelingâ through
the creation of immaterial capital (social and relational capital).
Abstract: Rural areas in Europe are characterized by several agricultural models and paths. We can schematically divide them in two typologies of agriculture: the modernized and the traditional agriculture. The first typology is characterized by agricultural techniques of production pervaded by industrial (or modernized) elements and values. It is based on the most fertile soils of the European rural areas. The modernized agriculture has also reached elevated levels of productivity but it lacks in socio-environmental terms (i.e. biodiversity losses). The traditional agriculture, instead, has his base on the less favored areas and it is an unintentional keeper of traditional and virtuous techniques and elements (i.e. crop rotation and local genetic resources). It is such because it does not accept exogenous elements (i.e. mountainous agriculture where mechanization is applied with low efficiency/effectiveness) and it has therefore remained excluded from the processes of industrialization. The weak point of traditional agriculture, which has caused its decline, is the economic inefficiency. It is however an unknowing producer of positive externalities (i.e. safe food, local genetic resources, landscape). In our paper we try to assess the hypothesis of the return of traditional elements and techniques in the modernized agriculture. In order to analyze the problem, we shall introduce the theoretical framework of the âÂÂre-switching of techniquesâ from the neo-ricardian theory (Sraffa 1960). Sraffa, within the âÂÂre-switchingâ framework, pointed out that a low-capital-intensive technique may be competitive both at a relatively low and high rate of profit. Finally, after we have shown two examples of economic models of âÂÂre-switching of techniquesâÂÂ, we shall build an example of âÂÂre-switchingâ for the short period and an original example with multiple-switching points.
Abstract: The industrialization of the agricultural sector has resolved, at least in Europe and in the United States, the thousand year-old problem of the lack of food. Unfortunately, during the last years the limits of such an agriculture clearly exploded. The modernized agriculture, in fact, produces negative externalities and it does not assure food safety. Through our contribution we hypothesize three future scenarios for modernized agriculture. We shall study in particular the one that foresees the conversion to sustainability through the return of traditional techniques. In order to analyze the problem, we shall introduce the Sraffian framework of the âÂÂre-switching of techniquesâÂÂ. Finally we shall build an original and new model of âÂÂreswitchingâ for the short period. The aim of our work is to show that, at least theoretically, it is possible that a traditional agricultural technique could be convenient in a context of both low and high profit level.
Abstract: The quantitative analysis of the economic growth fails to explain the qualitative
transformations of the society and its agriculture. Such qualitative transformations, from the
rural society to the post-modern society, will be discussed in this paper with a particular
reference to the European context . Particularly, we shall focus the principal characteristics of
the traditional agriculture in the time of rural society. Then, we shall study the major
characteristics of the agriculture in the time of industrial society with a focus on the dualistic
model of agriculture. Finally, we shall individuate a possible typology of agriculture in the
time of post-industrial society updating Rossi-Doriaâs thought.
