La Comunicazione Generativa per ridefinire il valore delle olivete e dell’olio d’oliva in un’ottica di sviluppo sostenibile socio-economico e culturale dei territori e delle comunità

Olive oil and olive growing are significant elements of Italian culture. Historically, the olive tree has represented one of the crops characterizing the Mediterranean basin and, today, it can be a strategic asset to communicate the immense Italian historical-cultural heritage. However, like the rest of the agricultural sector, olive growing faces significant challenges on both entrepreneurial and communicative levels. These include a lack of innovation and generational change, fragmentation within the supply chain, vulnerability to climate change, and the complex relationship between production and commercial realities. Consequently, the olive-growing sector requires a new language and skill set, as well as an innovative approach to effectively communicate both the material and immaterial values of its production. In this project, I aimed to design a communication strategy for the olive-growing sector, guided by the Generative Communication Paradigm (Toschi, 2011). This approach considers the sector's diverse values from a systemic perspective, including social, political, cultural, and economic dimensions. The goal of this strategy is to build a community of interests around various local initiatives and projects, creating shared value (CSV) and promoting socially responsible actions (CSR) among all the different stakeholders involved, held together by the common thread of the olive oil as a symbol of Italian historical and cultural heritage. Value, in this work, is not only understood in its economic and financial sense but also as representative of many other sectors such as health and healthcare, environment, social agriculture, olive oil marketing, and tourism. Therefore, the first chapter identify and analyse five key areas of interest and intervention, encompassing both tangible and intangible values within the olive-growing sector, other than examine how these aspects are communicated by diverse social actors and national entities: (1) Nutrition, Health, and Well-being; (2) Environment, Sustainability, and Climate Change; (3) Social Agriculture; (4) Agricultural Branding and Marketing; and (5) Tourism and Territorial Marketing. Redefining the multifaceted and multi-sectoral values of olive oil requires a communication approach deeply rooted in social responsibility, one that addresses both the agricultural and olive-growing stakeholders as well as the broader community's needs, from knowledge dissemination to practical applications. Accordingly, the second chapter delves into the history and practices of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Creating Shared Value (CSV), alongside an exploration of various communication tools —such as integrated and sustainability reports— that support agri-food companies and organisations. The third chapter aims to demonstrate how these elements were integrated into two research projects that focus on communicating the values of the olive-growing sector. This sector represents a rich tapestry of national historical, artistic, social, political, and cultural heritage, influencing both the nation as a whole and local economies. The first project is titled L’Olivo gentile. Lo splendore ignorato delle ulivete, while the second is Nuovo EVO. Il valore dell’olivicoltura per lo sviluppo sostenibile dei territori. Both projects were carried out by the Center for Generative Communication (CfGC), the Generative Communication Lab della Fondazione PIN (Lab CfGC), and the Research Center ‘scientia Atque usus’ for Generative Communication - ETS (sAu Research Center), in collaboration with the Associazione Nazionale Città dell’Olio (ANCO). In conclusion, the activities developed using the Generative Communication Paradigm revealed significant opportunities to strengthen the communication in and outside the sector, fostering the creation of relational networks of different stakeholders capable of generating shared value across diverse communities and regions. In this context, communication practices can play a vital role in redefining olive-growing as a social domain that enhances identities and values rooted in specific communities and regions, while simultaneously fostering meaningful contributions to society as a whole.