Hybrid Governance in Mountain Agrifood Value Chains: Comparing Alta Versilia Chestnuts and L'Aquila Truffles

This thesis investigates the emergence of hybrid governance in marginal mountain agrifood systems, examining how local actors combine formal and informal institutions, rules, and practices to address socio-economic fragility, ecological vulnerability, and institutional fragmentation. The research compares two Italian mountain value chains: chestnut flour in Alta Versilia (Tuscany) and black truffle in the L'Aquila Apennines (Abruzzo). Using a comparative qualitative case study approach based on semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and document analysis, the study explores the contribution of informality to resilience at the household, community, and value chain levels. The findings show that informal practices foster flexibility, trust-based coordination, and adaptive capacity, while also constraining scalability, formal recognition, and access to institutional support. Hybrid governance takes different forms across the two cases: in Alta Versilia, it is embedded in local culture and collective action, whereas in the L'Aquila Apennines it emerges primarily as an adaptive response to institutional weakness and fragmented governance. Resilience is therefore understood as a dynamic and context-dependent process arising from the interaction of economic, social, cultural, and ecological dimensions. The thesis develops a transferable analytical framework for other marginal mountain regions and highlights policy approaches that recognise the functional role of informality while strengthening locally embedded hybrid governance arrangements for sustainable rural development.