Unay-Gailhard & Brennan: Young Farmers and New Media

In Young Farmers in “The New World of Work”: The Contribution of New Media to the Work Engagement and Professional Identities, Ilkay Unay-Gailhard and Mark A. Brennan (both of UNESCO Community, Leadership, and Youth Development, Penn State University) examine work engagement and identity among young farmers in Crete and Cyprus. 

Research in organizational behavior has produced much discussion around the idea of “new ways of working” – otherwise known as ways of work that allow flexibility, autonomy, and adaptability thanks to digital technologies. The authors of this article examine the impacts these “new ways of working” have had on young farmers. 

Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative research, the authors focus on the young farmer population of the European islands of Crete and Cyprus and on how the use of new technology impacts these farmers’ feelings about their work and career.  The authors sorted farmer participants based on how they used digital technologies and new media in their work, arranging participants into three groups according to high, medium, and low digital integration. The authors then examined how different levels of digital work engagement impacted a young farmer’s perceptions and experience. 

The researchers ultimately found that young farmers with higher levels of digital work engagement felt more support through online connections. Additionally, young farmers had a positive correlation between digital work engagement and both the amount of employees they had and the level of education they had received. Regardless of technological use, however, all young farmers felt a strong social connection between themselves and their careers as a farmer. The authors discuss how further research should expand beyond small island communities and limited sample sizes. In doing so, future studies can examine young farmers in different and more diverse social settings.