From access to agency

Addressing the conversion gap in agripreneurship education for young migrant and Neet women

Bibliographic Data

ID22428343
AuthorsArgyrios Loukopoulos (0000-0002-8256-1578, University of Patras), Aikaterini Sotiropoulou (0000-0002-3393-7903, University of Patras), Dimitra Papadimitriou (0000-0002-3125-6223, University of Patras), Janina Álvarez (United States Agency for International Development), Ouranio Anastasiou (0000-0002-1354-1274, FIT Consulting (Italy)), Anna Rouvi (FIT Consulting (Italy)), Jana Pitrová (0000-0001-9979-3976, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague)
Year2026
Pages1-25
Publication date2026-04-27
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1750-6204 • E-ISSN: 1750-6212
PublisherEmerald (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1108/jec-09-2025-0273
OpenAlexW7155533798
LanguageEN
References cited40

Purpose Using an inclusion-to-empowerment conversion framework (access, participation, success through empowerment), this study aims to examine where agripreneurship education in Europe fails to convert access and participation into empowerment for young migrant-background women and those who are Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET). Drawing on higher education (HE) professors and vocational education and training (VET) trainers, it identifies a “conversion gap” and explores whether feminist pedagogy – recognition, redistribution and relationality – could help close it under specified boundary conditions. Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured interviews were conducted in English with 90 HE professors and VET trainers across 11 European countries (25–60 min; online or face-to-face) using a common guide. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and de-identified. A desk mapping of 210 programmes contextualised provision. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Findings Provision was unevenly embedded across contexts, and pedagogy was modernising but rarely gender-responsive. Constraints were framed primarily as skills deficits; participation supports (e.g. language mediation, device access) were discretionary, and care-related scaffolds were rarely mentioned. Reported effects clustered in individual and relational empowerment (confidence, peer ties), while structural empowerment mechanisms (finance, assets, buyer linkages) were seldom described. Originality/value The study specifies an inclusion-to-empowerment conversion gap and actionable levers – educator development, embedded participation supports, structured links to inclusive finance and markets, and empowerment-sensitive metrics beyond skills acquisition – grounded in recognition–redistribution–relationality feminist pedagogy.

Desk · Empowerment · Estonian · Higher education · Intersectionality · Reflexivity · Thematic analysis · Vocational education · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development · Entrepreneurship Studies and Influences · Rural development and sustainability

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