The Sapienza community mourns the passing of Corrado Barberis, Professor Emeritus, Founder of rural sociology and President Honoris Causa of INSOR, the Italian National Institute for Rural Sociology.

Born in Bologna in 1929, Prof. Barberis dedicated his entire life to the study of Italy's rural areas and the profound transformations that they underwent over the years. He was the first to comprehend the conceptual shift from food as a simple source of energy to an element of well-being, culture and economy.

Indeed, his studies and publications are the foundation for our modern understanding of agriculture, and perhaps even communication in this fundamental sector. His works traced the shift from rural areas as the locus of survival agriculture to well-being agriculture.