Michele Nori is a Tropical Agronomist (University of Florence – IT) with a further specialisation in Rural Sociology (PhD at Wageningen University – NL) and a specific expertise on the livelihood systems of pastoral communities. Through interfacing field practices, academic research and policy making levels, he has developed an ‘horizontal career’; this is based on more than 20 years’ collaborations in different regions of the globe with a number of organisations at different levels: civil society, UN agencies, research institutes, agricultural enterprises and donors offices, including the European Union Development Cooperation and its Delegations. His list of publications ranges from scientific papers to technical notes to advocacy documents on matters related to sustainable agro-pastoral livelihoods and rural development. His current concern is to provide effective scientific evidence and policy advice on aspects of rural development, food security, natural resource management and rural migrations through sound analysis of field realities and practices. Domenica Farinella is Lecturer in Economic Sociology at University of Messina (Italy) and Associate member of LCSP (Université Paris 7). She holds a Ph.D in Sociology of Innovation Process from the University of Naples Federico II (2004). Her recent research topics include: local and rural studies; change in pastoralism; multifunctionality in agriculture and new peasantries; informal economy and precariousness in the South of Italy; Mezzogiorno and Southern Question;  Public service, local governance, development policies.