Peasants have predominantly been associated with a rhetoric tied to a past, pre-industrial society, a viewcultivated by agricultural modernization efforts. New development pathways, particularly in Europe,have reshaped rural spaces and the forms of interaction they embed. Though obscured in themodernization process, the presence of peasant and peasant-like farm realities, perseveres. Especiallysince the 1990s, Italy, as in all of Europe, is marked by a wave of re-peasantization—an emergence ofagriculture that is distinguishably more peasant-like. This process is driven not by peasants of the past,but by new, third-millennium peasants seeking viable alternatives in farm-based livelihood. The purposeof this dissertation is to explore the manifestation of this phenomenon in two small farms in Campaniaand Sicily, in the south of Italy. To address this study aim, qualitative, field-based case study researchwas conducted, combining two main methods interviews and observations. Each farm’s inner operationalfunctioning, especially its practices, strategies and pursued objectives, as well as its surrounding socialnetworks were analyzed following the concept of re-peasantization, as elaborated by rural sociologist Janvan der Ploeg. This work sought to explore (1) how the two farms’ operational functioning reflects and/ordeviates from the re-peasantization framework; and (2) how knowledge and nested market networksinterplay with the achievement of the farms’ objectives. Contextual specificities were fundamental forunderstanding the perceived viability and mode of “doing food and agriculture” given the particularsetting. Descriptive and thematic findings foremost revealed that both farm operations pursue strategiesthat strongly ground them in both the material and immaterial resources of their territories, diversify their agricultural activities, while trying to minimize dependence on external inputs and/or expertise. Establishing new peasant networks helped to diversify not only their activities, but also their sources ofknowledge, and market circuits. This two-case study contributes to the documentation of new peasant realities in Italy, while drawing attention on the need for decentralized, sub-regional rural development policy efforts to be more supportive and recognizant of peasant-like, contextually grounded agricultural realities.