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New Zealand farmers were affected in significant ways by agricultural restructuring during the mid 1980s. Government, farmers' union, academic and media discourses all describe the ensuing years as a period of financial hardship for farm families. Based on aggregate statistics, the majority of these discourses reflect and ‘naturalise’ the government's neo-liberal stance, thus conveying an implicit assumption that farmers' experiences were determined by the economic efficiency of the farm enterprise. Drawing upon case study data and a holistic conceptual approach to the family farm, this paper contests such narratives, arguing that farm-level experiences of agricultural restructuring during (and after) the rural downturn were contingent upon a much greater array of factors. These included: the characteristics of the farm enterprise, household and property; actors' individual attributes; and the local context's biophysical, economic and cultural fabrics. The paper concludes by arguing that a full appreciation of the contingency of farm-level experiences requires an adequate recognition of the nexus of relations between the family farm, individual actor, and local context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the role of women farmers in the agricultural development in South Africa. Some of the most important changes in the in the agricultural sector of South Africa includes the introduction of labour legislation to agriculture, changing government structures following political transformation in 1994 and the increasing feminization of the agricultural labour force, particularly on fruit and wine farms in the Western Cape Province. The empowerment of women is essentially a feminist concern. The purpose of this article is to examine the activities of the Cape Women's Forum and the Women on Farms Project aimed at empowering farm women and to interpret the underlying assumptions regarding women's shared interests guiding their divergent approaches from a feminist perspective. In order to demonstrate women's marginalization, the paper begins with an overview of farm women's position on South African fruit farms. The second part of the paper examines the activities and programmes of the two groups directed at the empowerment of farm women. Information on the programmes, activities and strategies of the two women's groups was obtained through a detail analysis of mission statements, published programmes and other written documents of these groups.

Copyright of Sociologia Ruralis is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Sociologia Ruralis is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This section presents abstracts of several articles about rural sociology. The article, From Stilton to Vimto: Using Food History to Re-Think Typical Products in Rural Development, by Angela Tregear, traces the evolution of food-territory links in great Britain, taking account of critical social, economic and political forces. This leads to a classification of typical products grounded in British conventions, whose contributions to rural development are contrasted with those of classic Mediterranean products, with some challenging results. In the article Forging Linkages in the Commodity Chain: The Case of the Chilean Salmon Farming Industry, 1987-2001, the authors use the global community chain perspective to analyze the impact of food distribution and retail sectors on the Chilean salmon farming industry. The impact of the farmed salmon global commodity chain on class and gender relations at the point of production is also discussed. Drawing upon a case study data and holistic conceptual approach to the family farm, the paper Contingency Revealed: New Zealand Farmers' Experiences of Agricultural Restructuring argues that farm-level experiences of agricultural restructuring during the rural downturn were contingent upon a much greater array of factors.

This paper will aim to demonstrate how a wider theoretical and conceptual landscape, based around environmental social theory, can help to assist contemporary rural sociology in progressing its agenda. Of particular relevance here is an assessment of rural sociology by Buttel, where he makes the point that in the past decades work on aspects of regulation and globalization, for instance, has tended to be quite the reverse of the earlier theoretical developments of the 1970s and 1980s. He argues for more theoretical innovation to be undertaken. While the past decade or so has demonstrated quite a flurry of rich empirically engaged work, actual theoretical development has reached, he argues, something of a hiatus; with various schools tending to adopt a position along the actor-oriented-political economy axis.

This paper examines some recent analyses of alternative agro-food networks (AAFNs) and claims that these innovative modes of food provisioning are emblematic of a new rural development paradigm in Western Europe. A political-economic critique of the territorialised, farm-centric value added strategies underlying these claims suggests that this characterisation is overdrawn and premature. The neglect of the consumption side of the rural development equation also argues for a more modest assessment of AAFNs and their paradigmatic potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sociologia Ruralis is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article relates the author's comment on the article about the rural studies by Simon Miller. The author agreed on Miller's positive contribution that seek to account a sense of direction in an important aspect of rural studies. In this context, Miller traces a shift of direction towards the study of in-migration and consumption as essential for understanding changing social relations in the countryside. A contrast between the excellence of previous works and the poverty of empirical work undertaken by the author himself had been addressed. The author enumerates the three significant misapprehensions of Miller's paper that undermine his accuracy and trustworthiness.

Copyright of Sociologia Ruralis is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Sociologia Ruralis is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Sociologia Ruralis is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Sociologia Ruralis is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Sociologia Ruralis is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article presents comments of authors on the article "Commercialization and Commiditization: A Dialogue Between Perspective," by Peter Vandergeest. Peter Vandergeest extends his critique to document in more detail the similarities, differences and analytical shortcomings of the 1960s commercialization literature and the recent commoditization perspective on agrarian development. He aims not only to expose the inadequacies of these two contrasting theoretical approaches, but also to stimulate a dialogue between them so that researchers might move beyond the current impasse in neo-Marxist development sociology. Vandergeest's paper is one of the first systematic analytical comparisons of these two bodies of literature and offers fresh insight into both old and new theoretical and practical problems. One way in which one can take up these cultural dimensions is through the study of agricultural knowledge systems. This work should draw upon the sociology of knowledge and cognitive anthropology to analyze how farmers or other actors generate, reproduce and transmit knowledge that is relevant to agricultural practice.

This article focuses on inequalities in agriculture in the European Union. We examine the mismatch between European legislation on employment and any rigorous interrogation of women's employment position in agriculture. Our central argument is that this occurs because agriculture is seen as a sector rather than an occupation. DG AGRI is responsible for European agricultural and rural development policies. DG EMPLOYMENT does not have oversight for the agricultural workforce in the same way as other occupations as the existence of DG AGRI means farming is less obviously understood as an occupation. There are no similar measures to address the under‐representation of women in agriculture in the same way as for science, technology, engineering and mathematics occupations. We demonstrate that when agricultural policies are seen as relating to an occupation rather than a sector, it becomes clearer how agricultural policy discriminates against women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many of the attempts to construct sustainable rural livelihoods involve a shift away from agriculture's traditional 'core' activities by means of a diversification with new on-farm activities or 'conversion' to quality modes of production. This raises the question of how we should conceptualize the role of those enterprises that fall into the vast category of 'main-stream' farms within the process of rural development. By discussing the style of 'farming economically' in Friesian dairy farming, this paper argues that rural development should not be seen as a contradiction between conventional and alternative farming systems. Farming economically is considered an integral part of the newly emerging model of rural development, since it entails a particular model for the mobilization, combination and utilization of resources at farm level that contrasts sharply with the modernization paradigm. At the level of the rural region, farming economically allows for higher income and employment levels, factors that are fundamental for a healthy, rural social fabric. The paper concludes that for the rural development potential of farming economically to be developed further,a favourable 'rural district' is needed that strengthens the innovativeness and specific developmental trajectory embedded in the practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This article discusses the relations between patriotism and food sovereignty in post‐Euromaidan Ukraine. It investigates how the rising Ukrainian national identity and patriotic sentiments during the geopolitical conflict with Russia led to a change in the social imaginary of traditional small‐scale farming. Formerly, household farming was seen as a coping strategy of the post‐Soviet population and a relic of the socialist past, doomed to disappear in the nearest future. Nowadays, more and more Ukrainians view small‐scale farming as a sustainable alternative to large‐scale industrial agriculture, which could feed Ukraine (and Europe) with ecological and healthy food. This study uses primary qualitative and quantitative data collected during field research before and after the Euromaidan revolution to reveal how pro‐European aspirations and rising patriotism contribute to the emerging discourses on the ‘rights to food and to farm’ in Ukraine. This transformation could bring a new trajectory to the country's agricultural development and might lead to the emergence of a food sovereignty movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examining the development of Romanian agriculture, one may wonder how a few large-scale agribusinesses have managed to legitimise their position and to deflect open criticism even as they control a disproportionate share of arable land. Clarification may be provided by Pierre Bourdieu's concept of field, which involves the simultaneous characterisation of sets of objective positions and symbolic struggles over the definition of hierarchical principles. This analytical framework allows us to shed light on the economic field and its relationships with other fields, which each have their own structure and are each influenced by specific struggles. Large-scale agricultural holdings in Romania find support within the political and the scientific fields, each of which provides supports within the bureaucratic field. The coincidence of different fields prevents any questioning of the economic model on which the development of large-scale farming is based. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional products play an increasingly important role in European economies and policies. The economic value of these products is considerable, and they are frequently regarded as significant generators of rural and regional development. But what processes underlie the formation of a regional product? While scholars have rightly called for attention to be paid to the contextual nature of regional products, this article aims to take a progressive step in this discourse and explore if, given the contextual nature of regional products, specific patterns can be identified that serve to make products regional. To this end I investigate the qualification of a reinvented agricultural product, madder ( Rubia tinctorum), which is grown to produce dyestuff in Zeeland, The Netherlands. Based on the case of Zeeland madder and a comparison with other regional products I identify five qualification patterns, namely essentialism, strategic positioning, identity work, internal mobilisation and localising control. These patterns cross the divide between economy and culture and show how both elements become interwoven in the process of making products regional. Moreover, the patterns usefully highlight the hybridity of regional products, that is, their association with alternative food networks and conventional food networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that to understand the use of evidence in policy, we need to examine how meanings and practices in the civil service shape what is accepted as knowledge, and how differences between the beliefs and values of the academy and the polity can impede the flow and transfer of knowledge. It considers the importance of social context and shared meanings in legitimating knowledge. Who counts as legitimate knowledge providers has expanded and here the role of stakeholder groups and experiential knowledge is of particular interest. How hierarchy, anonymity, and generalist knowledge within the civil service mediate the use of evidence in policy is examined. The difference in values and ideology of the civil service and the academy has implications for how academic research is interpreted and used to formulate policy and for its position in knowledge power struggles. There are particular issues about the social science nature of evidence to inform rural policy being mediated in a government department more used to dealing with natural science knowledge. This article is based on participant observation carried out in a UK Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Van der Ploeg's ‘styles of farming’ approach attempts to explain the social nature of diversity in agriculture. For over 10 years we have attempted to apply this concept to a range of farming situations in Australia. This article reviews the issues posed by Vanclay et al. in 1998 and provides insight into what have been the developments in the concept of farming styles. We utilise the results of three studies in Australia: a study of farming styles in broadacre cropping and grazing farmers in the Riverina region of New South Wales; a study of grape growers in the Sunraysia district of Victoria and a separate study of grape growers across south-eastern Australia. While this research was intended to validate the existence of styles and to provide evidence of the usefulness of the concept and its application in rural industries, we were unable to replicate or validate van der Ploeg's original conceptualisation and methodology. We conclude that farming styles are more of an intellectual construction than a social construction. Nevertheless, we believe that the concept of farming styles is a useful heuristic and a new framework for understanding farming styles is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author focuses on a possible opportunity for a change in women's positions by examining the process that led to the election of a woman president of the Norwegian Farmers Union at the annual meeting in 1997. The term "glass ceiling" is used in management literature as a metaphor for the barriers or bottlenecks that seem to block women's way to top positions at different levels in organizations. According to the author the 1997 election is an exception to the general trend of excluding women from positions of political leadership in agricultural organizations. It also stands out from previous elections in the sense that a woman and a man were competing for the top position, and that for the first time gender was used as an argument in the election process. A key issue is therefore whether this election process will be the first step in shaping a new organization based on equality between the sexes. The equality perspective sees gender as a socially determined category, meaning that men and women are essentially alike and the corresponding strategy for change is based on increasing the number of women involved and treating men and women equally.

This article presents information on women pioneers in farming in the history of agricultural development. In recent years, an awareness of the innovative achievements women have contributed to agriculture has not only grown in the field of development co-operation, but in the industrial countries as well. The present commitment women bring to agricultural progress appears at first glance to be unprecedented in history. The everyday life of women has been the primary object of research in the agriculturally oriented literature on women to date. Since the beginning of the century, many remarkable studies have been made throughout Europe on female small farmers and professional women farmers, on maids working on farms and female farmhands, on women in highland and ecological agriculture. The author states that this article focuses on the access women had to agricultural progress and the contributions they made to it against the background of their specific social situation and historical circumstances, and the historical form, structure and organization of agricultural knowledge.

Copyright of Sociologia Ruralis is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Sociologia Ruralis is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article presents abstracts related to agricultural environment and technology. They include "Cleaning up agriculture: Environment, technology, and social science," "The Polluter Pays Principle and its Relevance to Agricultural Policy in European Countries," and "The Colonization of French Agriculture."

Copyright of Sociologia Ruralis is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article offers the author's comments on how the large scale agricultural development across European countries has led to environmental degradation. Though the European agriculture has undergone a profound technological revolution in the post-war period, agricultural intensification has placed an excessive strain on the natural and physical environment. It has also led to water and soil pollution and the destruction of wildlife habitats.

This article examines economic and social aspects of part time farming in Poland. In Poland, part time farming is severely criticized on the ground that part time farms are characterized by low levels of production. It is commonly believed that shifting part time farmers to full time farming or to non-agricultural employment would be the only sensible solution to the problem of agricultural productivity in Poland and that in the long term the presence of part time farms can only damage the economy. This opinion is basically wrong and any policy aimed at making part time farmers switch to full time farming or take up employment elsewhere would be misguided. The problem of part time farming should be approached with caution, fully recognizing the fact that peasant workers do not apply for apartments in towns and thus no additional development or urban infrastructure is called for to meet their needs. Part time farming should be seen as a chance for development in those regions where, for various reasons, the rural population is on the decrease. In their attitude towards peasant workers, agricultural policy makers should not forget that peasant workers make an immense contribution to Poland's overall labor balance.

The process of agricultural modernisation in the more advanced countries is analysed with particular reference to the USA. This is characterised as a complex set of technological, economic and social transformations having several implications for the ecological and rural social environment. Aggregate growth trends conceal a dualistic structure in the farm economy with the relative impoverishment of a large category of farmers. At the policy level there are limitations in the way problems are perceived and biases in the way scientific knowledge is generated and applied. While Ireland represents a less advanced stage of modernisation it provides several manifestations of the more general transformation process. Income differences between smaller and larger farmers have been increasing. Farm migration has not resulted in a re-adjustment of land and labour but in the accumulation of under-used land in the demographically depleted sector of the farm population. Policy prescriptions reflect an undue reliance on market and technical solutions which accentuate the trend towards a dualistic farm economy. The conclusion suggests some elements of a desirably broader concept of agricultural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the initiative of the World Bank in providing assistance to agricultural activities and rural development projects. The bank has adjusted their scale and direction to fund investments in the rural sector, which contributes about 5% of the annual investment by public sector in agriculture. The revised banking policy involved programs targeted towards farmers with small income. Although its lending strategy conforms to development projects, it is still faced with economic, social, sociological, institutional and technological difficulties.