Search

The special edition of the journal "Sociologia Rurails" seeks to redress imbalance by positioning the rural more centrally within recent developments and debates focused on social natures. The seven papers that make this volume were originally were presented in a workshop of the XIX Congress of the European Society for Rural Sociology that took place in 2001 in Dijon, France. This special edition commences with two papers that provide broad reviews of the position of animals within recent writings on social nature. In the first of these papers, Hilary Tovey focuses on what she terms the invisibility of animals within sociology. Reviewing recent writings on social nature, she argues that animals have either been ignored altogether or have been subsumed into wild nature, leaving domestic animals, and particularly those linked to agriculture, othered within sociological literatures. For Tovey, domestic animals pose a problem for sociologists of nature, in that they cannot be comfortably positioned within either nature or culture. She shows how such animals play an important role in shaping dominant representations of rurality and particular rural (farming) cultures, and argues that domestic animals need to be taken more seriously by environmental and rural sociologists so that more appropriate theoretical understandings of rural society can be developed.

This article deals with the pattern of changing functions of the rural community consequent on changes in agriculture. The first half of the paper is devoted to the definition of the problem under investigation, an outline of its precise scope and an indication of its limits. The article is concerned both with those social changes in the rural community that are the product of internally generated developments in agriculture and also those that result from the effect on agriculture of the influence of outside factors. The paper confines its analysis to European conditions and, more particularly, to the more-developed rural regions of Europe. Taking up the findings of the Limerick Rural Survey in Ireland, the article illustrates these consequences by reference to them. The first consequence is shown to consist mainly in a weakening of the rigid class system which formerly kept the farm laborer in subordination. Today, due to their shortage and the possibility of bettering their lot by emigration, the status of the farm laborers is being upgraded, to an extent that is having some unsettling effects on the farmer's family, on whom the burden of agricultural work is falling more heavily.

This article presents information on the written word as a means of mass communication. has a particular importance regarding advisory literature. In this study an attempt was made to investigate if and to what degree the information, passed on to the farmers through a number of well-known periodicals of the Dutch agricultural press and the agricultural advisory service, is tuned in to the public for which they are intended. Readability formulas are only aids for measuring certain aspects of the readability of the written word, but as such they can perform a useful function in promoting clearer communication between writer and reader. In the search for more objective standards in determining the difficulty of written notices use can be made of the readability research which is developed and practiced in the U.S.A.

The article interprets a relational typology of farm business in Southern England. In a paper published in the previous issue of Sociologia Ruralis the author addressed the theoretical and methodological aspects of constructing a relational typology of farm businesses. In this paper the author builds on these arguments in an attempt to develop a typology that is both theoretically informed, within a political economy framework and responsive enough to empirical variation to be capable of interpreting field survey material. In the earlier paper the author argued for a methodology, which focused upon the causal relations and mechanisms explaining the dynamics of agricultural production, rather than on the contingent forms describing farm businesses. The author emphasized two particular points in the analysis of agricultural production relations. The examination of empirical material represents the second stage. It provides a means of refining and developing the typology through an examination of the contingent conditions within which structural processes operate and are modified over time and space.

Recent explorations of agri‐environmental governance which draw on the assemblage perspective highlight the relational aspects, the process dimension and the generative elements of certain sustainability endeavours. This article argues that the implications of this approach are little discussed especially what concerns the transformation potential of agri‐environmental programmes. We focus on the notion of reconfiguration as a significant facet of transformation. We align with recent research in transition studies to claim the need for conceptualizing reconfiguration. We draw on empirical research pursued with the Donau Soja organization to refer to a number of unfolding reconfigurations, in respect to the spatial, the technological and the political dimensions. We focus on the political reconfiguration and discuss some of the spillover effects of scientific research projects and proposals, programmatic papers, policy positioning and lobby work which accompany the everyday work and governance of the Donau Soja organization. We argue that greater attention to the unmeasured and unmeasurable effects of the DS assemblage also implies giving greater attention to the long‐term effects of such programmes. Moreover, the numerous changes unleashed by the organization demand research to re‐evaluate what counts as failure and success in agri‐environmental governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article empirically investigates rural, small-scale household farming in post-Soviet southern Ukraine, focusing on a particular group of households that have managed to intensify their production beyond subsistence without help from large farms. Large-farm support for small-scale household agricultural production in the former Soviet Union is generally considered necessary for small-scale household farming, so the absence of this support is noteworthy. The conditions of this intensification are explored and mapped out. Further, this intensification is related to discussions in the peasant study literature on the general viability of intensive smallholder production. While the investigated farms do present some sustainability concerns, this paper concludes that this production is not less viable than large-scale agricultural production. The main future challenge is how upcoming agrarian reforms will affect smallholders, particularly with respect to formalising informal resource use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

Rural sociologists in North America and Western Europe have shown increasing interest in the issues of rural environmental quality, the structure of agriculture, and rural underdevelopment during the past decade. This paper seeks to demonstrate the profound connections among these phenomena, particularly in terms of how ongoing changes in agricultural structure have had major impacts on both the rural environment and the socioeconomic fabric of rural communities. It is argued that while many of these changes are rooted in the dynamics of the Western capitalist societies, state policy has also been crucial in shaping change in rural society. A case is thereby made that a more holistic or integrative perspective -- essentially a political economy -- is necessary to understand the origins of these rural social and economic problems and conceptualize strategies through which they can be solved. Selected examples of the application of such a perspective are developed in the final portion of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of social capital for agricultural and rural development is explored in this paper through the analysis of seven comprehensive case studies that have been carried out in the framework of the European RETHINK research programme. The case studies are based on rather different initiatives at the interface between agricultural and rural development in Germany, Spain, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, Denmark and Israel. The case studies represent a broad spectrum of socio‐economic and agricultural contexts and focus on the role of social capital for development. We explore how social capital materialises in the context of rural areas, and what nuances it acquires in different rural environments. The case studies are used to better understand, and to illustrate, different expressions of social capital in different situations. Within the broad notion of social capital, we pay particular attention to trust, cooperation, sense of community, and culture and tradition. All four dimensions play a critical role in agricultural and rural development as they affect how people relate to each other, organise themselves and interact for development. [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.)

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 reports on research to track and trace the development and diffusion of a new initiative for clustering a diverse range of agro‐food businesses located in the rural state of Tasmania, Australia. The initiative is termed 'FermenTasmania'. To structure our analysis, our research team leveraged the concepts of boundary objects and organisations, and the Triple Helix model of innovation; testing these sociological concepts and model as a means to explain the nature, structure and emerging trajectory of FermenTasmania. This paper aims to contribute two distinct, but related findings: first, analysis of the fit and utility of the aforementioned concepts and model to track the emergence of FermenTasmania; and, second, assessment of the dynamics of innovation regarding the formation of this new social entity bridging agriculture and tourism in a rural area, with particular attention to the role of place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The Dutch livestock farming sector faces complex challenges concerning its sustainability and social license to operate. Engaging with what is widely understood as a legitimacy crisis, the Dutch government organised a two‐day multi‐stakeholder meetings to explore future directions. Participants engaged with the public as a key but absent stakeholder, in ways that contributed to the outcome of the meetings in important ways. The paper charts and analyses how and with what consequences this happened. Findings are that participants discursively constructed citizens in terms of consumer roles, with deliberations turning citizen concerns about livestock farming into questions of consumer responsibility, side‐lining citizens’ political voices and discursively displacing the possibility of politics around livestock farming. This instance of network governance presents a case of depoliticisation of an issue of concern to citizens, closely related to market players being put in the driver's seat of change, with the government in a supporting role. The article argues that this raises significant questions on the nature and role of construction of publics in network governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that we know little about how small farmers in post-communist Europe survive and even grow while having little access to credit markets. In approaching small farmers, this paper builds on ideas of self-provisioning, contending that the tendency among small farmers is not one of growth towards and through economies of scale, but one of internalising and de-monetising costs, by growing in order to control upstream and downstream links in the value chain. It asks what is it that makes self-provisioning possible in two post-communist regions (located in Romania and Ukraine) and identifies various assets in the smallholders' environments, such as most importantly a diverse scene of intermediaries supplying smallholders with cash incomes. The implication of the research is that the existence of these assets is crucial for the smallholders' survival and growth, and these assets should be valued accordingly rather than dismissed in favour of integrating smallholders into modern, retailer-dominated, value chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts on papers related to sociology. The paper "Rural Development: From Practices and Policies Towards Theory," by Jan Douwe van der Ploeg, Henk Renting, Gianluca Brunori, Karlheinz Knickel, Joe Mannion, Terry Marsden, Kees de Roest, Eduardo Sevilla-Guzmán and Flaminia Ventura reflects the discussions in the IMPACT research programme and suggests that at the level of associated theory also a fundamental shift is taking place. Rural development is a autonomous process in which agriculture plays the key role. The paper "Food Supply Approaches: Exploring Their Role in Rural Development" by Terry Marsden, Jo Banks and Gillian Bristow explores the role of short food supply chains. In the paper, the consideration is given to the short food supply chains, and a three level topology is present. The dimensions and evolution of short food supply chain and the identification of four types of evolution have also been examined in the paper. Four types of evolution are temporal, spatial,demand and institutional.

Starting from a theoretical discussion on the relations between women and nature, the overall aim of the paper is to discuss how the ongoing structural changes in organic agriculture affect the everyday life, roles and positions of professional women in the sector and relate to the construction of gender and identity in organic farming. When organic farming was implemented in Denmark, both women and men were active participants in defining its principles and practises. Hence organic farming has the potential for creating alternative relations and for reviving female values and interests in agriculture. To day however, organic farming has become more commercialised leading to the gradual penetration and dominance of the values and practises of conventional farming. So how sustainable will future organic farming be with respect to gender relations? The paper focuses on the recent development of organic farming and explores some of the dilemmas and prospects related to different discourses of organic farming. The dominating institutionalised discourse primarily aims at reducing or eliminating environmental problems or dilemmas characteristic of conventional farming. This is notably distinct from a more holistic discourse emphasising broader and more emancipatory organic principles and practises. Our view is that most professional women in the organic sector relate to the latter category and hence are in danger of becoming a‘threatened species’ within the sector. Empirically we have challenged this view by interviewing women on their values, interests and practises within organic farming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses why many women, especially those who have entered into waged work, are neither revelling in their new roles nor experiencing the erosion of patriarchal structures that affect gender relations. It uses two case studies, focusing on women in households within former coalfield and farming communities. These are two different UK rural contexts but both have been affected by economic restructuring with the decline in the significance of agricultural income to farming households and rural economies, the near eradication of the mining industry, and the rise in the number of women in the workforce. In households where men were once the main wage earner, many women now make significant contributions to household income but whilst their roles have changed over the last two decades, patriarchal structures persist, seemingly unchallenged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australian rural women are largely invisible in public areas of influence. This paper presents findings of research into Australian rural women 's public profile in powerful agricultural organisations. Using a survey of Chairs of influential Boards and follow up interviews, as well as a survey of women in influential positions it shows that the Australian agricultural agenda is largely framed around a masculinist position and that women remain shadowy presences of outraged silence. Few men in powerful positions express disquiet about the current situation, with most arguing that appointments are based on merit. This paper exposes the fallacy of such a position noting that merit-based appointment is impossible under current selection processes. Disturbingly women who have gained access to positions of influence report overt and covert harassment from male colleagues. The paper concludes that changes to organisational culture are essential if women are to gain access to positions of influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the possible shift towards conservation-oriented attitudes of farmers through agri-environmental scheme participation should be seen as a key indicator for assessing the 'effectiveness' of agri-environmental policy. Through the analysis of two agri-environmental schemes in the UK, the FSA and Countryside Stewardship schemes, the study suggests that schemes attract different types of farmers and have different results with regard to shifting farmers' attitudes towards conservation. The paper concludes that there is little evidence yet that the FSA scheme is contributing to changes in farmers' attitudes towards conservation, largely because the scheme is aimed at maintenance rather than change. The Countryside Stewardship scheme, meanwhile, generally enrols more conservation-oriented farmers and also shows greater potential for shifting farmers' attitudes, mainly because it is aimed at enhancement of wildlife habitats which often require farmers to change farm management practices. Results indicate that future policies should put more emphasis on scheme monitoring and farmer environmental education in order to help move farmers along the conservation spectrum. In the FSA scheme, management agreement tiers that require more substantial changes to farm management practices towards conservation-oriented farming should be made compulsory in order to ensure that farmers are not only 'reacting' to schemes, but that also help farmers re-think their environmental management practices. The Countryside Stewardship scheme should be further expanded because of its appeal to conservation-oriented farmers and the resulting potential for sustainable environmental conservation of the countryside. [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.)

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.)

The article presents abstracts of various articles published in the periodical "Sociologia Ruralis." In the article "Class, State, Technology and International Food Regimes: An Introduction to Recent Trends in the Sociology and Political Economy of Agriculture," the paper introduces the contributions to the World Congress special issue on "Agricultural Change: Class, State, Technology and International Food Regimes in the Late 1980s." The papers are placed in the context of recent trends in the literature in the sociology and political economy of agriculture. In another article, "Agriculture and the State system: The Rise and Decline of National Agricultures, 1870 to the Present," discusses that in the nineteenth century process of national-state formation is seen as a systemic process in which settler states and their agriculturalists provisioned the growing European working classes and became the basis of a new type of trade within a new international order. "Science, Technology, and the Restructuring of Agriculture," discusses the implications of the development of science and technology for contemporary agriculture and society.

This article questions some of the assumptions of those associated with constructing typologies of farm businesses. In addition, an alternative typology of farm businesses are constructed on a different methodological basis which are believed to be more pertinent to an understanding of the structure and transformation of farm business in contemporary Great Britain. The case for a relational typology which seeks, by identifying ideal types, to provide a way of constructing a theoretically informed classification of farm businesses is argued in this article. Such a typology, based on the identification of key sets of internal and external relations of production and indicators of both direct and indirect subsumption, provides a sounder basis for empirical enquiry than the typologies described in the first part of the paper. In order to use this typology as a means of investigating primary farm material, two further methodological steps are required. First, the processes of direct and indirect subsumption of the family farm needs to be translated into a consistent set of measures which enable systematic comparison between farms. A system of scaling is needed to indicate the degree of subsumption of individual businesses. The second stage is to devise a means of combining the evidence for all key external and internal relations in order to place a farm business in a particular type or cell. Only then can the typology be used to interrogate the field results.

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.)

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 summary of various articles published in the July 2005 issue of the journal "Sociologia Ruralis." One of the article states that the Bulgarian irrigation facilities deteriorated to a large extent and no longer meet the needs of the new landowner and agricultural production structure. The Bulgarian government therefore enacted two new laws to encourage collective action and to establish water user associations in order to achieve sustainable water management. Another article reports that governments across Central and Eastern Europe have enacted agri-environmental legislation over the past decade. This paper explores how the legislation has played out in practice, using property as an analytical lens to examine the social dynamics surrounding agri-environmental problems. The findings highlight the discrepancy between the legal rights accorded to land owners and their rights-in-practice. Land owners contest the constraints imposed by agri-environmental legislation through strategies ranging from avoidance to open violation.

The article presents several abstracts of research papers published in the July 3, 2001 issue of the journal "Sociological Ruralis." It discusses the cultural economics in the rural areas of Europe. The paper "Transnational Co-operation Between Rural Areas: Elements of a Political Economy of European Union Rural Development," by Christopher Ray considers the significance of the phenomenon in terms of the emergence of a rural development system. "Exploring the Dimensions of Culture Economies in Rural West Wales," by Moya Kneafsey, Brian Ilbery and Tim Jenkins, interrogates the nature and extent of the culture economy as a force for rural development in West Wales. The discussion draws on empirical material from research into four different product sectors, namely, specialty beef and lamb, organic fruit, vegetables and meat, specialty cheese and artisanal crafts. Of particular significance is the research paper "Governing the Boundaries of Viability Economic Expertise and the Production of the Low-Income Farm Problem in Australia," by Vaughan Higgins which discusses how economic expertise assumed prominence as key authorities in constituting previous collectivist forms of assistance as irrational, and in linking the future viability of Australian agriculture to the theories and practices of agricultural economists.

Abstract Recent policy statements on the future directions for agriculture have expressed the importance of the alternative food economy in promoting rural sustainability and improving public health. This paper suggests that these aims can prove incompatible. Alternative constructions of health and safety are likely to resist official discourses of healthy eating as a result of ‘lay immunologies’ and different cultures of nature. A Ministry of Agriculture consultation exercise on the consumption of unpasteurised milk is analysed to show how people living in rural areas situate health in particular versions of nature to cure and immunise the body from illness. These lay immunologies reconfigure the boundaries of purity/impurity by emphasising the importance of nature, bacteria, dirt and rawness in promoting health. This view is also deeply embedded in notions of rural identity and ‘defensive localism’. Scientific recommendations to purify foods are therefore resisted as an erosion of rural identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Typical products — foods with special characteristics due to local ingredients and traditional production techniques — have been the focus of many studies in rural sociology and geography. Shared suppositions have emerged regarding the historic, artisanal properties of these products and their beneficial contributions to rural development. However, extant studies tend to be fixed in certain theoretical contexts, and they under-appreciate the historic dynamics shaping food-territory links. The present study addresses these gaps by tracing, over time, the evolution of food-territory links in the UK, taking account of critical social, economic and political forces. This leads to a classification of typical products grounded in UK conventions, whose contributions to rural development are contrasted with those of ‘classic’ Mediterranean products, with some challenging results. The paper concludes that typical products need to be conceptualized from a broader perspective, and that face-value assumptions regarding their contribution to rural development need to be treated with caution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we explore several themes based on our intertwined research and outreach activities. First, we examine and discuss emerging global food chains that are embedded in strategic alliances, joint ventures and relationships - in short in networks of power. Decisions are being displaced away from multiple actors situated in different localities to globalized decision-making located within a few firms that make up each cluster. While the roots of these phenomena are firmly grounded in long-term historical processes, it is important to document and understand what is emerging at the global level in order to create alternatives. Second, we discuss our outreach work with farmers, consumers and communities in helping them to frame and understand the changes that are taking place in the food and agriculture system. This is exemplified through a case study of the Kansas City Food Circle and its role in generating alternative visions from the consumption side of the food equation. This work is extremely important for challenging the global food system, and also for helping to empower farmers, eaters and communities to create alternatives. We lay out an analytical understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the global system, and the opportunities found in the social, environmental and economic failures of the global system. In conclusion, the work described above rests on the recognition of different forms of agency that are appearing in the food system, agency that is located within the spaces provided by the unsustainable, unjust nature of the global system. We remain cognizant of the incredible networks of power that shape the production and consumption relationships in the food system. However, we remain hopeful that models of emerging alternatives can help relocalize production/consumption relationships in the food system in equitable ways. In other words, in relationships that are personalized and sustainable, and that are embedded in place and community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper adopts an actor-network theory approach in order to follow the associations of actors involved in the 2001 Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) epidemic in the UK. We follow the chains of translation through three key stages: from virus to disease; from disease to crises in agriculture, the rural economy and rural policy; and from those crises to the institutional change that occurred with the demise of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the arrival of the new Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs. What emerges from this approach is that the UK Government’s initial attempts to combat FMD caused a rural economy crisis not through mismanagement but through a more fundamental mis-problematization of the situation. By viewing rural areas through an agricultural lens, Government actors failed to appreciate the presence of other actors in the countryside, a failure that resulted in massive social and economic impacts outside of the agricultural sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role and importance of street-level bureaucrats in policy implementation is now widely recognised. So far as the EU’s agri-environmental policy is concerned, however, a focus on the attitudes and behaviour of programme recipients (farmers and other land managers) has tended to obscure the role of street-level bureaucrats responsible for extending and advising on schemes and the impact of their interpretive frameworks and communication practices on policy outcomes. This paper draws on interviews with extensionists and advisers in England and Finland in order to explore the different interpretations, which these actors bring to the implementation of agrienvironmental policy and to reflect on the implications of this for the way environmental advice is currently being offered to farmers within the agri-environmental network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What does the rise of organic food as a social phenomenon mean politically? What political impact does this form of consumption have on society? Is it a small and unimportant “blip” in the overall march of globalized, industrialized food and rationalized consumption systems. Is it even, perhaps, complicit in this process? Or is it a radical break ? The array of answers to these questions forms the “production–consumption debate” currently taking place in the examination of agro–food systems. If agro–food networks are conceptualized as interactive, socio–ecological metabolic circuits linking agricultural nature, social labor, the corporeal and the symbolic, then this paper argues that analytical concern in agrofood studies has focused overwhelmingly on the production ‘moment’ in these circuits. Despite the lessons of numerous ‘food scares’, anti–GMO movements and the mad cow disease pandemic, an asymmetry now holds sway in agro–food studies between production and consumption even though in other fields, as Jackson (1999) notes, consumption has been “duly acknowledged” (p. 95). As this asymmetry is addressed, a contemporary reformulation of the ‘agrarian question’ might investigate the potential for new forms of progressive food politics, ranging from ‘weak’ struggles over the modes of social orderings, such as knowledge systems, to more formal alliances between producers and consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing concerns have been expressed about whether the alternative character of the organic farming movement is being maintained as it grows in size and popularity. This paper examines this question with respect to organic farming in Ontario, Canada. Using survey and case study data, a number of production, marketing, ideology, and farm size characteristics are assessed as indicators of overall conventionalization as well as the bifurcation of organic farming into two distinct groups. While signs of conventionalization and bifurcation are demonstrated, particularly in the area of field crop farming, the overall analysis suggests that most organic farms retain the central features of an alternative approach, including an emphasis on small,diverse,mixed operations, marketing directly and locally to consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To judge from the unprecedented public demonstrations of the normally placid British farming population in the spring of 1998 and the high level of bankruptcies in the farming sector, British agriculture is in crisis. The current situation has been brought about by the overlap of a sharp fall in farm incomes as a result of the strength of the pound sterling with more fundamental trends towards the progressive withdrawal of production subsidies under the European Union Common Agricultural Policy and the generally depressed state of agricultural commodity prices worldwide. Whereas the first is a uniquely British and possibly temporary problem, the other issues are endemic to the whole of Western Europe's agriculture. Two particular features characterize the political response in Britain to the current situation: first, an increasingly neoliberal approach to agricultural policy, and second, the tendency to substitute rural for agricultural policies. In the paper, the author questions the rationality of these responses both theoretically and by relating the British situation to the recent experiences of the agricultural sectors in Australia and New Zealand.

The measurement of societal wellbeing has moved beyond gross domestic product and has emerged as an important factor within the paradigm of holistic sustainability assessment, including agricultural sustainability. At this juncture, knowledge gaps exist between agricultural policy priorities and data infrastructure to evaluate social sustainability issues, particularly regarding farmer sustainability. This study aims to address this gap through the development of a Farmer Sustainability Index (FSI), a composite index comprising three dimensions: farm continuity, community and social connections and farmer comfort. Socio‐demographic data were extracted from both core and supplementary EU Farm Accountancy Data Network data from the 2018 Teagasc National Farm Survey in Ireland. Statistical analysis was undertaken to compare the distribution of FSI and the individual dimension scores for farms across three socio‐demographic variables: farm system, farmer age cohort and region. The FSI results demonstrate that cattle farmers, farmers over 60 years of age and those residing in regions with poorer infrastructure experience lower levels of sustainability in comparison to other farmers, while the variation in FSI dimension scores identifies numerous sustainability risks to farms with differing socio‐demographic constructs. It is important for agricultural policy to be cognisant of these differences and the relational nature of these risks, to meaningfully address matters pertaining to sustainability, and the FSI provides an effective tool to assist policy in this regard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyses how and why agricultural digitalisation unfolds in contrasting agricultural sub‐sectors and rural spaces in Europe, with a particular focus on dairy farming. The authors explore the differences and similarities underpinning and produced by agricultural digitalisation and how this intersects with meanings of rural development and the politics of sustainability. Building on qualitative research carried out in the regions of Uppsala (Sweden) and Calabria (Italy), the article unveils the contradictory nature of agricultural digitalisation as a process intertwined with the capitalist development of agriculture that raises key political questions. The cases of Uppsala and Calabria, in particular, show that the transformation of dairy farming through automation and digitalisation is uneven and combined, being deeply connected to how politics of sustainability and rural development are embedded—and negotiated—in specific agrarian settings. The authors discuss their empirical findings in terms of new agrarian questions in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the erosion of institutions that support farmers' learning and the construction of knowledge in agriculture in an area of agricultural decline. It is based on a qualitative study in northern Sweden, exploring farmers' learning to farm, their peer networks, contacts with advisory services and their sales relationships. As farming is increasingly differentiated, with an intensification of production in some areas and increasing farmland abandonment in others, so are the institutions that support farmers' learning. Farmers handle this in different ways, and the article indicates that resourceful farmers, dependent on farm income, seek out and create contexts for learning. Others seem increasingly decoupled from advisory institutions and upstream industries, selling their produce in local networks. The article illustrates that the widening gap in agrarian production is related to a differentiation of social and institutional preconditions for the construction of knowledge in farming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structural change in the agricultural economy may result in the abandonment of agricultural buildings, creating rural brownfield sites. Since the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, post‐agricultural brownfields have become very common in Central and Eastern Europe. Our aim is to uncover and understand the reuse preferences for 16 reuse options, among 1275 survey respondents (local residents) from 272 rural communities with post‐agricultural brownfields in the Czech Republic. The influence of respondent status, the socioeconomic characteristics of those communities and environmental characteristics of communities were tested using redundancy analysis and variation partitioning. Three types of reuse were identified as most preferred among respondents: agricultural reuse, industrial reuse and reuse for housing, services and leisure time activities. We found strong and significant ties between the pattern of preferences for potential reuse options and demographic, community socioeconomic and environmental context variables. It can therefore be concluded that preferences for rural renewal tend to be constructed comprehensively and encompass social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainability. In order to implement a vision that promotes sustainable rural development, we need to recognise that the preferences of rural residents are fundamentally shaped by the local environment and are therefore highly dependent on the place‐based circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A transition to a more sustainable food production system in Europe has significant implications for the social constitution of rural spaces. Moreover, research has highlighted that engagement with sustainability initiatives can be affected by people's desire to maintain aspects of their current social realities pertaining to occupations, traditions and lifestyles. Farmers are central to a sustainable agricultural transition, yet are also socially embedded in the spaces that are targeted for transformation. This article engages with this dilemma through an exploration of farmer values in an upland farming area in Ireland. Specifically, we draw on qualitative case‐study data to explore how farmers value their occupation, lifestyles and social structures in terms of the relationships in which they operate. We highlight a range of dimensions through which case‐study farmers value farming—especially as autonomous, outdoor work—in terms of tacit skills and knowledge, familial legacies and certain forms of social organisation. Conceptually, this article builds on calls from within social sustainability scholarship to engage with social aspects of sustainable development. We develop and deploy a relational values analytic framework, which offers a simple yet effective lens for exploring farmer values in terms of the relationships through which they are generated and articulated. Through this framework, we explore how different individuals value their farming occupations and lifestyles. Moreover, by focusing on the relational dimension, we tease out the multiple and sometimes conflicting values that individuals navigate in relation to their farming occupations. We conclude that this kind of approach could enhance understanding of farmer engagement with (or resistance to) sustainable agriculture initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In connection to concerns about, for example, climate change, peak oil, pandemics and the depopulation of many rural areas, there has been a counter‐migration from urban to rural areas in past decades. An important part of this counter‐migration is the so‐called 'back‐to‐the‐land' migration of former urban residents who move to rural areas and adopt primarily agrarian lifestyles. Through a review of 48 migration letters in which migrants write about their experiences of moving from urban to rural areas to commence agriculture, this article explores the underlying ideals and agricultural practices of the back‐to‐land phenomena and discusses what significance this form of agricultural migration may have for understanding broader sustainability transformations and contemporary rural change. Important questions concern: What kinds of motives, practices and ideals underpin back‐to‐the‐land migration? What relevance does "back‐to‐the‐land" have for how we comprehend rurality and how the current food landscape is changing? Based on the letter reviews, this article illuminates four interconnected themes with regard to back‐to‐the‐landers practices and ideals. Back‐to‐the‐land as (i) rebelling against payroll work and meaningless lives in the cities, (ii) reinvention and retrotopia, (iii) reconnecting with nature and cultivating resilient alternatives and (iv) resistance and silent revolution. The article argues that the current back‐to‐land migration contributes to the construction of a renewed rurality—a reinvented form of rurality—that are adapted to suit both present and future needs in a world that is perceived as becoming more unruly. The article further suggests that, although back‐to‐the‐land migration may not yet have any significant material implications on the current food system, the ideals and practices the back‐to‐the‐landers profess, provide an important imaginary of how we can comprehend an alternative 'rurality' that reconnect people, land and food in more sustainable ways, through, for example, benign ways of practising agriculture and organising the food system. In this light, the current back‐to‐the‐land phenomena can be seen as a particular form of sustainability migration of voluntary peasantry that is based on retrotopian ideals of a rural past that is paired with progressive sustainability practices of the present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]