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1.
Samuel Adjei-Nsiah Cees Leeuwis Ken E. Giller Thom W. Kuyper 《Agriculture and Human Values》2008,25(3):389-403
This study reports on action research efforts that were aimed at developing institutional arrangements beneficial for soil
fertility improvement. Three stages of action research are described and analyzed. We initially began by bringing stakeholders
together in a platform to engage in a collaborative design of new arrangements. However, this effort was stymied mainly because
conditions conducive for learning and negotiation were lacking. We then proceeded to support experimentation with alternative
arrangements initiated by individual landowners and migrant farmers. The implementation of these arrangements too ran into
difficulties due to intra-family dynamics and ambiguities regarding land tenure. Further investigations to find out how ambiguities
could be tackled revealed that the local actors themselves had taken initiatives towards developing institutional innovations
to reduce ambiguities. However, there is still considerable scope for further development of these self-organized innovations.
The article ends with a reflection on inter-disciplinary action research, where it is argued that making “mistakes” is an
inherent and necessary characteristic in action research that aims to address complex social issues.
相似文献
Samuel Adjei-NsiahEmail: |
2.
Julie Ingram 《Agriculture and Human Values》2008,25(3):405-418
This paper explores how knowledge is exchanged between agricultural advisors and farmers in the context of sustainable farming
practices in England. Specifically the paper examines the nature of the knowledge exchange at the encounters between one group
of advisors, agronomists, and farmers. The promotion of best management practices, which are central to the implementation
of sustainable agricultural policies in England, provide the empirical context for this study. The paper uses the notion of
expert and facilitative approaches as a conceptual framework for analyzing knowledge exchange encounters between agronomists
and farmers. Data were derived from semi-structured interviews with 31 agronomists and 17 farmers, in the context of three
initiatives promoting a range of best management practices including (a) targeted use of nitrogen (N), (b) use of nutrients
within manure, and (c) management practices to improve soil structure. The interviews revealed that, although many agronomist–farmer
knowledge exchange encounters are characterized by an imbalance of power, distrust, and the divergence of knowledge, other
encounters provide a platform for the facilitation of farmer learning in their transition to more sustainable practices.
Julie Ingram PhD is a Research Fellow at the Countryside and Community Research Institute, University of Gloucestershire, UK. Her research interests are knowledge transfer within the agricultural community, particularly in the context of natural resource protection, and agri-environment policy. Before joining CCRI, Julie worked in a number of developing countries on projects concerning the management of natural resources, particularly soil, in agriculture and forestry. 相似文献
Julie IngramEmail: |
Julie Ingram PhD is a Research Fellow at the Countryside and Community Research Institute, University of Gloucestershire, UK. Her research interests are knowledge transfer within the agricultural community, particularly in the context of natural resource protection, and agri-environment policy. Before joining CCRI, Julie worked in a number of developing countries on projects concerning the management of natural resources, particularly soil, in agriculture and forestry. 相似文献
3.
Patricia Allen 《Agriculture and Human Values》2008,25(2):157-161
Despite much popular interest in food issues, there remains a lack of social justice in the American agrifood system, as evidenced
by prevalent hunger and obesity in low-income populations and exploitation of farmworkers. While many consumers and alternative
agrifood organizations express interest in and support social justice goals, the incorporation of these goals into on-the-ground
alternatives is often tenuous. Academics have an important role in calling out social justice issues and developing the critical
thinking skills that can redress inequality in the agrifood system. Academics can challenge ideological categories of inquiry
and problem definition, include justice factors in defining research problems, and develop participatory, problem-solving
research within social justice movements. In addition, scholars can educate students about the power of epistemologies, discourse,
and ideology, thereby expanding the limits and boundaries of what is possible in transforming the agrifood system. In these
ways, the academy can be a key player in the creation of a diverse agrifood movement that embraces the discourse of social
justice.
相似文献
Patricia AllenEmail: |
4.
Douglas H. Constance 《Agriculture and Human Values》2008,25(2):151-155
I provide an historical overview of the development of the Sociology of Agriculture as a critical response to perceived inadequacies
of conservative theories of social change regarding rural society in general, and agriculture in particular. I do this by
focusing on the three questions that have dominated the discourse on agrifood studies: “The Agrarian Question,” “The Environment
Question,” and “The Food Question.” I analyze the success and constraints of selected alternative agrifood initiatives in
relation to the three questions and introduce a fourth, the Emancipatory Question. I conclude that agrifood social scientists
need to embrace a praxis orientation to agrifood studies and participate in social movements designed to create a more socially
just alternative agrifood system.
相似文献
Douglas H. ConstanceEmail: |
5.
We examine changing production relations in the Mexican tequila industry to explore the ways in which large industrial firms
are using “reverse leasing arrangements,” a form of contract farming, to extend their control over small agave farmers. Under
these arrangements, smallholders rent their parcels to contracting companies who bring in capital, machinery, labor, and other
agricultural inputs. Smallholders do not have access to their land, nor do they make any of the management decisions. We analyze
the factors that have led some producers to participate in reverse leasing arrangements, while allowing other producers to
continue farming independently. In addition, we look at the ways in which farmers are responding to these new production relations
and constraints and the strategies that they are using to regain control over the production process.
相似文献
Sarah BowenEmail: |
6.
Peter Auma Nyamanga Collette Suda Jens Aagaard-Hansen 《Agriculture and Human Values》2008,25(4):513-527
This article discusses ethnoveterinary medical pluralism in Western Kenya. Qualitative methods of data collection such as
key informant interviews, open-ended in-depth interviews, focus group discussions (FGDs), narratives, and participant and
direct observations were applied. The study shows that farmers in Nyang’oma seek both curative and preventive medical services
for their animals from the broad range of health care providers available to them within a pluralistic medical system. Kleinman’s
model of medical pluralism, which describes the professional, folk, and popular sectors, informs this discussion because of
its relevance and appropriateness to the study. It is, however, important to note the overlap in the three sectors and to
point out that livestock farmers engage in multiple “consultations” based on a combination of their own characteristics and
the cost, availability and specialization of health care providers. The study concludes by recognizing the complexity of ethnoveterinary
medical pluralism and calls for the integration of a pluralistic perspective into the planning and implementation of animal
health care interventions and services.
相似文献
Peter Auma NyamangaEmail: |
7.
This paper contributes to the growing social science scholarship on organic agriculture in the global South. A “boundary”
framework is used to understand how negotiation among socially and geographically disparate social worlds (e.g., non-governmental
organizations (NGOs), foreign donors, agricultural researchers, and small-scale farmers) has resulted in the diffusion of
non-certified organic agriculture in Kenya. National and local NGOs dedicated to organic agriculture promotion, training,
research, and outreach are conceptualized as “boundary organizations.” Situated at the intersection of multiple social worlds,
these NGOs engage in “strategic bridge building” and “strategic boundary-work.” Strategic bridge building involves the creation
and use of “boundary objects” and “hybrid forms” that serve as meeting grounds for otherwise disconnected social worlds. Strategic
boundary-work involves efforts to “scientize,” and thereby legitimize, organic agriculture in the eyes of foreign donors,
potential research collaborators, the Kenyan state, and farmers. Examples of strategic bridge building and boundary-work are
presented in the paper. The Kenyan case illustrates that different social actors can unite around a shared objective – namely,
the promotion and legitimization of organic agriculture as an alternative to the Green Revolution (GR) technological package.
相似文献
Jessica R. GoldbergerEmail: |
8.
David M. Holt 《Agriculture and Human Values》2008,25(2):169-171
I examine the risks and opportunities associated with social movement coalition building in attempts to block or curtail the
rise of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) in the United States. As producers have scaled up animal production
facilities, environmentalists and animal rights activists, along with numerous other social actors, have begun anti-CAFO campaigns.
I argue that while the CAFO has mobilized a diverse group of social actors, these individuals and organizations do not all
have the same interests (aside from resistance to CAFOs), leading to some unlikely allies. These odd alliances provide opportunities
for agrifood scholars to study the relationship between the coalitions that social movement organizations form and the support
they receive from their respective constituencies. Lastly, I argue that the need for agrifood scholars to address the pitfalls
associated with single-issue coalition building extends beyond the unlikely alliance between environmentalists and animal
rights activists, as agrifood related crises have led to a proliferation of such coalitions.
相似文献
David M. HoltEmail: |
9.
William H. Friedland 《Agriculture and Human Values》2008,25(2):197-201
The reaction to conventional agriculture and food systems has generated a host of alternative social movements in the past
several decades. Many progressive agrifood researchers have researched these movements, exploring their strengths, weaknesses,
and failures. Most such research is abstracted from the movements themselves. This paper proposes a new way of self-organization
that, while fulfilling traditional university demands on researchers, will provide research support for progressive agrifood
movements by transcending the boundaries of disciplines and individual universities.
William H. Friedland is Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Santa Cruz where his research continues on commodity systems, wine and grapes, the globalization of agriculture and food, and exploring ways to strengthen alternative social movements to subvert the dominant paradigm. 相似文献
William H. FriedlandEmail: |
William H. Friedland is Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Santa Cruz where his research continues on commodity systems, wine and grapes, the globalization of agriculture and food, and exploring ways to strengthen alternative social movements to subvert the dominant paradigm. 相似文献
10.
Jill Harrison 《Agriculture and Human Values》2008,25(2):163-167
I use the case of pesticide drift to discuss the neoliberal shift in agrifood activism and its implications for public health
and social justice. I argue that the benefits of this shift have been achieved at the cost of privileging certain bodies and
spaces over others and absolving the state of its responsibility to ensure the conditions of social justice. I use this critical
intervention as a means of introducing several opportunities for strengthening agrifood research and advocacy. First, I call
for increased critical attention to production agriculture and the regulatory arena. Second, I call for increased attention
to ‘social justice’ within the food system, emphasizing the need to rekindle research on the immigrant farm labor force.
Jill Harrison has a PhD in Environmental Studies from the University of California at Santa Cruz. She is Assistant Professor of Rural Sociology and faculty affiliate of the Program on Agricultural Technology Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focuses on environmental justice, immigration politics, and agrifood studies. 相似文献
Jill HarrisonEmail: |
Jill Harrison has a PhD in Environmental Studies from the University of California at Santa Cruz. She is Assistant Professor of Rural Sociology and faculty affiliate of the Program on Agricultural Technology Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focuses on environmental justice, immigration politics, and agrifood studies. 相似文献
11.
Larry L. Burmeister 《Agriculture and Human Values》2008,25(2):183-186
Since the New Deal era, the commodity title has been the major farm support program in US farm bills. Commodity programs have
encouraged farmers to pursue specialized, monocultural, and input intensive production strategies that are increasingly viewed
as unsustainable. Yet commodity programs remain politically resilient. As revealed in the farm payment limitation debate in
the 2007 farm bill reauthorization process, political support for commodity programs is maintained through policy elasticity
adaptations that combine new with old policy rationales. The recent extension of farm program support to producers of commodities
that have not received benefits in the past poses a potential threat to existing commodity programs, as this legislation has
institutionalized competition within production agriculture over the allocation and design of subsidies. This paper argues
for renewed attention to the policy support mechanisms that undergird the conventional agrifood system in order to better
understand alternative agrifood system possibilities and constraints.
相似文献
Larry L. BurmeisterEmail: |
12.
Sandra Sattler Weber 《Agriculture and Human Values》2007,24(4):425-434
An ethnographic case study of five rural farmwomen in Cedar County, Nebraska, was conducted to contribute to the understudied
area of rural entrepreneurship and women entrepreneurs. This naturalistic inquiry into the lived experiences of five women
provides an exceptional view of the founding of a new microenterprise, the St. James Marketplace, a farmer-to-customer market
in an agricultural setting. The study considered factors identified from previous research on entrepreneurship in both urban
and rural settings. It connected the formation of this microenterprise to the history, culture, values, and economic situation
that motivated the founders’ entrepreneurial behavior. A social embeddedness perspective was employed in the analysis. Negative
forces from the macroenvironment, such as the closing of the local church parish and declining economic conditions for farming,
influenced the creation of the venture. However, the most important motivation was to sustain community. This study satisfies
a need for in-depth inquiry into rural entrepreneurship, rural communities, and rural farmwomen entrepreneurs.
相似文献
Sandra Sattler WeberEmail: |
13.
Dustin R. Mulvaney 《Agriculture and Human Values》2008,25(2):173-176
This paper describes a role for rural sociology in linking agrifood system vulnerabilities to opportunities for encouraging
sustainability and social justice. I argue that the California rice industry is particularly vulnerable for two reasons. First,
a quarter of rice growers’ revenues derive from production-based subsidies that have been recently deemed illegal by the World
Trade Organization. Second, about half of California’s rice sales depend on volatile export markets, which are susceptible
to periodic market access disruptions. Such vulnerabilities present political opportunities to reconfigure the connection
between production and consumption. By exploring how production subsidies could be transformed into multifunctionality payments,
and investigating new regional markets, rural sociology can contribute to discussions about how to encourage a more sustainable
and socially just California rice industry. My discussion aims to prompt rural sociologists to explore similar questions in
comparable agrifood systems.
Dustin R. Mulvaney has a Ph.D. from the Department of Environmental Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He continues to work there as a post-doctoral researcher and College Eight “Environment and Society” Fellow. His research focuses on the politics of genetic engineering governance, sustainable aquaculture certification, and the social implications of consumption-production linkages. 相似文献
Dustin R. MulvaneyEmail: |
Dustin R. Mulvaney has a Ph.D. from the Department of Environmental Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He continues to work there as a post-doctoral researcher and College Eight “Environment and Society” Fellow. His research focuses on the politics of genetic engineering governance, sustainable aquaculture certification, and the social implications of consumption-production linkages. 相似文献
14.
Lawrence Busch 《Agriculture and Human Values》2008,25(2):215-218
The advent of the new nanotechnologies has been heralded by government, media, and many in the scientific community as the
next big thing. Within the agricultural sector research is underway on a wide variety of products ranging from distributed
intelligence in orchards, to radio frequency identification devices, to animal diagnostics, to nanofiltered food products.
But the nano-revolution (if indeed there is a revolution at all) appears to be taking a turn quite different from the biotechnology
revolution of two decades ago. Grappling with these issues will require abandoning both the exuberance of diffusion theory
and ex post facto criticism of new technologies as well in favor of a more nuanced and proactive view that cross the fault
line between the social and natural sciences.
Lawrence Busch has a PhD in Development Sociology from Cornell University. He is University Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Director of the Institute for Food and Agricultural Standards at Michigan State University. His research focuses on how standards shape social life. 相似文献
Lawrence BuschEmail: |
Lawrence Busch has a PhD in Development Sociology from Cornell University. He is University Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Director of the Institute for Food and Agricultural Standards at Michigan State University. His research focuses on how standards shape social life. 相似文献
15.
C. Clare Hinrichs 《Agriculture and Human Values》2008,25(2):209-213
Despite its vigor, agrifood studies research faces two fault lines: the durability of disciplines, and challenges in engaging
non-academic stakeholders. In this essay, I use the concept of boundary work from social studies of science and technology
to reflect on the challenges and opportunities for more engaged interdisciplinary research in agrifood studies. I draw on
recent field visits to several “sustainable food chain” research projects funded through the Rural Economy and Land Use Programme
(RELU), an innovative interdisciplinary research initiative of the UK Research Councils, to highlight the contradictory nature
of boundary work in interdisciplinary research. Involving efforts both to bridge interfaces and to separate, exclude and manage
other disciplines or stakeholders, boundary work is inherent to interdisciplinarity. Innovations in the organizational culture
of projects and in the larger structural context for research can multiply the more generative potential of boundary work,
and also yield more and better interdisciplinary research in agrifood studies.
相似文献
C. Clare HinrichsEmail: |
16.
Alison Hope Alkon 《Agriculture and Human Values》2008,25(4):487-498
Advocates of environmental sustainability and social justice increasingly pursue their goals through the promotion of so-called
“green” products such as locally grown organic produce. While many scholars support this strategy, others criticize it harshly,
arguing that environmental degradation and social injustice are inherent results of capitalism and that positive social change
must be achieved through collective action. This study draws upon 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork at two farmers markets
located in demographically different parts of the San Francisco Bay Area to examine how market managers, vendors, and regular
customers negotiate tensions between their economic strategies and environmental sustainability and social justice goals.
Managers, vendors, and customers emphasize the ethical rather than financial motivations of their markets through comparisons
to capitalist, industrial agriculture and through attention to perceived economic sacrifices made by market vendors. They
also portray economic strategies as a pragmatic choice, pointing to failed efforts to achieve justice and sustainability through
policy change as well as difficulties funding and sustaining non-profit organizations. While market managers, vendors, and
customers deny any difficulties pursuing justice and sustainability through local economics, the need for vendors to sustain
their livelihoods does sometimes interfere with their social justice goals. This has consequences for the function of each
market.
Alison Hope Alkon is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Davis. Her research examines how efforts to create environmental protection and social justice operate in a market context. 相似文献
Alison Hope AlkonEmail: |
Alison Hope Alkon is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Davis. Her research examines how efforts to create environmental protection and social justice operate in a market context. 相似文献
17.
Diana Stuart 《Agriculture and Human Values》2008,25(2):177-181
I explore the role of nature in the agrifood system and how attempts to fit food production into a large-scale manufacturing
model has lead to widespread outbreaks of food borne illness. I illustrate how industrial processing of leafy greens is related
to the outbreak of E. coli 0157:H7 associated with spinach in the fall of 2006. I also use this example to show how industry attempts to create the
illusion of control while failing to address weaknesses in current processing systems. The leafy greens industry has focused
efforts on sterilizing the growing environment and adopting new technologies, while neglecting to change the concentrated
structure of processing systems. Repeated breakdowns in these systems illustrate a widening fault line between attempted and
failed control of nature in industrial food production.
相似文献
Diana StuartEmail: |
18.
Differences in perceptions and knowledge of crop diseases constitute a major obstacle in farmer–researcher cooperation, which
is necessary for sustainable disease management. Farmers’ perceptions and management of crop diseases in the northern Ethiopian
Regional State of Tigrai were investigated in order to harness their knowledge in the participatory development of integrated
disease management (IDM) strategies. Knowledge of disease etiology and epidemiology, cultivar resistance, and reasons for
the cultivation of susceptible cultivars were investigated in a total of 12 tabias (towns) in ten weredas (districts). Perception of diseases involved both scientific and spiritual conceptual frameworks. Of the more than 30 crop
diseases recorded on the major crops in the region, only rusts and powdery mildews (locally called humodia) and a few root rots were considered by farmers to be important. Farmers’ awareness of other diseases was extremely low;
some highly damaging but less conspicuous diseases, such as faba bean chocolate spot and chickpea ascochyta blight (also called
humodia), were not regarded by farmers as disease but as problems caused primarily by excessive soil moisture. Considering that some
of these “unrecognized” diseases can cause complete yield loss and genetic erosion in epiphytotic years, there is an urgent
need for bringing together farmers’ and scientists’ knowledge to complement each other. Even when farmers had access to disease-resistant
or disease-tolerant cultivars, they grew susceptible local varieties because of multiple criteria including earliness, good
yield in years with low humodia severity, suitability for home consumption, market demand/quality, and low soil fertility
and land management requirements. Farmer innovation and knowledge were evident in their use of diverse disease control measures,
but these were a mixture of the “useful and the useless.” Our findings stress the necessity for extension workers and researchers
to understand and improve farmers’ knowledge of crop diseases, and farmers’ ability to observe and experiment, through the
Farmer Field School or a similar experiential learning approach. These insights about farmers’ knowledge of crop diseases
provide a basis for further collaborative maintenance of crop genetic diversity, development of germplasm, and IPM-related
research in Africa.
相似文献
Mathew M. AbangEmail: |
19.
20.
Rafael Caballero 《Agriculture and Human Values》2009,26(3):219-231
Large tracts of European rural land, mostly in the less favored areas (LFA), are devoted to low-inputs and large scale grazing
systems (LSGS) with potential environmental and social functions. Although these LSGS may provide harbor for a good part of
European nature values, their continuity is facing contrasting threats of intensification and abandonment. These areas, however,
may be characterized by particular grazing structures and social dynamics of change that should be unveiled prior to attempts
to devise rural development strategies or to adapt policy frameworks in general. To wit, stakeholder interactions and legal
and institutional processes are described and analyzed for the cereal-sheep system of Castile-La Mancha (CLM) in the central
Iberian plain. Farmers and pastoralists still share the use of the land, but their roles and interests have changed over time,
and particularly in the last 50 years. Arable farming, mainly cereal cropping, has followed an intensification path, partially
tempered by the environmental constraints of the Castilian plain. Extensive pastoralism is still a secondary option of land
use; in the main, sheep farmers depend on, and look to, the management practices of arable farmers. A mixed cereal and sheep
operation may deliver environmental and economic benefits, but successful implementation of this strategy is only possible
when the system serves the needs of both types of stakeholders. Paradoxically, the main drivers of change in the countryside
overall are arrayed against this sensible and traditional agricultural system. We argue that the recent legal and institutional
frameworks do not favor social cohesion and that policy-support schemes of the European Union (EU) have been, and continue
to be, devised without taking into account the particular structures and social dynamic of the farming system.
Rafael Caballero is PhD in Agronomy with the Agroecology Department, Environmental Science Center, CSIC, Madrid, Spain. His main interests are centered on extensive systems of grassland management and analytical methods that can address the interplay of natural and social sciences. His main area of work is the cereal-sheep system, represented in most of the Mediterranean basin, the Middle East and Central Asia. Dr. Caballero has been co-coordinator of Spanish teams in three successive EU-funded research projects in the last 15 years, dealing with extensive systems of grassland management. He is main author or co-author of more than 40 research papers (on journals included in the JCR). 相似文献
Rafael CaballeroEmail: |
Rafael Caballero is PhD in Agronomy with the Agroecology Department, Environmental Science Center, CSIC, Madrid, Spain. His main interests are centered on extensive systems of grassland management and analytical methods that can address the interplay of natural and social sciences. His main area of work is the cereal-sheep system, represented in most of the Mediterranean basin, the Middle East and Central Asia. Dr. Caballero has been co-coordinator of Spanish teams in three successive EU-funded research projects in the last 15 years, dealing with extensive systems of grassland management. He is main author or co-author of more than 40 research papers (on journals included in the JCR). 相似文献