Value Wars in the New Periphery: Sustainability,Rural Communities and Agriculture

Sustainability has been the subject of prolonged debate within both academic and mainstream literature, rendered all the more heated because many of the disagreements come down to deep differences in values. These "value wars' play out in decisions made about issues ranging from development and investment to livelihoods and agriculture. Using rural communities as the context for discussion, this article proposes new directions for this contested concept, based on the life code of values. These life values ground sustainability in a multi-scalar web of everyday acts of human community. From this life-values perspective, compound terms such as sustainable agriculture and sustainable rural communities gain new meaning and offer the potential for the basis of a rural renaissance. Jennifer Sumner is an Assistant Professor in the Adult Education and Community Development Program at OISE/University of Toronto, Canada. Her interdisciplinary research interests include sustainability, globalization, rural communities, and the civil commons as well as adult education and critical pedagogy. She is currently researching the links between organic agriculture and sustainability.