Tourism routes as a tool for the economic development of rural areas—vibrant hope or impossible dream?

This paper has evolved out of a growing dissatisfaction with the relatively uncritical acceptance in contemporary debates that agriculture in advanced societies has moved from ‘productivism’ to ‘post-productivism’. A brief review of current conceptualizations of productivist and post-productivist agricultural regimes reveals inconsistencies in current understandings these dualistic terms. The problem has partly been that the conceptual literature on post-productivism has largely failed to take into account the wealth of actor-oriented and behaviourally grounded research. Productivist and post-productivist agricultural regimes have also been conceptualized from a UK-centric perspective that has largely failed to discuss whether the concept has wider applicability within Europe and beyond. The paper discusses the time-lag and spatial inconsistencies in the adoption of post-productivist action and thought, and emphasizes that different localities are positioned at different points in a temporal, spatial and conceptual transition from ‘pre-productivist’ to ‘post-productivist’ agricultural regimes. The notion of the ‘territorialization’ of productivist and post-productivist actor spaces highlights the wide-ranging diversity that exists within the productivist/post-productivist spectrum, and that productivist and post-productivist action and thought occurs in multidimensional coexistence leads one to question the implied directionality of the traditional productivist/post-productivist debate. It is suggested that the notion of a ‘multifunctional agricultural regime’ better encapsulates the diversity, non-linearity and spatial heterogeneity that can currently be observed in modern agriculture and rural society.

From productivism to post-productivism … and back again? Exploring the (un)changed natural and mental landscapes of European agriculture

Among other foci, recent research on adaptation to climatic variability and change has sought to evaluate the merit of adaptation generally, as well as the suitability of particular adaptations. Additionally, there is a need to better understand the likely uptake of adaptations. For example, diversification is one adaptation that has been identified as a potential farm-level response to climatic variability and change, but its adoption by farmers for this reason is not well understood. This paper serves two purposes. The first is to document the adoption of crop diversification in Canadian prairie agriculture for the period 1994–2002, reflect upon its strengths and limitations for managing a variety of risks, including climatic ones, and gauge its likely adoption by producers in response to anticipated climate change. The second purpose is to draw on this case to refine our current understanding of climate change adaptation more generally. Based upon data from over 15 000 operations, it was determined that individual farms have become more specialized in their cropping patterns since 1994, and this trend is unlikely to change in the immediate future, notwithstanding anticipated climate change and the known risk-reducing benefits of crop diversification. More broadly, the analysis suggests that ‘suitable’ and even ‘possible’ climate change adaptations need to be more rigorously assessed in order to understand their wider strengths and limitations.

Farm-level adaptation to climatic variability and change: crop diversification in the canadian prairies

Injecting social psychology theory into conceptualisations of agricultural agency: Towards a post-productivist farmer self-identity?

Rural development and the regional state: Denying multifunctional agriculture in the UK

Farm diversification as an adjustment strategy on the urban fringe of the West Midlands

A conceptual framework for investigating farm-based accommodation and tourism in Britain

Farm-based accommodation and the restructuring of agriculture: Evidence from three English counties

Agricultural decision-making: a behavioural perspective

The intensive farming that has been a feature of western agriculture since the Second World War has led to increased productivity but also to overproduction and a consequent fall in prices. Governm...

Brian W. Ilbery

Papers

Farm diversification as an adjustment strategy on the urban fringe of the West Midlands

A conceptual framework for investigating farm-based accommodation and tourism in Britain

Farm-based accommodation and the restructuring of agriculture: Evidence from three English counties

Agricultural decision-making: a behavioural perspective

Farm diversification and the restructuring of agriculture.