The present historical moment may seem a particularly inopportune time to review Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam's latest exploration of civic decline in America. After all, the outpouring of volunteerism, solidarity, patriotism, and self-sacrifice displayed by Americans in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks appears to fly in the face of Putnam's central argument: that \"social capital\" -defined as \"social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them\" (p. 19)'has declined to dangerously low levels in America over the last three decades. However, Putnam is not fazed in the least by the recent effusion of solidarity. Quite the contrary, he sees in it the potential to \"reverse what has been a 30to 40-year steady decline in most measures of connectedness or community.\"' As an example of how the current \"war on terrorism\" could generate a durable civic renewal, Putnam points to the burst in civic practices that occurred during and after World War II, which he says \"permanently marked\" the generation that lived through it and had a \"terrific effect on American public life over the last half-century.\" 3 If Americans can follow this example and channel their current civic

Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community

Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge. Edited by I. Lakatos and A. Musgrave. Pp. viii, 282. £3·50, paperback £1. 1970. (Cambridge University Press.)

Survey Errors and Survey Costs

Contemporary food production and consumption cannot be regarded as sustainable and raises problems with its wide scope involving diverse actors. Moreover, in the face of demographic change and a gr...

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/15487733.2013.11908111

Sustainable food consumption: an overview of contemporary issues and policies

https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/28579/1/362633762.pdf

Empirical measurement of credit rationing in agriculture: a methodological survey

The objective of this paper is to investigate credit rationing of Polish farms. The analysis is based on cross-section survey data and motivated by a microeconomic farm household model. The results suggest that more than 40 per cent of borrowers experience pronounced credit rationing by rural banks. Credit-rationed households display an average marginal willingness to pay for short-term credit of 209 per cent net of principal. Furthermore, household variables have a significant effect on output supply. Demographic characteristics and a lack of collateral are major determinants of credit rationing. Public interest rate subsidisation contributes little to alleviate rationing of farms. Copyright 2004, Oxford University Press.

A microeconometric analysis of credit rationing in the Polish farm sector

Farm investment, credit rationing, and governmentally promoted credit access in Poland: a cross-sectional analysis

Regional employment impacts of Common Agricultural Policy measures in Eastern Germany: a difference‐in‐differences approach

Against the global debate on socially responsible agro-investment, we explore the conditions, patterns, and impacts of recent agricultural recovery in Kazakhstan’s northern grain provinces. Vertically and horizontally integrated agroholdings brought outside investment and management to this region. With stable employment in agriculture, real consumption spending of rural households has doubled within an 8-year period. Due to the socialist tradition of industrialized farming operations, rural inhabitants regard themselves primarily as workers and not as land owners. We conclude that investment in large-scale farming can provide benefits to rural people even with less than ideal-type political representation.

Martin Petrick

Papers

Empirical measurement of credit rationing in agriculture: a methodological survey

A microeconometric analysis of credit rationing in the Polish farm sector

Farm investment, credit rationing, and governmentally promoted credit access in Poland: a cross-sectional analysis

Regional employment impacts of Common Agricultural Policy measures in Eastern Germany: a difference‐in‐differences approach

Rediscovering the Virgin Lands: Agricultural investment and rural livelihoods in a Eurasian frontier area