Showing papers in "Sociologia Ruralis in 2000"

Food supply chain approaches: exploring their role in rural development.

Abstract: This paper explores the role of short food supply chains in rural development. By developing a theoretical perspective, it seeks to contribute to debates on the generalized theory of rural development. It argues that in order to more fully understand their role and potential we need to move beyond descriptions of product flows to examine how supply chains are built, shaped and reproduced over time and space. Consideration is given to the definition of short food supply chains, and a three level typology is presented. The paper examines the dimensions and evolution of short food supply chains, and identifies four types of evolution: temporal, spatial, demand and associational or institutional. Case studies from the impact research programme are positioned within this framework, and it is argued that we need conceptualizations that reflect the dynamic and evolutionary nature of supply chains and the businesses they involve. A case study of the Llyn Beef Producers Co-operative in Wales is expanded to illustrate the evolution of supply chains and their role in rural development, both at the farm level and within the wider rural economy.

Rural Development: From Practices and Policies towards Theory

Abstract: Both in practice and policy a new model of rural development is emerging. This paper reflects the discussions in the impact research programme and suggests that at the level of associated theory also a fundamental shift is taking place. The modernization paradigm that once dominated policy, practice and theory is being replaced by a new rural development paradigm. Rural development is analyzed as a multi-level, multi-actor and multi-facetted process rooted in historical traditions that represents at all levels a fundamental rupture with the modernization project. The range of new quality products, services and forms of cost reduction that together comprise rural development are understood as a response by farm families to both the eroding economic base of their enterprises and to the new needs and expectations European society has of the rural areas. Rural development therefore is largely an autonomous, self-driven process and in its further unfolding agriculture will continue to play a key role, although it is a role that may well change. This article provides an introduction to the nine papers of this ‘special issue’ and the many reconfiguration processes embodied in rural development that they address.in rural development

What is Social Capital? A Study of Interaction in a Rural Community

Abstract: What is social capital? In answering this question, the paper reports on new research which differentiates between social interaction processes and social capital as the product of those processes. Following a review of literature, structured as a social theory against which social capital might be understood, the paper then describes a study of a rural community, and reports on two analyses of data which contribute to answering the question, 'What is the nature of the interactive productivity between the local networks in a community?' The paper concludes that social capital, for which a new definition is forwarded, can only 'exist' if it is somehow able to be produced. This is the chief assumption of the paper. Social capital is defined as an accumulation of the knowledge and identity resources drawn on by communities-of-common-purpose. If social capital originates in micro interactions which are in turn embedded in a meso and macro social order, then these processes and connections should be observable. This paper makes an initial contribution to the establishment of such micro, mesa and macro links.

Endogenous Development, Social Capital and Social Inclusion: perspectives from leader in the UK

Abstract: There is a danger of subscribing too readily to the rhetoric of participative development. The communitarian assumptions of the endogenous approach privilege a ‘territory’ as potentially homogenous and gloss over internal socio-economic and cultural inequality. The insights of Bourdieu are particularly instructive here. This paper argues that leader-type programmes need to include pro-active action targeted at raising the social and cultural capital of individuals and of disadvantaged groups (either of which happen to be in the area, but not innately defined by the area).The ideas are illustrated in relation to leader in the United Kingdom.

Reading the space of the farmers' market: a preliminary investigation from the UK.

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to begin to examine the emergence of Farmers’ Markets (FM)in the UK. It is suggested that FM represent a new type of ‘consumption space’ within the contemporary British foodscape, one which may be read as a heterotopic convergence of localist, moral, ethical and environmental discourses,mediated by networks of producers, consumers and institutions. Based on a preliminary analysis of some of the discourses employed by these actors,it is argued that FM can be understood simultaneously as ‘conservative’ and ‘alternative’ spaces. ‘Conservative’ in that they encapsulate a reactionary valorization of the local,linking localness to the ideas of quality, health and rurality, and ‘alternative’ in that they represent a diversifying rural economy arising in response to the difficulties being experienced by some uk farmers and a more general perception of a countryside under threat. Initial evidence from a pilot case study in Stratford-upon-Avon is used to support these suggestions and propose suggestions for future research.

Synergy and coherence through collective action : Some insights from wine routes in Tuscany

Abstract: A wine route can be seen as a network established around the theme of wine. The impressive economic impact that the establishment of the Costa degli Etruschi wine route has had on the farms involved is traced back in this article to the collective action that produces synergies and coherence. Synergies can be defined as linkages between two or more entities, whose joint effort produces quantitatively and qualitatively higher effects than those produced by the efforts of the same entities alone. Coherence is a quality belonging to the elements that constitute the context of action in successful rural development practices: natural and man-made environment, social networks, and symbolic systems. The process of creating coherence is not without conflict, and the article contends that the establishment of coherence needs a hegemonic strategy that involves all sources of empowerment and particularly cultural codes.

Editorial. The eu leader Programme: Rural Development Laboratory

Abstract: This paper introduces the theme of the seven papers of this 'special issue'on the eu leader rural development initiative. Having described the genesis and general characteristics of leader ,the paper proposes a set of four analytical frameworks which might serve to guide the study of leader-type interventions:(I)leader as a quasi-marketization of rural development;(II)leader as the politicization/democratization of rural development;(III)leader and endogenous development as discourse;and (IV)leader and the potential for a humanistic/personalist form of development.

Methodological and Conceptual Issues in the Study of Multifunctionality and Rural Development

Abstract: Acareful analysis of the scale and depth of the more recent changes in rural areas reveals the contours of a new development trajectory. The key features of this trajectory are diversity and multifunctionality: diversity reflected in the actors involved, the particular activities undertaken and the patterns of motivation that emerge, and multifunctionality in the simultaneous and interrelated provision of different functions (Van der Ploeg et al. 2000). Researchers involved in rural development face a two-fold challenge. First, they must improve their understanding of multifunctionality and, second and more practically, they must acquire insights into the complex and interrelated processes that contribute to the development of rural areas. The aim of this article is to outline the complexity of those rural development processes that specifically relate to the phenomenon of multifunctionality. An attempt is made to structure the various patterns of multifunctionality found in the European countryside, and different levels of multifunctionality, key changes, linkages and influences have been identified. More specifically, an attempt is made to find adequate ways of unraveling and visualizing the complex interrelationships and changes involved in the rural development process. In addition, we have tried to improve our understanding of these interrelationships taking into account their spatial and temporal dimensions. Finally, we have tried to identify the data needed for a quantitative assessment of the changes taking place at the different levels of farm, farm household, other rural enterprises, region, multipliers, and substitution effects. In the discussion reference is made to several case studies from the impact research programme. 1

Pluriactivity as a livelihood strategy in Irish farm households and its role in rural development

Abstract: Within the European Union, Ireland is one of the countries that has a very high number of farms where the farm operator and/or spouse works outside the family farm. The role of off-farm employment in the viability of Irish farm households is central to both farming and the sustainability of rural communities. This article examines the importance of pluriactive farm households at both local and regional levels by refering to cases studies drawn from the West of Ireland. It shows that off-farm work by Irish farm families is neither a new phenomenon nor purely the result of economic necessity. It also indicates the considerable socio-economic and environmental importance of pluriactivity. The article concludes by relating the realities of pluriactivity to the future rural and agricultural policy of the European Union. It suggests that the growing role of pluriactivity for farm households should be viewed more as a key strategy in the maintenance of a ‘living countryside’ than as an indicator of conventional agriculture’s failure to sustain farming populations.

Beyond the Farm Gate: Production‐Consumption Networks and Agri‐Food Research

Abstract: The term agri-food research has become a convenient shorthand term to describe anexpansion of sociological interest over the last 20 or so years in the relationships between agricultural production and: increasingly industrialized networks of food production, processing, distribution and retailing; the development of transnationalized modes of regulation and governance; environmental discourse, policy and social movements; and competing understandings and uses of 'rural' space. This paper critically reviews two theoretical approaches that have challenged the dominant theoretical trends that have underpinned this reorientation of the 'rural' social research agenda actor-network theory and vertical analysis. It is argued that applications of both approaches have frequently failed to transcend the very shortcomings they identify in agri-food studies, and suggestions are made as to how production-consumption relationships may be more adequately theorized and investigated.

Revitalizing Agriculture : Farming Economically as Starting Ground for Rural Development

Abstract: Many of the attempts to construct sustainable rural livelihoods involve a shift away from agriculture’s traditional ‘core’ activities by means of a diversification with new on-farm activities or ‘conversion’ to quality modes of production. This raises the question of how we should conceptualize the role of those enterprises that fall into the vast category of ‘main-stream’ farms within the process of rural development. By discussing the style of ‘farming economically’ in Friesian dairy farming, this paper argues that rural development should not be seen as a contradiction between conventional and alternative farming systems. Farming economically is considered an integral part of the newly emerging model of rural development, since it entails a particular model for the mobilization, combination and utilization of resources at farm level that contrasts sharply with the modernization paradigm. At the level of the rural region, farming economically allows for higher income and employment levels, factors that are fundamental for a healthy, rural social fabric. The paper concludes that for the rural development potential of farming economically to be developed further,a favourable ‘rural district’ is needed that strengthens the innovativeness and specific developmental trajectory embedded in the practice.

Impact and Potential: A Comparative Review of European Rural Development Practices

Abstract: Rural development practices are found throughout Europe and cover a wide range of different types of activity. At first sight there does not seem to be much similarity between these different practices. This paper presents the results of a comparative analysis of some 30 cases of rural development from the different tracts of European countryside studied in the first phase of the impact research programme. The paper summarizes several of the communalities that were revealed in the analysis and goes on to consider differences that may be relevant to policy, especially in relation to the levels of socio-economic impact generated by rural development practices in terms of extra income and employment. By means of clustering sets of cases according to regional and farm level impact data, a number of underlying factors in successful rural development and its translation into socio-economic impacts are identified. Important factors relate the dissemination of activities by integrating new participants and repetition by others, the unleashing of synergy effects within clusters of compatible and mutually reinforcing rural development activities,and the construction of regional ‘protected spaces’ within the dominant technological regime that favour rural development.

Globalization, localization and sustainable livelihood

Abstract: Despite economic progress made in quite a number of countries in the former ‘Third World’, between 20% to 50% of the world population is still excluded from this progress. By taking sustainable livelihood as a point of departure and by paying attention to actor-structure inter-actions, this paper conceptualizes these processes of social inclusion and exclusion. Livelihood is represented as a whole of dynamic interactions between actors and five vital capitals i.e. human, natural, physical, financial and social capital. These vital capitals are embedded in a social, economic, political and ecological structure. Interaction between actors and structure occurs via access and agency and results in processing of capitals to build livelihood. Livelihood is sustainable if it is capable of adequately satisfying self-defined needs and securing people against shocks and stresses put on capitals by structural factors. Livelihood strategies develop in arenas of conflicting or co-operating actors. Because livelihood strategies are multiple, individuals may belong to different interest groups and therefore social inclusion and exclusion is never rigid. Globalization is interpreted as localization, meaning a close association between homogenization and diversity or between the global and the local. Diversity it is not limited to socio-cultural domains but observed in economic and political domains too. Globalization-localization has important consequences for livelihood. The importance of the international and the local level will increase to the detriment of the national level. On the one hand,livelihood will become increasingly world wide and therefore multi-local. The different levels of scale in vital capitals and in structure come closer to each other and perhaps will even fuse. The arena will become increasingly global and livelihood strategies will become more homogenous. On the other hand,certain local characteristics of the arena remain or will even become more marked, and consequently livelihood strategies will need to become more specific too. Nevertheless,it is doubtful whether social exclusion will become a thing of the past. Therefore, global governance should have an important role in promoting sustainability of livelihoods. Global governance is explained as a global co-ordination by supra-regional and international governmental institutions of national governments balanced by an emerging international ‘civil society’. Both have a task in the regulation of global markets and development co-operation will have to develop towards a global social security system.As a result, it is concluded that research on sustainable livelihood will increasingly have to become multi-dimensional,multi-local and reciprocal.

Reconsidering ‘Traditional’ Food: The Case of Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese

Abstract: Amongst the hundreds of cases of regional specific products being produced all over Europe, the Parmigiano Reggiano cheese system can be considered one of the most eloquent, mature and successful examples avant la lettre of rural development. About 8,000 dairy farmers, cheese dairies and ripening firms comply with the strict production regulations that guarantee the specificity of this product. Employment in the Parmigiano Reggiano production system is twice as high as in the industrial dairy system and the pressure of the system on the environment is significantly lower. As Parmigiano Reggiano cheese has to compete on the same market as more industrial Grana cheeses, the system is not immune to the cost-price squeeze affecting European agriculture. The accelerated introduction of cost reducing technologies may compromise the typicality of the product, endanger its competitive position on the market and weaken its future collective performance. A convergence of views and a strong cohesion among actors is necessary to reach new agreements about the direction being taken by technological development in order to safeguard the success Parmigiano Reggiano cheese has been able to generate in the past

The Common Agricultural Policy and the Re‐Invention of the Rural in the European Community

Abstract: This paper shifts the focus of definitional debates about the nature of rurality from the academic field to an agricultural field that includes the European Community, its Common Agricultural Policy and farmers whose lives and livelihoods are significantly entailed by it. It traces the evolution of the Common Agricultural Policy, the concepts of rurality embedded with it and the mediated effects of this policy on farming people and their practices. Ethnographic material about hill sheep farmers of the Borders Region of Scotland is used to illustrate the ‘policy-effect’ (a term derived from Bourdieu's notion of ‘theory effect’) of the Common Agricultural Policy: the definitions of and policies for rural spaces devised by the European Community in its Common Agricultural Policy set the conditions for hill sheep farmers to produce in their practices a version of the rurality represented in the CAP; and the CAP records these mediated effects of its policy in its analysis of the nature of rural spaces within the European Community for which it has to devise further policies.

Food Matters and the Matter of Food: Towards a New Food Governance?

Abstract: After over a decade of leading research work which has examined the political economy and globalization of the ‘industrial’ agro-food system it is clear that there are now important new challenges associated with the incorporation of nature, consumption and alternative food networks Taking David Goodman's recent paper (Sociologia Ruralis 1999, no 1) as a starting point, this discussion not cautions against a premature and over-generalized rejection of political economy on the basis of concepts based upon actor-network theory Questions of food governance expose the asymmetry in power relations in food networks, whether conventional or alternative Moreover, while accepting the need to examine the ‘hybridity’ of nature-society relations, this needs to be done in ways which expose the degree of interconnection through the development of micro-analytical research and the development of ‘middle-level’ concepts

Measuring Social Capital: The Danish Co‐operative Dairy Movement

Abstract: What are the roots of social capital and how can it be measured and built? Social capital is considered as a new production factor that must be added to the conventional concepts of human and physical capital. Social capital is productive because it increases the level of trust in a society and allows more transactions to take place without third-party enforcement. Theory and lessons from empirical evidence lead to the general recommendation that any loss in social capital must be deducted from the economic gain following market forces. For example, the voluntary organization of small-sized groups in the Danish Co-operative Dairy Movement was eliminated due to economies of scale. It may be so that an alternative way of production, taking social capital into ac-count, could have increased economic growth further.

leader, a New Social Order, and the Central- and East-European Countries

Abstract: The paper considers the relevance of leader to the context of the ceecs and, in particular, to Hungary. The main argument is that the leader approach represents one of the most likely paths for socio-economic development. The theoretical approach of paper adopts political economy and actor network theory to conceptualize leader as a move from direct intervention towards a new indirect regime of market relations interpreting leader as participative redistribution. The paper analyses the major disparities that exist between conditions in the ceecs and the eu rurality and the consequences of post-socialist transformation. It is argued that, in the ceec context, the strengthening of civil society, its institutions and their control (monitoring)over development system are necessary components of a leader-type approach so as to offset power of bureaucracy and the economic elite.

The leader Programme and the Rise of Rural Development in Spain

Abstract: In many ways, LEADER (Liaisons Entre Actions de Developpement de l'Economie Rurale) has been a very significant intervention in Spain. Prior to LEADER, rural development policy was almost completely unknown and, for this reason alone, LEADER represented a new force in rural affairs. The invitation to form territorial collaborations was also novel and local actors were quick to perceive it as an important political tool with which to tackle both the problems of rural areas and the challenges presented by the new roles being assigned to the rural world. Furthermore, LEADER has subsequently produced material, local impacts through its ability to generate investment in development projects. The progress of LEADER has been refracted through the institutional conditions of the politico-administrative system. LEADER has been used as a political power tool by the various levels, leading to confrontations in order to gain control over the programme. Nevertheless, awareness and acceptance of the deeper philosophy behind LEADER has been gaining ground so that it is increasingly acknowledged as a powerful tool for the promotion of rural development in general and for the animation of local, collective action. It would be inaccurate to describe LEADER as a great success. Rather, it has started an incipient process in which a new democratic and cooperative culture in rural areas is being created and in which rural entrepreneurs are acquiring an enhanced capacity for decision making

Re-creating rural territories: leader in France

Abstract: This paper explores the impact of the European Union's leader policy within France. Considering, in turn, the territorial, developmental and, finally, political effects of leader, the paper demonstrates that leader schemes occupy an often highly complex position with respect to a series of internal French policy agendas linked to political decentralization, spatial planning and the gradual shift away from a long-dominant agrarian conceptualization of rural space. It is argued that while leader schemes present many of the necessary components for new forms of local rural governance, these remain largely constrained within an existing political, economic and administrative framework that offers only partial opportunities for genuine innovation in policy development. Critically, however, one of the principal leader effects within France has been to shift the local rural policy agenda away from solely economic development strategies, for many years the mainstay of non-agricultural rural policy, towards a more reflexive approach to issues of social cohesion and territorial composition.

leader and partnerships: the case of Italy

Abstract: This paper focuses on the Local Action Group as a partnership and considers how such entities fit within the Polanyian triadic model of social order. The rhetoric of LEADER (Liaisons Entre Actions de Developpement de l'Economie Rurale) and endogenous development would suggest that LAGS are a manifestation of the principle of reciprocal relationships. Osti concludes, however, that although there is a shift away from the hierarchical principle, the direction of change is, in fact, towards quasi-markets. In these markets, territories are provided with an enhanced capacity as strategic agents but are also susceptible to control by local/regional economic and political interests. His theoretical ideas are grounded in a study of LEADER in Italy

Integrating agri-environment policy, farming systems and rural development : Tir Cymen in Wales

Abstract: This paper examines a conservation scheme in Wales called Tir Cymen (tidy land in Welsh) as a means of exploring the extent to which policies designed primarily to support habitat, landscape, biodiversity and conservation are commensurate with goals to maintain viable rural communities,including viable agricultures. Maximizing the broader rural development impacts of conservation schemes, it is argued, is a vital ingredient in the pursuit of sustain-able rural development, particularly in regions where many farm businesses are likely to be already highly dependent upon subsidy support. It is argued, through the presentation of the Tir Cymen case, that conservation policies can,if appropriately designed and regionally embedded, go some way to mitigating both the ‘farm problem’ and the ‘rural problem’, and are therefore capable of a sustainable and desirable rural development impact commensurate with the new rural development paradigm.

Discourses of Rurality in EU Spatial Policy: The European Spatial Development Perspective

Abstract: The publication in 1999 of the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP) is a significant step towards European spatial planning. It follows a period of intergovernmental and inter-institutional development of a framework and policies, which raises many issues about the normative and discoursive positions and constructions which are integrated into the process. The paper reviews the emergence of the ESDP, and explores how ’rurality‘ is being contested within the new European spatial discourse it contains. The Foucauldian discourse analytic approach focuses on the articulation of a new policy discourse within the text of the adopted ESDP document, but places this analysis within a broader consideration of the contested policy process. Discussing three key policy issues peripherality, a new urban-rural partnership, and rural restructuring, the paper argues that the emphasis on competition, and the focus on urban areas and functional regions, raise clear concerns about the treatment of rurality. Key areas for further research are identified in response to the current vacuum of academic debate over rurality in European spatial policy.

Resource, Arcadia, Lifeworld. Nature Concepts in Environmental Sociology

Abstract: In environmental sociology three strands of nature conceptualization can be distinguished: the resource, the ‘Arcadian’ and the constructionist approach. In the resource approach, the instrumental values of nature as a sustenance base are central, and social theory focuses on the way society can be geared to the conditions of sustainability as they are determined by natural science. In the ‘Arcadian’ approach, non-instrumental, aesthetic and ethical values are central, and social theory focuses primarily on the defense of these values.In the constructionist approach the values of nature, whether instrumental or non-instrumental, are investigated and criticized as social constructions. The article offers a tentative framework for bridging the gap between constructionism and the other nature approaches. As far as non-instrumental nature valuation is concerned, this framework puts an emphasis on lifeworld experiences of nature.

Leader in Germany and the Discourse of Autonomous Regional Development

Abstract: The LEADER programme (Liaisons Entre Actions de Developpement de l'Economie Rurale) in Germany has built on the ideas and approaches of independent rural initiatives that have crystallized in a rural movement for autonomous regional development. Since the mid-1980s, ideas such as these have found resonance in regional development programmes in some West German federal states. The implementation of LEADER projects in West Germany can be characterized by the institutionalization and neutralization of the approaches of the independent movements. LEADER'S catalytic role has not yet taken place to the same extent in East Germany where, after the unification in 1990, a rapid growth of local and regional development projects has been observed. Although LEADER has only adopted these in part, one can still project that official, institutional project sponsorship seems inevitably to undermine the innovative, independent and critical character of these rural development initiatives. The critical factors for the assessment of LEADER projects are the criteria of innovation and participation that play a central role in the community initiative. It can be concluded that the criteria of innovation are insufficient to direct the innovation process in a direction of sustainable rural development

Theory and Practice of Multi‐Product Farms: Farm Butcheries in Umbria

Abstract: This paper addresses the phenomenon of the on-farm butcher shops that have become increasingly important in the Central Italian region of Umbria over the last decade, Theoretically, farm butcheries are analyzed as multi-product farms that vertically integrate the primary production, processing and retailing of (mainly) beef and that considerably reduce the cost of each unit produced by jointly producing two or more interrelated goods or services. The practical value of farm butcheries lies in the preservation and valorization of the local Chianina cattle breed and of local resources in general, including social capital and landscape. Farm butcheries contribute to an endogenous type of rural development with major macroeconomic returns and the case exemplifies the central position of the multifunctional farm in the renewal of the European countryside. The economic success of farm butcheries is explained in terms of the reduction of economic transaction costs and the achievement of economies of scope. The main conclusion of the paper is that the specificity of assets results in substantial competitive advantages for the organizational form of the multi-product farm in processes of rural development

Rural Community Life and the Importance of Reciprocal Survival Strategies

Abstract: Although Belgian poverty is mainly concentrated in urban regions, the profound restructuring of labour and food markets, the dismantling of the welfare state and the growth of new types of households are also producing poverty and social exclusion in rural areas. This paper stresses that not every deprived rural household should be regarded as excluded from society. By developing survival strategies, households attempt to escape from social marginalization. To understand these responses, a typology of survival strategies is constructed, based on Polanyi’s spheres of economic integration (market exchange, redistribution and reciprocity). These survival strategies, including agricultural and non-agricultural activities, are analysed in relation to the Hageland,a peripheral rural area in Flanders. Based upon Doreen Massey’s geological metaphor, the current potentials and obstacles embedded in the historical layers of the socio-spatial structure of the area, are assessed. By comparing the results of this research with similar research amongst urban households, some particularities of rural poverty are distinguished.

The Politicization of Livestock: Rare Breeds and Countryside Conservation

Abstract: Despite a recent emphasis on conflicts in rural areas, differences between members of the farming community over issues such as conservation remain to be fully explored. Focusing upon rare breeds of domestic farm animals, this paper investigates the Rare Breeds Survival Trust (rbst)and discusses its importance in the politicization of livestock.Actor network theory is used to provide a framework to analyse the development of rbst .Two phases of operation are evident, representing a shift from emergency measures towards a proactive strategy for livestock breed conservation. In both periods, there are ‘moments’ of problematization, interessement, enrolement and mobilization which establish the rbst as a powerful actor at the centre of a rare breeds network. Such has been the influence of the Trust that remarkably little conflict over the conservation of rare breeds has arisen. Rbst appeals to both farmers and conservationists,but success through increasing animal numbers and a lack of political effectiveness are found to be forces undermining its position of power in the network. Further questions are raised about the manipulation of animals to support political objectives.

Negotiating Bacteriological Meat Contamination Standards in the US: The Case of E.coli O157:H7

Abstract: The paper analyzes changes in bacteriological meat contamination standards in the us since the early 1980s when E.coli O157:H7 was for the first time identified as a new foodborne pathogen associated with the consumption of undercooked meat. Four types of risks, and the standards associated with them, are identified. Up until 1982 meat contamination was ascertained via organoleptic standards. Meat was considered as safe as producers' and/or consumers' sanitary conditions and hygiene. In 1982,the identification of E.coli O157:H7 as a pathogen dangerous to human health resulted in a redefinition from organoleptic to biomedical standards. Meat contamination risks were measured by the extent to which sick patients could recover from foodborne diseases or die. In 1993,as a result of the massive ‘Jack-in-the-Box outbreak’ associated with the consumption of hamburgers contaminated with E.coli O157:H7,biomedical standards were reformulated into epidemiological measures aimed at ascertaining the extent to which the country's population was at risk of getting sick or dying from meat contamination. Finally, in 1996,with the enactment of the Pathogen Reduction Act/haccp, meat processing standards replaced epidemiological standards. Meat was to be as safe as packers processed it. Economic, political, social, scientific and technological factors contributing to the origins of each of the four types of bacteriological meat standards are analyzed. Consequences of the changes in standards in terms of re-distribution of costs, benefits, and risks to those social actors engaged in the meat subsector are discussed.

Modernizing the savage: Colonization and perceptions of landscape and lifescape

Abstract: The processes of colonization and landscape reconfiguration are often discussed as related, but separate, issues. In this paper we demonstrate that these issues are linked and are important in understanding the relationship between land use, culture, ideology and society. An important part of the colonization project is the perception of land as barren, infertile and/or unsafe (evidenced in the connotations of land descriptions such as desert, bog, wilderness) and the people on it as non-existent and/or savage. Thus heroic, military incursion would be necessary for initial settlement. Case studies of the Midwestern United States, Patagonia in Argentina, and Palestine demonstrate how the colonization project has led to the transformation of the landscape and the oppression (and often removal) of the indigenous population. In all three places the land was defined by the encroaching regimes as empty, barren and dangerous. That definition justified military-style incursions and massive land transformation projects, such as draining wetlands and large-scale irrigation of deserts, in the name of modernization to make the land more habitable. In all three areas there was relatively equitable land distribution initially, waves of migration in and out of the area, and export-based agricultural production. Findings from historical analysis and field research demonstrate how social capital is built around perceptions of the landscape for colonizers and colonized. For colonizers, by interpreting the land as harsh and the natives as savage they developed a unification of purpose in achieving a dominion over both. For the colonized, in this case Palestinians, American Plains Indians, and Mapuche Indians, the recognition of a greater integration with nature is serving as a unifying element in their struggle for indigenous rights.