Showing papers in "Sociologia Ruralis in 2009"
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors apply convention theory to the analysis of governance in the value chain for South African wine, and analyse how wine quality conventions applied in the UK are translated in South Africa into specific functional divisions of labour and supply relations, themselves underpinned by local configurations of quality conventions.
Abstract: Global value chain (GVC) analysis examines the dynamics of economic globalisation and international trade. The concept of GVC governance illustrates how ‘lead firms’ achieve certain functional divisions of labour along a value chain ‐ resulting in specific allocations of resources and distributions of gains. In this article I argue that agro-food lead firms do not govern chains solely on the basis of buyer power, market share, and/or economies of scale or scope but also through normative work. In order to do so, I apply convention theory to the analysis of governance in the value chain for South African wine. I analyse how wine quality conventions applied in the UK are translated in South Africa into specific functional divisions of labour and supply relations, themselves underpinned by local configurations of quality conventions. The case study of wine suggests that lead firms are able to drive a value chain only when industrial and market conventions are dominant, such as in basic quality wine. These conventions are more portable and thus easier to transmit at a distance. Where other, less portable, conventions are more important in discovering quality, as in mid-range and top quality wines, the value chain is much more fragmented and less driven.
141 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a series of quantitative and longitudinal network analyses in different systems of direct selling in the South of France is presented, showing that alternative supply chains can renew ties between producers by decoupling political relations and through the embeddedness of sales activity in technical and friendship relations, both of which favour co-operation towards innovation.
Abstract: Alternative food supply chains have been the subject of a number of studies utilising the concept of embeddedness to account for their various dimensions, but they have been little analysed in terms of the relations between producers. As part of the body of research into the social construction of markets, this article aims to consider the nature and dynamics of ties between producers involved in the development of these chains. The study presented here relies on a series of quantitative and longitudinal network analyses in different systems of direct selling in the South of France. We consider here the example of a farmers' market and contrast it with vegetable box schemes. Our research demonstrates that alternative supply chains can renew ties between producers by decoupling political relations and through the embeddedness of sales activity in technical and friendship relations, both of which favour co-operation towards innovation. This article also aims to encourage a reconsideration of sociometry, as well as alternative food supply chains, to analyse and accompany sustainable local food systems.
139 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the potential of rural areas to contribute to sustainability by recasting their relationships with the increasingly contested carbon-based economy is explored by deriving concepts from a variety of theoretical strands, it is argued that it is appropriate to consider rural areas as distinguishable arenas for fostering the eco-economy.
Abstract: The article explores the potential of rural areas to contribute to sustainability by recasting their relationships with the increasingly contested carbon-based economy. By deriving concepts from a variety of theoretical strands, it is argued that it is appropriate to consider rural areas as distinguishable arenas for fostering the eco-economy. The article explores these pathways by first examining three theoretical bases of the eco-economy: ecological economics, eco-system services and ecological modernisation. These begin to provide a conceptual basis for an integrative model of rural development. Using a series of empirical case studies from rural Wales we construct and operationalise a framework for analysing the eco-economy and explore how the concept of the eco-economy can be taken forward. In conclusion, we assess how the eco-economy can contribute to the wider emerging rural development paradigm.
127 citations
TL;DR: A study to investigate on-farm bio-security practices and in particular how farmers decide whether to report unusual symptoms in their livestock was conducted with sheep and cattle producers in Western Australia as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Globalisation has rendered the island nation of Australia more vulnerable to infectious livestock diseases, making bio-security a key concern of government. Although farmers are at the front line of disease surveillance, little is known about this group's behaviour and motives. A study to investigate on-farm bio-security practices - and in particular how farmers decide whether to report unusual symptoms in their livestock - was conducted with sheep and cattle producers in Western Australia. This article reports on the findings of the qualitative phase of the study, which consisted of in-depth interviews with 37 farmers. The study found that farmers make reporting and bio-security decisions based on the perceived risk to their enterprise. Trust in others was found to be a key contributor to perceived risk. In support of Wynne (2006), this study found that scientific institutions linked to the government suffered from lack of trust and credibility. If farmers are hesitant to trust government sources, important animal health messages may go unheeded.
125 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the challenges of increasing mobilities in rural Europe and propose a sustainable rural development model, which reduces vulnerabilities and enhances sustainabilities in the rural areas.
Abstract: Mobilities, vulnerabilities and sustainabilities represent three key and potentially divergent processes currently affecting rural Europe. Together they also set some key challenges and potentials for critical rural social science. This article, after first setting these processes in the global macro-context of growing environmental vulnerability and spatial uneven development, explores each of these processes in turn. It asks how rural areas can meet the challenges of these increasing mobilities in ways which reduce vulnerabilities and enhance sustainabilities. One answer, it is argued, concerns the critical understanding and dissemination of the sustainable rural development model. In the second part of the article some of the conceptual building blocks of such a model are proposed, suggesting the recasting of new rural–urban relationships based around new eco-economic principles.
119 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the impact that selected institutional factors have upon the entrepreneurial activity of women and men in rural areas and found that compared to rural men, Spanish rural women tend to be less involved in entrepreneurial activities and are less optimistic about their abilities as entrepreneurs.
Abstract: This study examines the impact that selected institutional factors have upon the entrepreneurial activity of women and men in rural areas To do so, the results of the Adult Population Survey from the Spanish Global Entrepreneurship Monitor for the year 2004 have been used in a rare events logit regression model where rurality and sex have been introduced as interaction terms in order to identify any statistically significant distinctions of the impact of the selected independent variables upon rural women's entrepreneurial activity The results indicate that compared to rural men, Spanish rural women tend to be less involved in entrepreneurial activities and are less optimistic about their abilities as entrepreneurs, although the fear of failure is not a significant impediment of their involvement in entrepreneurship
103 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors adopt a gendered approach to the study of alternative/local food consumption and explore material, sociocultural and embodied conceptualisations of the relationship of women with alternative food consumption.
Abstract: This article adopts a gendered approach to the study of alternative/local food consumption. Drawing on Allen and Sachs' three analytical domains, the article explores material, sociocultural and embodied conceptualisations of the relationship of women with alternative food consumption. Using original data collected from a study of food relocalisation in the UK, it argues that a gendered perspective that examines responsibilities for food preparation and for provisioning the household is important in understanding the motivation for and implications of decisions to consume local food. Local food consumption often involves consumers in choices over not only what they eat but how they cook, encouraging a move away from processed food and a greater emphasis on raw food and cooking from scratch. Such shifts have a disproportionate effect on women as they are still largely responsible for feeding the household. The article also explores ways in which social pressures around healthy eating and bodily fitness, particularly in relation to children's eating patterns, are increasingly relevant to local food consumption arguing. Again, such pressures fall unequally on different members of the household and are central to a gendered analysis of food consumption.
76 citations
TL;DR: The role of local culture in understanding community development or in interpreting empirical research has received less attention as discussed by the authors, however, they believe culture plays an important independent role in shaping community debate and action and emphasize the opportunities created when people who share interests come together to address local problems.
Abstract: The developmental trajectories of communities are routinely explained by reference to economic history, human capital deficits, or the structure of local labour markets. The role of local culture in understanding community development or in interpreting empirical research has received less attention. We believe culture plays an important independent role in shaping community debate and action. Framing community as an interactional field emphasises the opportunities created when people who share interests come together to address local problems. Interaction and local culture are essential parts of community and community development. Appreciating community uniqueness and local culture helps in the interpretation of study data and clarifies development trajectories. Research from Ireland, Pennsylvania and Alaska illustrates the linkages between local culture and community development.
65 citations
TL;DR: The authors examines different systems theories in agricultural sciences that claim to adopt interdisciplinarity and to bridge a supposed gap between the natural and social sciences, and analyses the debates and differences between so-called "hard systems" and "soft systems" approaches, or positivist and interpretative approaches.
Abstract: Recurring political and economic crises in agriculture lie behind policymakers' demands for more interdisciplinary, problem-solving approaches. This article examines different systems theories in agricultural sciences that claim to adopt interdisciplinarity and to bridge a supposed gap between the natural and social sciences. It analyses the debates and differences between so-called ‘hard systems’ and ‘soft systems’ approaches, or positivist and interpretative approaches. It aims to make the confrontation between these two approaches more legible as well as to reveal the shortcomings of each position. In particular, the implicit and unsophisticated sociology underlying the hard systems approach is a key issue. Critical realist theory is explored as an alternative to both the hard and the soft systems approach towards interdisciplinarity since it opens up space for thinking in a non-reductionist way about multiple determinations without rejecting the value of single disciplines for uncovering the working of important causalities.
54 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the links between biosecurity policy and rural differentiation and show how uncertainty over the rules of the game of policy-making has created a new political space in which the traditional practices of dealing with animal disease have been challenged and reshaped.
Abstract: This article explores the links between biosecurity policy and rural differentiation. It attempts to show how biosecurity policy has been fundamentally affected by uncertainty over the rules of the game of policy-making – what Hajer has called the ‘institutional void’. In particular, the article attempts to show how this void has created a new political space in which the traditional practices of dealing with animal disease have been challenged and reshaped. Crucial to this is a discourse of partnership that permits new actors and forms of expertise to construct different approaches to biosecurity at new spatial scales. These actions legitimate a new spatiality of disease control, thereby contributing to the differentiation of the countryside. The article uses a case-study of policy attempts to control the spread of bovine tuberculosis in England and Wales
50 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a critical discourse analysis of two EU agricultural commissioners' speeches in the period 2000-2006 was carried out and substantiated by rational choice theory, revealing how the latest Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reforms have been gradually overturning prevailing CAP discourses.
Abstract: A critical discourse analysis of two EU agricultural commissioners' speeches in the period 2000–2006 was carried out and substantiated by rational choice theory. The analysis reveals how the latest Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reforms have been gradually overturning prevailing CAP discourses. The neo-mercantilism discourse that dominated for decades has been replaced by the discourse of multifunctionality. With the change of commissioners in 2004, the emphasis on the multifunctionality discourse has changed. The legitimisation of the CAP with environmental and rural public goods has been replaced by less well-articulated arguments of ‘quality production’ and ‘competitiveness’, implying a gradual move to a neoliberal orientation for the future CAP.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explored the relationship of people to the countryside using focus groups and a questionnaire survey and found that although Latvians retain a strong regard for their traditional countryside landscape, numerous socioeconomic barriers exist, especially the lack of services, which are some of the drivers of outmigration from the countryside to towns or to other countries.
Abstract: The countryside of Europe is undergoing many social, economic and environmental changes as a result of depopulation and agricultural land abandonment. This trend, driven in part by the wide disparity of income levels between rural and urban inhabitants, is particularly evident in the Central and Eastern European countries such as Latvia, which joined the EU in 2004 and in 2007. Research was undertaken in Latvia in 2003, the year before it joined the EU, to explore this trend, as manifested in the relationship of people to the countryside, using focus groups and a questionnaire survey. The results showed that, although Latvians retain a strong regard for their traditional countryside landscape, numerous socioeconomic barriers exist, especially the lack of services, which are some of the drivers of outmigration from the countryside to towns or to other countries. Unless these drivers are addressed in rural socioeconomic policy the remaining people, many of whom belong to the older generation, are likely to become increasingly marginalised while the countryside will continue to be abandoned and the cultural landscape will deteriorate further.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore which meaning the notions of "alternative" and "conventional" carry, using the historical development of organic food in Denmark as an example, and argue that this development in Denmark can be interpreted from a relational perspective as an ongoing process of establishing organizational innovations, which transcends established dichotomies between notions like alternative and mainstream.
Abstract: The organic movement has its roots in a critical attitude towards the capitalist development of farming and food systems and constitutes in that sense an alternative to conventional food systems. The article aims at exploring which meaning the notions of ‘alternative’ and ‘conventional’ carry, using the historical development of organic food in Denmark as an example. From the 1970s and onwards, organic food networks in Denmark have evolved from being primarily a marginal social movement to becoming included in the market mainstream. The social and spatial settings for organic food networks in Denmark have thus been significantly altered. Using debates on the conventionalisation of organic food systems as the starting point, it is argued in this article that this development in Denmark can be interpreted from a relational perspective as an ongoing process of establishing organizational innovations, which transcends established dichotomies between notions like alternative and mainstream.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that there is a well-established method for identifying farming styles and that such research is very useful for extension and contribute to a better understanding of farming styles, one that uses a method that rests on what farmers state is their approach to managing a farm rather than on methods that rely on researcher assessments of farming style.
Abstract: In 2006 Vanclay et al. provided a critical account of the concept of farming styles and proposed revised concepts that enhance our understanding of styles. Their research experience led them to reconceptualise farming styles by applying them to five levels. They concluded that there was no support for a single set of farming styles, that farming styles are more an intellectual construction than a social construction, and that they were not real. In their revised view of farming styles Vanclay et al. discussed and assessed eight issues about the concept of farming styles. We agree with all but two of these assessments - the claim that there is no method that can uncover styles of farming and the claim that such research is not useful for extension. We show in this article that there is a well-established method for identifying farming styles and that such research is very useful for extension. In making our case we contribute to a better understanding of farming styles, one that uses a method that rests on what farmers state is their approach to managing a farm rather than on methods that rely on researcher assessments of farming styles.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors compare forms of farmers' resistance to genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in Austria and France and examine two approaches to political opportunity structures: a general and a dynamic, policy-specific approach.
Abstract: This article contrasts forms of farmers’ resistance to genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in Austria and France. While Austrian farmers take a back seat in public opposition to GMOs, Austria's national GMO policy is designed to protect farmers, particularly organic farmers, by banning the unwanted technology. It thus mitigates both public controversy and the potential framing of the GMO issue which might go beyond a merely defensive ‘not in my back yard’ (NIMBY) rationale. French farmers’ protest, by contrast, is highly argumentative and is very much shaped by farmers’ protests. Its leading voice is the farmers’ union Confederation Paysanne and its spokesman Jose Bove, who employ spectacular protest strategies involving the destruction of GMO fields and acts of civil disobedience and figure prominently in the anti-globalisation movement. In discussing the reasons for these differences, the analysis examines two approaches to political opportunity structures: a general and a dynamic, policy-specific approach.
TL;DR: In this article, consumers of poultry meat were questioned at various retailers by applying a qualitative interviewing method and it was concluded that multiple consumer rationalities about food safety governance exist, and that a differentiated governance approach to restore or retain consumer confidence in food safety in view of food-related risks is more likely to be pertinent than a 'one-size-fits-all' approach.
Abstract: Avian influenza is one more of the recent food scares inciting shifts in European food safety governance, away from a predominantly science-based approach towards one involving scientists, policymakers, actors in the food-supply chain and consumers. While these shifts are increasingly receiving scholarly attention, sociological insight into the involvement of consumers and other actors across the multiple levels of today's food safety governance requires further development. This article aims at contributing to the understanding of consumer perspectives on food safety governance by expounding the results of an explorative research among Dutch consumers, which focused on food risks related to avian influenza. To give ample room for the construction of contextual knowledge, consumers of poultry meat were questioned at various retailers by applying a qualitative interviewing method. From this research, it is concluded that multiple consumer rationalities about food safety governance exist. As a consequence of the existence of these multiple consumer rationalities, a differentiated governance approach to restore or retain consumer confidence in food safety in view of food-related risks is more likely to be pertinent than a 'one-size-fits-all' approach.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine how a local newspaper reported the outbreaks, focusing on the linguistic framing of biosecurity, and predict that risks are coming from outside the supposedly secure enclaves of poultry production.
Abstract: Avian influenza, or 'bird 'flu' arrived in Norfolk in April 2006 in the form of the low pathogenic strain H7N3. In February 2007 a highly pathogenic strain, H5N1, which can pose a risk to humans, was discovered in Suffolk. We examine how a local newspaper reported the outbreaks, focusing on the linguistic framing of biosecurity. Consistent with the growing concern with securitisation among policymakers, issues were discussed in terms of space (indoor–outdoor; local–global; national–international) and flows (movement, barriers and vectors) between spaces (farms, sheds and countries). The apportioning of blame along the lines of 'them and us'– Hungary and England – was tempered by the reporting on the Hungarian operations of the British poultry company. Explanations focused on indoor and outdoor farming and alleged breaches of biosecurity by the companies involved. As predicted by the idea of securitisation, risks were formulated as coming from outside the supposedly secure enclaves of poultry production.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the importance of geographical proximity between Greece and Albania for the migrating experience of Albanian immigrants who work in the Greek countryside and found that a considerable proportion of immigrants working in agriculture actually work in both countries, and their annual employment and attempts at upward economic mobility are geographically dispersed in the two countries.
Abstract: We investigate the importance of geographical proximity between Greece and Albania for the migrating experience of Albanian immigrants who work in the Greek countryside. From the fieldwork research we conducted in the countryside of northern Greece we find that the geographical proximity between Greece and Albania (the fact that they are bordering countries) and the inherent seasonality of agricultural employment allow immigrants to make rapid and repeated moves between the two countries and also work on a seasonal basis on their family agricultural holdings for the few months when they return home. Hence, these features embody a range of employment options that give these immigrants the opportunity to work on both sides of the border, transferring resources and skills acquired in Greece to Albania. As a result, a considerable proportion of immigrants working in agriculture actually work in both countries, and their annual employment and attempts at upward economic mobility are geographically dispersed in the two countries.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the encounter between biosecurity and semi-subsistence producers in the Slovenian Alps and explore the interplay of economic, cultural and symbolic influences that have resulted in suspicion of the logic of state regulation.
Abstract: In this article I examine the encounter between biosecurity and semi-subsistence producers in the Slovenian Alps. The article shows that biosecurity, as part of a broader shift in agri-food governance stemming from Slovenia's entry to the European Union, has dramatically reshaped the playing field for semi-subsistence producers, driving agricultural restructuring and diminishing farmers' strategies of subsistence slaughter and informal marketing. By examining farmers' adjustments to and perceptions of these changes, as well as their attempts to contest biosecurity regulations, this article explores the interplay of economic, cultural and symbolic influences that have resulted in suspicion of the logic of state regulation. In this context, farmers' experiences of biosecurity also strongly impact on their perception of and interest in state-led rural development initiatives. Based on extensive ethnographic interviews with 42 farm households, this article examines practical and conceptual aspects of the tension between semi-subsistence production and biosecurity in a Central Eastern European context.
TL;DR: In this article, a new system of geographical information system (GIS) maps based on aerial photos to administer EU agri-environmental support payments for organic farmers in Latvia in 2005 erupted into disputes over farm boundaries, cultural landscapes, good agricultural practices and regional power dynamics.
Abstract: Implementation of a new system of geographical information system (GIS) maps based on aerial photos to administer EU agri-environmental support payments for organic farmers in Latvia in 2005 erupted into disputes over farm boundaries, cultural landscapes, good agricultural practices and regional power dynamics. Farmers whose land area had been changed along with the change in technology were deemed to be in breach of their support payment agreements and had to repay the difference, leaving many disillusioned with the EU and considering withdrawal from the organic agriculture support programme. I argue here that this case demonstrates the complexities of EU accession for new member states, revealing the unintended consequences of the implementation of European policies in post-socialist contexts. Disputes over the organic land area reflect deeper cultural issues tied to the history of foreign domination. Furthermore, they represent a conflict surrounding ideas of space versus place. Abstract ‘maps from space’ challenge farmers' place-based knowledge and national imaginaries of agricultural landscapes. On a broader level, this conflict reflects the tensions between the imagined ‘return to Europe’ and the reality of Europe as a political and bureaucratic space.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that it cannot be taken for granted that farmers will adopt GM plants, and if they do, they are unlikely to manage them in such a way as to secure the expected environmental benefits.
Abstract: The controversy in Europe over genetically manipulated (GM) foods has been conceived largely as a conflict between a reluctant public and a more enthusiastic agri-food sector. As a result, the political focus has been on the public to the neglect of other actors, such as the farmers, whose willingness to adopt GM technology is taken for granted. This article explores the case of herbicide-resistant GM plants with claimed environmental benefits. It is assumed that these claims satisfy public concerns and that farmers are not only willing to grow them but do so in a way that ensures that the environmental benefits are redeemed. Using interviews with Danish farmers, we argue, firstly, that it cannot be taken for granted that farmers will adopt GM plants, and, secondly, that if they do, they are unlikely to manage them in such a way as to secure the expected environmental benefits. This is, on the one hand, the result of a conflict between the idea behind herbicide-resistant plants and what we conceptualise as harmony on the farm, and, on the other hand, the way farmers perceive nature in relation to the farm. In a wider perspective the problems illustrate a clash between an agricultural and GM policy based on post-productivist values and an agricultural sector still dominated by productivist values.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors provide a better understanding of the conflicting perceptions regarding cougar (Puma concolor) management in northern Ontario, Canada, and find that the ongoing debate over the existence of puma in this region of Canada can be attributed to current wildlife management largely predicated on the grand narrative of the wildlife expert.
Abstract: The purpose of this discussion is to provide a better understanding of the conflicting perceptions regarding cougar (Puma concolor) management in northern Ontario, Canada. Despite two alleged puma attacks, numerous cougar sightings throughout the region and the recent confirmation of the puma's existence in Ontario through DNA analysis, the existence of these animals in the north-east of Canada and the USA remains largely contentious. Findings derived from interviews conducted in northern Ontario and content analysis of media sources in Canada and the USA suggest that the ongoing debate over the existence of pumas in this region of Canada can be attributed to current wildlife management largely predicated on the grand narrative of the wildlife expert. This centralised, bureaucratic approach decreases the opportunity for constructive dialogue between stakeholders and mitigates the implementation of community-based wildlife management approaches. While this analysis largely focuses in Ontario, Canada, the debate provides insights into the human dimensions of wildlife management, especially elusive wildlife, in North America and elsewhere.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine a particular mode of agri-food governance: international food standard setting, and explore the role of scientific expertise to the standard setting process in the Codex through a case-study of the attempt to establish an international definition for dietary fibre.
Abstract: This article examines a particular mode of agri-food governance: international food standard setting. Sociological accounts of technical regulatory processes such as standard setting can help to illuminate the role of expertise in the governance of the agri-food system. Firstly, the potential contribution of the concept of epistemic communities to the analysis of international food standard setting is discussed. Secondly, the article details the architecture of international trade regulation and the operational procedures of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (the Codex), the intergovernmental organisation in which international food standards are set. Thirdly, the role of scientific expertise to the standard setting process in the Codex is explored through a case-study of the attempt to establish an international definition for dietary fibre. The article concludes by reflecting upon the importance of contestation over knowledge claims to the conduct of agri-food governance.