Damian Maye

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• BSc (Hons), MSc, PhD, PG Cert
• Professor at University of Gloucestershire

Brexit, the exiting of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU), has impacted socio-political relationships, both internally, and externally with other countries and economic groups. This has been especially true regarding international trade, and legal and market standards for food and food security. This paper examines how the enactin...

This paper reflects on adapting the Climathon method as a novel deliberative approach for place-based climate governance, with a focus on agri-food climate solutions. We consider the interrelated governance concepts of deliberative democracy and just transitions, with attention to liberal and agonistic perspectives. The paper draws on two Climathon...

This paper highlights the need to consider the processes and relations in the political, knowledge, technical and socio-material complex that underpins the emergence of a soil-based carbon economy. This economy, characterised by the proliferation of voluntary soil-based carbon markets, carbon farming policies, supply chain and other initiatives, op...

Using Berlant's concept of cruel optimism, this paper explores how animal disease eradication can represent an unimaginable fantasy, the pursuit of which is an obstacle to farmers' emotional and financial prosperity. The paper shows how atmospheres of optimism surrounding disease eradication are constructed and linked to policy mobilities. These ap...

There is ongoing contestation around greenhouse gas emissions from ruminant livestock and how society should respond. Media discourses play a key role in agenda setting for the general public and policymakers, and may contribute to polarisation. This paper examines how UK news media portrayed ruminant livestock’s impact on climate change between 20...

The ability of rural enterprises to withstand external shocks has been examined at regional and sectoral levels using extensive evidence bases. However, little is known of rural SMEs' resourcefulness and how this can affect their resilience. Rural SMEs have been exposed to severe operational disruptions in the face of recent internal and external s...

This author reply responds to the commentaries on our article, 'Planetary rural geographies', exploring intersections with neo-Marxist political economy, post-colonialism, and digital geographies. The critiques raise questions about the portrayal of rural spaces as sources of planetary crises. We emphasize the intention of the planetary rural geogr...

Purpose This paper examines how key actors in the UK food system (FS) understand the role of the local food sector in relation to FS resilience. Design/methodology/approach Discourse analysis was used to assess and compare the framings of the UK FS in 36 publications released during Covid-19 from alternative food networks (AFNs) actors and from ot...

A widespread sense of the unsustainability of the food system has taken hold in recent years, leading to calls for fundamental change. The role of animal agriculture is central to many of these debates, leading to interest in the possibility of a “protein transition,” whereby the production and consumption of animal-derived foods is replaced with p...

Globalization of food chains and scale increases in business models are dramatically affecting rural areas in Europe, by a simplification of land use, new urban-rural relations and reshaped social networks. While pressures on land use systems have been increasing due to the competition on commodity markets, the role of territorially embedded produc...

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Ukraine–Russian conflict, both significant geo-political and socio-economic shocks to the global food system and food insecurity has risen across the world. One potential remedy to reduce the level of food insecurity is to move from a lean just-in-time food system to one where there is more resilience throu...

This paper proposes planetary rural geographies to counter the narrative of planetary urbanisation, which has contended that the whole planet has been urbanised and can be understood through urban theory without an outside. Whilst critics have challenged the metrophilia inherent to planetary urbanisation, advanced post-colonial critiques, and posit...

Background This social research study employed a behavioural insights framework, Easy, Attractive, Social, Timely (‘EAST’), to identify cues that may influence farmer and stakeholder attitudes towards the deployment of CattleBCG vaccine. Methods The EAST framework was employed to develop policy scenarios consisting of several cues likely to affect...

Concerns about digital agriculture reinforcing industrialised models of agriculture and power inequalities have been widely articulated. This paper uses directionalities, which are characterised by dominant and durable directions or pathways, to conceptualise this envisaged entrenchment. It argues that we need to anticipate and collect the evidence...

Feta cheese is a Greek product under Protection Designation of Origin (PDO), benefiting its producing regions with its marketing potential. However, farmers are evidently often excluded from this value chain. This study aims at understanding the opportunities farmers in Greece have for supply chain arrangements (SCAs) that ensure fair market partic...

Final Report for Defra for the following research project: 'Social research project to understand farmer current/ future attitudes to cattle and badger TB vaccination in Britain'

Final Report for Defra for the following research project: 'Social research project to understand farmer current/future attitudes to cattle and badger TB vaccination in Britain'

In this policy brief we discuss the need to embed the net zero agenda in small-scale regions, to allow citizens to co-create solutions that are locally relevant. We demonstrate this with evidence from a British Academy-funded project that used adapted "Climathons" as a method to debate food and farming solutions in two UK rural farming regions. Thi...

The values associated with food are framed and constructed by market-based systems that assign attributes to different foods across the marketplace. The aim of the paper was to conceptualize the range of non-financial aspects associated with food in the literature examined and a typology was introduced to position a new set of non-financial food va...

What exactly is resilience and how can it be enhanced? Farming systems in Europe are rapidly evolving while at the same time being under threat, as seen by the disappearance of dozens of farms every day. Farming systems must become more resilient in response to growing economic, environmental, institutional, and social challenges facing Europe's ag...

What exactly is resilience and how can it be enhanced? Farming systems in Europe are rapidly evolving while at the same time being under threat, as seen by the disappearance of dozens of farms every day. Farming systems must become more resilient in response to growing economic, environmental, institutional, and social challenges facing Europe's ag...

The Anthropocene provides a useful way to think through all manner of human‐environment processes and challenges. This is especially pronounced in relation to food and farming, which are heavily implicated in changes to the earth’s biophysical and chemical processes. Yet, despite burgeoning interest in the Anthropocene as a concept, it is comparati...

Accessible here: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1eN-4yDvMIAC4 There is a need to identify key existing and emerging issues relevant to digitalisation in agricultural production that would benefit from a stronger evidence base and help steer policy formulation. To address this, a prioritisation exercise was undertaken to identify priority research q...

A decline in the availability of opportunities for new entrants to agriculture is a recognised consequence of the agricultural restructuring process. Under the Common Agricultural Policy, various support schemes have attempted to address such concerns, with limited success. A number of these schemes focus on the provision of agricultural property r...

How to ensure resilience of food systems is a key concern in the wake of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Notably, there is a renewed interest in the role of local food systems from policy, academic, and third sector actors, who see those systems as a source of ‘bounce‐back’ resilience, supporting existing structures, but also as sources of ‘bounce forward’...

This report presents a descriptive overview and structured analysis of the work carried out within 11 place-based living labs and five thematic Communities of Practice (CoPs) within the ROBUST project. The overall aim of ROBUST was to optimise the ways in which rural-urban functional relationships are governed. Such functions include, for example,...

European small-scale fisheries are confronted with several challenges, notably a decrease in the number of people engaged in capture fishing, growing competition from less expensive extra-EU markets, rising operational costs, strict regulations and the depletion of fishing stocks. Many small-scale fishers must adapt to change to maintain or increas...

This paper utilises the ‘sustainable innovation journeys’ concept to trace how people organise and design urban food initiatives and influence city-region food policy. We evaluate whether designs succeed or fail and monitor the exchange of ideas that takes place between stakeholders. Tracing these interactions reveals the transformative potential o...

Context Resilience is the ability to deal with shocks and stresses, including the unknown and previously unimaginable, such as the Covid-19 crisis. Objective This paper assesses (i) how different farming systems were exposed to the crisis, (ii) which resilience capacities were revealed and (iii) how resilience was enabled or constrained by the far...

Access to financing is crucial for farmers to ensure competitiveness and to facilitate change. A better understanding of how farmers can access funds could help farmers to remain profitable and to adopt more sustainable farming practices. However, most of the academic literature discussing agricultural financing depicts farmers’ access to funds as...

Biosecurity is ostensibly apolitical, about managing risk, but in practice it is highly political and entangled with tensions between biosecurity and trade. National biosecurity regimes are instruments of governance and understanding the ‘bio-politics’ that underpins them is important. This chapter examines biosecurity regimes in the UK and China t...

This article focuses on the question of how a shift from a narrow economic perspective to a wider sustainable wellbeing focus in regional development strategies and actions might change rural–urban relations. A brief review of relevant research and discourses about economic development models provides the foundation for the analysis. The review lea...

A number of recent scientific publications have called for significant reductions in meat consumption in order to mitigate the negative impacts of the food system on the planet. Public debate around this issue is not straightforward, however, with plant-based and alternative-protein narratives contested by an agro-ecological narrative. These compet...

With growing scholarly and societal interest in the challenges confronting current and future food systems, there is an urgent need for a wide-ranging introduction to the issues at hand. This authoritative and accessible book offers students and practitioners alike the tools to develop a 'geographical imagination' about food. Essential reading." Da...

What is the future of food in light of growing threats from the climate emergency and natural resource depletion, as well as economic and social inequality? This textbook engages with this question, and considers the complex relationships between food, place, and space, providing students with an introduction to the contemporary and future geograph...

For more than two decades market conditions for European producers have changed significantly due to liberalization and increasing price volatility. The objective of this article is to analyze how farming systems in five European countries (Denmark, Greece, France, Latvia, and the United Kingdom) have reacted to the emerging instability of the milk...

Definitions of biosecurity typically include generalised statements about how biosecurity risks on farms should be managed and contained. However, in reality, on-farm biosecurity practices are uneven and transfer differently between social groups, geographical scales and agricultural commodity chains. This paper reviews social science studies that...

Whatever we read about Covid-19, the word unprecedented is not far away: whether in describing policy choices, the daily death tolls, the scale of upheaval, or the challenges that await a readjusting world. This paper takes an alternative view: if not unpredictable, the crisis unfolding in the United Kingdom (UK) is not unprecedented. Rather, it is...

In this perspective paper we consider the implications of a digital transformation for agricultural knowledge, a subject which hitherto has received limited attention. We raise critical questions about how digital agriculture will intersect with established modes of knowing and decision-making. We also consider the implications for the wider Agricu...

This paper analyses farmers' behavioural responses to Government attempts to reduce the risk of disease transmission from badgers to cattle through badger vaccination. Evidence for two opposing behavioural adaptions is examined in response to the vaccination of badgers to reduce the risk of transmission to farmed cattle. Risk compensation theory su...

For improving sustainability and resilience of EU farming system, the current state needs to be assessed, before being able to move on to future scenarios. Assessing sustainability and resilience of farming systems is a multi-faceted research challenge in terms of the scientific domains and scales of integration (farm, household, farming system lev...

Scholars in sustainability science as well as research funders increasingly recognize that a shift from disciplinary and interdisciplinary science to transdisciplinary (TD) research is required to address ever more complex sustainability challenges. Evidence shows that addressing real-world societal problems can be best achieved through collaborati...

Agricultural systems in Europe face accumulating economic, ecological and societal challenges, raising concerns about their resilience to shocks and stresses. These resilience issues need to be addressed with a focus on the regional context in which farming systems operate because farms, farmers' organizations, service suppliers and supply chain ac...

Rural policy evaluation helps to understand the extent to which policies have met pre‐defined objectives, achieve value for money and learn from implementation failures. However, there is increasing debate over the quality of policy evaluation and the extent to which its methods can fully contribute to an understanding of rural policy. Responding t...

This article discusses the economic dimensions of agroecological farming systems in Europe. It firstly theoretically elaborates the reasons why, and under what conditions, agroecological farming systems have the potential to produce higher incomes than farms that follow the conventional logic. This theoretical exposition is then followed by a prese...

This paper extends arguments about the potential for reflexive governance in agri-food sustainability by linking food ethics to the notion of ‘unintended consequences’ and ‘responsibilisation’. Analysis of sustainable consumption governance shows the way authorities and intermediaries use food waste reduction projects to ‘responsibilise’ the consum...

This Symposium contributes to a theoretical and methodological discussion on the role of ethics and responsibility in the governance of agri-food systems, as drivers for transitions towards sustainability. The papers in the Symposium are the outcomes of a collective reflection that was initiated at the European Society for Rural Sociology (ESRS) 20...

The original version of this article has been corrected due to typesetting mistakes regarding Fig. 1.

This paper presents an analysis of the diversification and non-productivist practices and strategies deployed by European small-scale fishers vis-à-vis contextual regulatory and market factors. Building on resilience thinking – combined with a qualitative case study approach involving primary producers and associated stakeholders – the strategies o...

There is growing recognition that agri-food commodity markets are moving increasingly towards market-focused arrangements. In some sectors (e.g. dairy) we have already seen the development of new contracts (e.g. between farmer groups and processors) and various risk management-type strategies. Agricultural markets have always been characterised by...

Brexit poses a significant challenge to the future governance of the UK agri-food sector. Policy decisions that will be made in the next few years will initiate a major new phase of agrarian change and regulation. We are seeing signs of this already in agri-food policy discourse, including scenarios related to food and farming futures post-Brexit....

Learning is an important component for resilience building in farm systems, not least because resilience involves responding to a whole range of social, environmental, economic and political disturbances and changes. Farmers, therefore, need the ability to cope and adapt to these disturbances, or make radical realignments in response to major shock...

The development of values-based supply chains for fish and fish products from fisheries and aquaculture is a strategy to add value to the fish. This benefit refers to the double meaning of 'value'; premium prices for high-value products and at the same time, the incorporation of environmental, social, cultural or ethical values based on a sustainab...

Farming systems in Europe face a vast range of environmental, economic, social and institutional challenges. Examples include more volatile producer and input prices, higher probability of extreme weather events, increasing dependence on land owners and financial institutions, organizational change within value chains, competing policy objectives a...

This paper develops a conceptual link between smart city planning and urban food systems research in terms of governance and innovation. The 'smart city' concept is linked to an urban research agenda which seeks to embed advances in technology and data collection into the infrastructures of urban environments. Through this neoliberal framework, mar...

Innovativeness of farming strategies can enhance the sustainability of European farming systems. However, this is constrained by the many requirements faced by producers to secure their financial sustainability in the shorter-term. In such context, territorial conditions, materializing mainly at the local to regional levels, influence the efficienc...

Understanding of farmers’ influences relating to biosecurity is surprisingly weak, beyond general remarks that farmers tend to trust their private vet. Previous studies have explored influences in relation to single issue events. There is a need for better methodologies to fully appreciate how farmers’ biosecurity practices are shaped. Using bovine...

In the debate surrounding the sustainable future of food, claims like “buy local” are widespread in publications and the media, supported by the discourse that buying “local food” provides ecological, health and socio-economic benefits. Recognising the lack of scientific evidence for this claim, this paper aims to compare the results of sustainabil...

This article argues that ethics is a key driver of change in food chain performance. Critically, multiple stakeholder perspectives need to be understood as being legitimate when developing shared norms of what is understood by food supply chain (FSC) performance. To develop this perspective, the article examines the discourses surrounding the perfo...

Food supply chains (FSCs) over recent years have been epitomised by a range of concerns such as food and nutrition security, the distribution of value and a growing awareness of the threats posed by climate change. Taken together, these pressures have created a sense of urgency to re-examine the performance, equitability and sustainability of FSCs....

A PAPER summarised on p 148 of this issue of Veterinary Record by Little and others (2017) is to be warmly welcomed. It examines the potential of voluntary risk-based trading as an initiative to improve bovine tuberculosis (bTB) information exchange between cattle sellers and buyers. The mixed method analysis used was based on a representative surv...

The protection of geographical indications (European regulation 1151/2012) is arguably the most significant initiative, certainly within Europe, that promotes foods with territorial associations and reorganises agri-food chain governance through a strategy of reterritorialisation. Research on Protected Designation of Origins (PDOs) and Protected Ge...

Relatively little is known about the perceived influence of different compensation systems on animal keepers’ management of exotic livestock disease. This paper aims to address this research gap by drawing on interviews with 61 animal keepers and 21 veterinarians, as well as a series of nine animal keeper focus groups across five different livestoc...

Coastal capture fisheries and aquaculture are interconnected resource systems and economic activities, presenting evolving and complex dynamics, constrained by several socio-economic, policy and biophysical factors. Overfishing and climate change are modifying the distribution and productivity of marine species and altering food webs. The general e...

This paper applies the transitions approach to a novel food production context, via an examination of the food production side of permaculture. More specifically, it examines attempts by the permaculture community in England to interact and influence the Agriculture Knowledge System of the mainstream agri-food regime. Strategic Niche Management and...

This paper summarizes the main findings of the GLAMUR project which starts with an apparently simple question: is “local” more sustainable than “global”? Sustainability assessment is framed within a post-normal science perspective, advocating the integration of public deliberation and scientific research. The assessment spans 39 local, intermediate...

While much is known about the risk factors for bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in herds located in high incidence areas, the drivers of bTB spread in areas of emerging endemicity are less well established. Epidemiological analysis and intensive social research identified natural and social risk factors that may prevent or encourage the spread of disease....

Local food has recently gained popularity under the assumption that it is more sustainable than food from distant locations. However, evidence is still lacking to fully support this assumption. The goal of this study is to compare local and global food chains in five dimensions of sustainability (environmental, economic, social, ethical and health)...

Exotic livestock disease outbreaks have the capacity to significantly impact individual livestock keepers, as well as devastate an entire industry sector. However, there has been limited research undertaken to understand how farmers think about and carry out exotic disease control practices within the social sciences. Drawing on aspects of Social I...

Proceedings of the XXVI European Society for Rural Sociology Congress. ISBN 978-0-902701-14-4

UK case study as part of FP7 GLAMUR project. Multi-dimensional supply chain performance assessment of global and local cheese chains in the UK.

Since the beginning of the 1990s, the Leader programme has been hailed as the instrument of rural policy that most explicitly takes account of the territorial dimension. This culminated in the mainstreaming of its underlying concept into the Rural Development Programmes of the current period (2007–2013), with the aim of having more effective policy...

Defra's recent strategy to eradicate bovine tuberculosis (bTB) establishes three spatial zones: high-risk areas (HRAs) and low-risk areas, and an area referred to as 'the edge', which marks the areas where infection is spreading outwards from the HRA. Little is known about farmers in the edge area, their attitudes towards bTB and their farming prac...

Science has a powerful role in society. It can fuel innovation, shape policy and influence public opinion. However, science can also be highly controversial and subject to substantial disagreement and debate. Such debates are often evident in the media which regularly reports on areas of disagreement and debate. This article draws on the case-study...

Purpose This paper aims to reveal, and contribute to an understanding of, the processes that connect learning and innovation networks in sustainable agriculture to elements of the mainstream agricultural regime. Drawing on the innovations and transition literature, the paper frames the analysis around niche-regime interaction using the notion of n...

This paper examines farmers' trust in badger vaccination as a method of preventing the spread of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) between wildlife (specifically, badgers) and cattle in England. The spread of bTB has economic and social implications for farmers, but previous research has found that lack of trust in government is a key factor in farmers' fa...

Ilbery B., Kirwan J. and Maye D. Explaining regional and local differences in organic farming in England and Wales: a comparison of South West Wales and South East England, Regional Studies, Few studies explain the concentration of organic farming in specific regions of England and Wales. This paper compares the development of organic farming in So...

This paper addresses the potential difficulties associated with researching controversial and/or sensitive issues. Drawing on the findings from in-depth interviews with farmers, the paper provides a reflexive commentary on the use of visual vignettes to explore farmers' attitudes towards the control of bovine tuberculosis in England – currently a h...

This paper examines the relationship between neoliberal styles of animal disease governance and farmers' understandings of disease and nature. In the UK, new styles of animal disease governance has promised to shift the costs and responsibilities of disease management to farmers, creating opportunities for farmers to take responsibility for disease...

Conference Proceeding Linkage processes between niche and regime: an analysis of Learning and Innovation Networks for Sustainable Agriculture across Europe Julie Ingram, N. Curry, J. Kirwan, D. Maye, K. Kubinakova 04/2014; In proceeding of: International Farming Systems Association IFSA Conference, At Berlin Edit ABSTRACT This presentation aims to...

This article adds to on-going debates about food provisioning in England and the relative positioning of supermarkets vis-à-vis other sources of fresh food. Arguing that traditional food markets have been neglected in the agri-food literature, the paper investigates the suggestion that they are at ‘a critical juncture’, with many in decline and oth...

This presentation aims to reveal, and contribute to an understanding of, the linkage processes that connect innovation networks in sustainable agriculture to elements of the mainstream agricultural regime. It draws on findings from analysis of 17 Learning and Innovation Networks for Sustainable Agriculture (LINSA) analysed within the EU research pr...

This article utilizes the Communities of Practice (CoP) framework to examine learning processes among a group of permaculture practitioners in England, specifically examining the balance between core practices and boundary processes.The empirical basis of the article derives from three participatory workshops and 14 interviews with permaculture pra...

Short title: Urban agriculture and the policies of the European Union To date, analyses of European policies as they pertain to urban agriculture and new modes of socio-technical innovation are rare, beyond general assessments that recognise relative degrees of influence. The purpose of this paper is thus to provide a targeted review of key Europea...

The book focuses on three areas of development driving the significant structural and functional changes that have been appearing in and shaping rural spaces: development of renewable energy, multifunctional agriculture, and rural tourism. In the rural context these three phenomena are related and significantly influence each other – or better to s...

While plant diseases have been the subject of scientific research, little is known about the perceptions of key actors towards plant disease risk within specific food sectors. Drawing on concepts of risk and uncertainty, and using in-depth interviews, this paper examines the ways in which endemic plant disease risks in the UK wheat sector are perce...

This paper seeks to orientate research on local food networks more firmly towards ideas of grassroots and social niche innovations. Drawing on recent conceptual ideas from strategic niche management, this paper provides an exploratory analysis of attempts to spread grassroots social innovations through the Big Lottery Local Food programme run by th...