David Soto FernándezUniversity of Santiago de Compostela | USC · History
David Soto Fernández
PhD
About
106
Publications
50,976
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
1,495
Citations
Introduction
David Soto Fernández currently works as associate professor in Economic History at the Department of Applied Economics, Santiago de Compostela University. David does research in Rural and Environmental History.
Additional affiliations
March 2019 - present
January 1998 - August 2003
September 2003 - March 2019
Education
September 1995 - January 2003
September 1990 - July 1995
Publications
Publications (106)
El objetivo de este libro es el análisis de las transformaciones productivas en la pequeña explotación familiar en la Galicia contemporánea (siglos XVIII-XX), es decir, de las transformaciones de los modos de producir y de sus resultados económicos tanto desde el punto de vista de la agricultura convencional, como puesto en relación con el contexto...
La literatura sociológica suele separar los conflictos ambientales de los sociales, especialmente de los conflictos “de clase”, como si de dos esferas distintas de la práctica social se tratara. A unos se les considera como una expresión de los nuevos movimientos sociales, y a los de clase, como representantes genuinos de los viejos, cuya conversió...
El presente libro tiene su origen en una reflexión de Ricardo Robledo
durante la celebración del XV Congreso de la Sociedad de Estudios de
Historia Agraria (SEHA) en el ISCTE-IUL de Lisboa en enero de 2016. Robledo
llamaba la atención sobre el hecho de que el vigésimo quinto aniversario
de la revista Historia Agraria, que se cumplía ese año, no hab...
Spanish olive oil production has multiplied by about 7 during the last 120 years. During the first half of the twentieth century, the increase in production was mainly due to a marked increase in the olive grove area (doubled between 1850 and 1950) at expenses of the many natural areas such as the Mediterranean forest. Low planting olive tree densi...
Este trabajo analiza en el largo plazo (siglo XVIII a la actualidad) la evolución del manejo campesino del fuego en Galicia (noreste de España) y el surgimiento de los incendios forestales, como consecuencia del proceso de industrialización de la agricultura y de la ruptura de los agroecosistemas en mosaico propios del manejo campesino. Se estudia...
Early energy analyses of agriculture revealed that behind higher labor and land productivity of industrial farming, there was a decrease in energy returns on energy (EROI) invested, in comparison to more traditional organic agricultural systems. Studies on recent trends show that efficiency gains in production and use of inputs have again somewhat...
Who chooses new technology? And how? In this article, we explore the diffusion of agricultural science and technology in Galicia (Spain), and the ways in which farmers adopted innovations in the period of 1880–1940 within the Atlantic Iberian agricultural context of small farms. To answer these questions, we adopt a socio-institutional approach and...
Book reviews - Crítica de libros - Crítica de livros (Historia Agraria, 88) Laurent Brassart, Corinne Marache, Juan Pan-Montojo, and Leen van Molle (Eds.): Making Politics in the European Countryside, 1780s-1930s. Jakub Beneš Malcolm Thick: William Ellis, Eighteenth-century farmer, journalist and entrepreneur. Susanna Wade-Martins Helena Kirchner y...
In this paper, we examine the evolution of Spanish agriculture from 1992 to 2017, exploring the specific relationship between the agricultural population and the provision of agroecosystem services (AE-S). Traditionally, family farming has sustained the quality of the biophysical fund elements of agroecosystems through the work that family members...
DOSSIER La historia ambiental, ¿de la periferia a la centralidad? https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/rubrica.266
Este artículo da a conocer los resultados de dos investigaciones realizadas durante varios años sobre la evolución de la agricultura española y el cambio experimentado hacia un modelo de agricultura industrializada. La primera investigación trató de analizar los cambios habidos desde inicios del siglo XX desde un punto de vista biofísico, empleando...
This publication is the result of the first year of work of the
Barbanza Ecosocial Lab, a project coordinated by Fundación
RIA in collaboration with HISTAGRA research group of the
University of Santiago de Compostela, funded by Fundación
Banco Santander and supported by Cátedra Juana de Vega.
The Barbanza Ecosocial Lab was created to learn about an...
This article describes agricultural practices of fertilization in the NW of the Iberian Peninsula between 1750 and 1900, where a leguminous plant called gorse (Ulex Europaeus) was used as bedding for livestock in order to produce manure. During the period examined, this whole region experienced a process of agricultural intensification which result...
At least 200,000 people died from hunger or malnutrition-related diseases in Spain during the 1940s. This book provides a political explanation for the famine and brings together a broad range of academics based in Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia to achieve this. Topics include the political causes of the famine, the phys...
This article analyzes the connection between resources consumption, economic growth, the increase of inequalities and environmental conflicts in Spain and Europe. The main argument of this article links the inequalities reduction process in Europe in the second half of the XX century with the increase of resources consumption and its related enviro...
The main social fund element (agricultural population) emits a work flow that is measurable in terms of energy. It also originates an integrated information flow that supports the structure and functioning of the agroecosystem. This flow is generated by households, whose “reproduction” is not only of a biological nature: it also relies on economic...
This chapter is focused in the environmental consequences of the industrialization of the Spain’s agriculture. The changes in the quantity and quality of energy and material flows described in the previous chapters have contributed to the deterioration of the quality of the land fund element, which supports the provision of ecosystems services, inc...
During the socio-metabolic transition to the current industrial society, agriculture has been relegated, in favor of fossil fuels and minerals, as main source of energy and material, and this has provoked a big quantitative and qualitative changes in its technical means of agricultural and livestock productions. In this chapter, the changes of the...
This chapter is focused in the assessment of the changes and performance of biophysical, land and livestock fund elements throughout the twentieth century to meet society’s biomass requirements. First section of the chapter provides a historiographic review of the main transformations in Spanish agriculture since 1900s. In the second section, we re...
The main aim of this chapter is to describe the theoretical and methodological bases that support the research contained in this book and developed through the following chapters. The rationale of the need for a new perspective on the evolution of Spain’s agricultural sector over the last century, focused on sustainability, from a social and ecolog...
In this chapter, the structure, functioning, and dynamics of the Spanish Agrarian Metabolism within the broader context of the whole Spanish economy are characterized. Biomass demand and domestic consumption, and the extent of which the agrarian sector and foreign trade fulfilled that demand are the cores of this chapter, as there are the main driv...
This open access book provides a panoramic view of the evolution of Spanish agriculture from 1900 to the present, offering a more diverse picture to the complex and multidimensional reality of agrarian production. With a clear transdisciplinary ambition, the book applies an original and innovative theoretical and methodological tool, termed Agraria...
El artículo analiza el surgimiento del movimiento ecologista en
Andalucía durante la Transición y su proceso de consolidación en los
primeros años de la autonomía. Se exploran los condicionantes del nacimiento
del movimiento ecologista en España durante el proceso de
transición a la democracia. A pesar de lo que se ha sostenido en ocasiones
respect...
Mechanization of agriculture drastically increases labour productivity in crop production, playing a major role in industrialization by freeing up workforce for industry and services. These historical processes are well studied, but there is much less knowledge on their environmental implications, particularly the carbon footprint. In this work, we...
The high grain yield of modern varieties (MV) respond to the increase in fossil-based inputs, and the widespread belief that they are more productive than old varieties (OV) is biased. This belief focuses only on marketable biomass, without considering the consequences on agroecosystem sustainability of the reductions in other portions of NPP. Addi...
This study analyses the trajectory of the Spanish rural history in the last decades.
For the aims of this work, we have limited to the rural history of the late modern
period. Though the evolution of the discipline is analysed since the seventies, we
presents special attention to the evolution of historiography during the last 15
years. Both histor...
Population increase, the change in consumption patterns and a greater demand for biomaterials will continue to put pressure on the use of land over the coming decades, an increasingly scarce and degraded resource. Trade allows the environmental impact of consumption to be outsourced to third countries, although it also allows production to be locat...
El objetivo de esta comunicación es explorar los vínculos entre transición socio-ecológica y cambio institucional en la organización de las formas de propiedad comunal campesina. La propuesta entra en diálogo con las tesis de Ostrom en las que, aunque el análisis de la reglas de funcionamiento juega un papel esencial en el mantenimiento de las inst...
According to the agroecological approach, energy analyses applied to agriculture should provide information about the structure and functions of the agroecosystem; in other words, about the maintenance of its fund elements, which sustain the flow of ecosystem services. To this end, we have employed a methodological proposal that adds agroecological...
Agrarian metabolism applies the social metabolism framework to agriculture. It focuses on the study of the exchange of material and energy flows between a society and its environment for producing useful biomass. These flows must maintain the fund elements of the agroecosystem in sufficient quantity and of sufficient quality for them to continue pr...
For a large extent of historiography, the history of Spanish agriculture during the twentieth century is a story of success. However, this narrative has been built on monetary analysis, and it does not usually take into account the effects on rural society and agroecosystems. The aim of this paper is to analyze what has happened from a biophysical...
Soil organic carbon (SOC) management is key for soil fertility and for mitigation and adaptation to climate change, particularly in desertification-prone areas such as Mediterranean croplands. Industrialization and global change processes affect SOC dynamics in multiple, often opposing, ways. Here we present a detailed SOC balance in Spanish cropla...
Entradas de carbono en la agricultura española en el largo plazo, 1900-2008
Un conocimiento detallado de la evolución de la ganadería española es imprescindible para una correcta evolución de la agricultura. La ganadería constituyó un elemento central para la reproducción de la agricultura orgánica tradicional, proveyendo servicios tan esenciales como el estiércol, trabajo, el transporte o la provisión de alimentos y mater...
El artículo se propone explorar la importancia de diferentes factores en los cambios en el conflicto ambiental en torno a los comunales. Analizaremos la importancia de las reglas (formales e informales) pero también la construcción de identidades por las comunidades locales en la interpretación de los comunales. Tenemos en cuenta, asimismo, los cam...
La mayoría de los trabajos que han analizado el proceso de transición socio-ecológica en los bosques se han centrado en los aspectos energéticos de mismo y especialmente en la sustitución de la leña por combustibles fósiles y los cambios de los bosques productores de leña a los bosques productores de madera. Sin embargo es bien conocido por la inve...
For decades the history of Spanish agriculture has been interpreted from a backwardness perspective. This idea arose comparing the cereals and other crop yields to those obtained in the countries of northern Europe. But recent studies have refuted this interpretation, giving rise to a new one. The quantitative Economic History has played a central...
La historiografía agraria usualmente ha cuantificado la productividad agrícola considerando solo la porción comercial de la fitomasa producida. Como consecuencia desprecia los flujos de biomasa que son reciclados internamente y, consecuentemente, las funciones ecosistémicas que éstos desempeñan. Desde esta perspectiva, la comparación entre la agric...
El mundo rural suele estar ausente de los relatos sobre la Historia de la democracia. La identificación tópica entre campo y atraso político ha impregnado buena parte de los debates historiográficos sobre la España contemporánea. Pero la necesidad de redefinir el propio concepto de democracia, reforzando su carácter histórico, pasa por revisar la v...
This paper offers an annual series of plant biomass in Galicia during the period 1960-2012. The timeframe chosen encompasses the final period of the organic agrarian system, the consequences of the industrialisation of Galician agriculture, and the impact of Spain’s integration into the European Union. The paper provides several indicators regularl...
This working paper analyzes the energy embodied in agricultural inputs from a historical perspective. The study is based on a wide literature review, which has been complemented with own estimations in order to create a coherent database including all direct and indirect energy associated to the main agricultural inputs with the maximum possible le...
Studies on the role of nutrient balances in the socioecological transition of agriculture are scarce, particularly in the Mediterranean region where manure availability was low. The role of nutrient balance in this transition was evaluated in three representative localities of the inland Mediterranean region of southern Spain from 1750 to 1900. Cha...
The rational use of soil requires the selection of management practices to take profit of the beneficial functions of plant growth, water and nutrient storage, and pollutants removal by filtering and decomposition without altering its properties. However, the first evidence of important and widespread erosion peaks can generally be found with the a...
El sector agroforestal español experimentó profundas transformaciones durante el siglo XX y principios del XXI. En el primer tercio del siglo XX se expandió la superficie cultivada y aumentaron los rendimientos, un proceso que se interrumpió con la Guerra Civil y la autarquía franquista. Desde los años 60 se aceleró la industrialización agrícola, y...
The aim of this work is to reconstruct the main economy-wide/material flow accounting indicators for the Spanish economy between 1860 and 2010. The main results indicate that from 1960 onward, the country saw a very rapid industrial transition based on the domestic extraction of quarry products and the import of fossil fuels and manufactured goods....
Este trabajo constituye una aproximación al proceso de construcción de la identidad andaluza en la transición a la democracia. Como primera aportación en él se analiza cómo, al filo de la reivindicación autonómica, se va configurando un consenso básico entre los partidos de izquierda en torno a la definición de Andalucía y al sentido que debe tener...
This work provides an estimation of food consumption in spain between 1900 and 1933, calculated by the supply side, namely, analyzing total agrarian production, adding imports and deducting exports. our findings prove that spanish food pattern was determined by material constraints of agrarian change, forcing to promote a vegetable diet from the se...
This work provides an estimation of food consumption in Spain between 1900 and 1933, calculated by the supply side, namely, analyzing total agrarian production, adding imports and deducting exports. Our findings prove that Spanish food pattern was determined by material constraints of agrarian change, forcing to promote a vegetable diet from the se...
In this paper our aim is to explore the importance of different factors in the explanation of sustainability of commons in the long-term. We will analyze the importance of the rules (formal and informal) but also the making of identities by local communities regarding commons. We also explore the role of changes in the environmental and economic fu...
This work provides a provincial scale wood production data-serie for the 20thCentury in Spain as
well as a land use reconstruction of wood producers’ areas. We take into account, not only forest
areas but croplands able to produce wood such us olive, vineyards or fruits orchards. Our main
findings suggest a forestland evolution characterized by a t...
In this proposal we will address innovation from a peasant point of view, considering peasant knowledge applied to agrarian systems and the evolution of agroecosystems in terms of productivity and sustainability. The case study of Galicia (NW of the Iberian Peninsula) will illustrate how the intensification process took place in the context of an A...
Soil degradation is one of the consequences of farming activity that has had the greatest impact on the capacity of agro ecosystems to produce food and offer environmental services. This risk is threatening the Mediterranean basin as one of the principal factors of non-sustainability. In recent decades, the expansion of olive growing has exacerbate...
In this paper our aim is to explore the importance of different factors in the explanation of sustainability of commons in the long-term. We will analyze the importance of the rules (formal and informal) but also the making of identities by local communities regarding commons. We also explore the role of changes in the environmental and economic fu...
La conflictividad rural ha jugado un papel importante en la historia contemporánea de España.
La lectura del conflicto agrario como símbolo de una sociedad atrasada y poco preparada para la
democracia moderna ha dado paso a una lectura más compleja y rica de la movilización social
ocurrida en este ámbito, mayoritario en la edad contemporánea. En pr...
This methodological manual provides basic information to estimate the net
primary productivity (NPP) of historical and contemporary cropland, in terms of
fresh and dry matter, and gross energy. The methodology and the proposed
conversion factors can be applied to any region of the planet, with some
exception to be noted in the text. The biomass pro...
The purpose of this paper is to outline the organization and implementation of the Spanish agrarian innovation system and technology consulting in the Atlantic region of Galicia between 1880 and 1936, and to examine the reception of technological innovation by farmers.
Increased productivity during this period reflects the spread of new techniques...
Over the last three decades, historians studying the Franco dictatorship (1939‐1975) have divided it chronologically into two main periods: post‐war or early Francoism covers the two decades immediately after the Spanish Civil War, from 1939 to 1959; and late Francoism from 1960 to 1975, which is often defined around the concept of "desarrollismo"...
Despite the key role that soil and its management have played in the sustainability of farming societies, few historical studies
have been carried out on erosion and its effects. In Mediterranean agriculture, erosion from olive cultivation is currently
one of the region's main environmental problems. This essay develops a case study from southern S...
Changes in cropland intensification and extension and their socioeconomic consequences have been a topic mainly investigated by agrarian historians. Results of the nutrient balances of these historical agricultural systems with relatively closed nutrient cycles might have played an important role because long-term sustainability only is achieved wh...
