Lee-Ann Sutherland

James Hutton Institute · Social, Economic and Geographical Sciences Group

In this paper we assess the relationship between how women access the land they farm, and their farming identities, roles, and future succession plans. Utilizing a Bourdieusian approach, we conceptualize inheritance of farmland as a long‐term process of symbolic and economic investment. We conducted a cohort analysis of women living or working on f...

New entrants to farming are eligible for CAP targeted supports. The intention of these supports is to promote innovativeness and sustainability in the agricultural sector through generational renewal. However, new entrants (successors or those completely new into the industry), still face multiple barriers above other longstanding farmers, includin...

The establishment of effective national agricultural knowledge and innovation systems (AKIS) became a Euro-pean policy imperative in the 2010s, lodged in a political ideology which emphasised the importance of innovation to economic growth. We argue that the recent deployment of the AKIS concept in EU policy presents important opportunities for the...

Farming computer games enable the ‘desk chair countryside’—millions of people actively engaged in performing farming and rural activities on-line—to co-produce their desired representations of rural life, in line with the parameters set by game creators. In this paper, I critique the narratives and images of farming life expressed in the popular co...

Environmental crises and agricultural policy reforms are key moments for the reorganisation of farming practices, which can contribute to the reconstitution of female farming roles and identities. In this paper, we consider the role of animal disease in providing an opportunity to reconstitute female farming identities, particularly emphasising fem...

In this article we assess the diversity of sources of advice identified by 678 adopters, 295 non‐adopters and 107 droppers (or dis‐adopters, who have ceased or reduced the use) of agricultural innovations across 13 European countries. For most innovations, the volume and composition of advisory supports (e.g. public advisory services, farm business...

Farm advice as a key instrument of more inclusive European agricultural policies? Europe’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has broadened its objectives to integrate social issues related to cohesion, labour conditions, occupational health and inclusion. At the same time, farm advisory services have gained further importance in the CAP (Box 1). How...

Recent EU legislation will require Member States to ensure that farm advice which is supported by EU funding is impartial. In this article we present the findings of an online workshop which asked whether this should be a priority for European advisory supports within the Common Agricultural Policy. The answer was ‘no’. At the workshop, results of...

p>Although the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union has broadened its objectives to integrate social issues, several hard-to-reach groups of farmers and workers continue to be ignored by advisory services and associated policies. Connecting with these groups has a strong potential to increase the economic and social cohesion of European...

Purpose To assess how the primary actors within farmers’ microAKIS (self-assembled knowledge networks) changed as a technology evolved, utilising a case study of precision farming. Methodology Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 35 farmers in two Czech Regions. Findings The evolution of digital technologies led to an ongoing, increment...

In this paper, a photo elicitation methodology applied in “Strathben Parish,” Scotland is utilized to assess how gentrified landscapes are produced on rural smallholdings. Analysis revealed a complex, embodied landscape which is produced on an ongoing basis with a range of human and “more-than human actants,” such as wildlife, trees and landforms....

In this paper, I consider the role of animals in gentrification processes, developing a conceptualisation of ‘horsification’: the proliferation of horses within a locale, resulting directly from (human) residential migration. Horses are a highly charismatic species. Practices of horse keeping offer rich opportunities for encounter, shaping the bodi...

Climate smart farming requires food production to sit alongside practices which sequester greenhouse gas emissions. Given the requirement to meet net zero emissions by the middle of the century, agricultural policies are now seeking to embed climate smart approaches within future support schemes. Path dependency, the influence of past choices on de...

This paper on family farms is in the form of an historical review complemented by current and future perspectives from North America, China, Brazil and Europe. The literature review demonstrates the multiple discourses, concepts and methodologies which underpin contemporary understandings of the family farm. The authors argue that family-based farm...

Abstract The symbiotic nature of family farm production has been central in the way that the social sciences have framed research on agriculture and farming. In this chapter, we discuss how agriculture as an activity affects and is impacted upon by families’ and households’ identities from three angles: the idealization of farming life, with assoc...

In this paper, I assess the utility of two targeted qualitative interview questions: descriptions of a ‘good farmer’ and of a ‘good day,’ for eliciting rich textual data. Studies where farmers have been asked to describe or define a good farmer have been utilised across a growing range of international contexts in order to identify farmers’ cultura...

Farming computer games enable the ‘desk chair countryside’—millions of people actively engaged in performing farming and rural activities on-line—to co-produce their desired representations of rural life, in line with the parameters set by game creators. In this paper, I critique the narratives and images of farming life expressed in the popular co...

In this paper we advance the conceptualisation of the ‘good farmer’ through integration of Bourdieusian concepts with DeLanda’s assemblage theory. Considering new farms as assemblages is useful to unlock the relative power of association amongst component parts, and to understand what drives the emergence of a farm. Utilising an empirical case stud...

Purpose: To assess the inclusivity of on-farm demonstration across Europe, in relation to age, gender, and geographical location of participants. Methodology: The paper is based on a survey of 1162 on-farm demonstrators (farmers and organisations) and three supra-regional workshops. Findings: Overall, on farm-demonstrations were found to be engagin...

There is increasing recognition that young people in farming have an important role to play in meeting the challenges of food security. A rapidly growing body of evidence suggests, however, that small-scale farming is much less likely to attract young people than large-scale farming and the non-agricultural sectors. Using the results of studies con...

Chapter 7: The ‘good farmer’ in communities of practice Research to date has emphasised symbols of the good farmer which are lodged in space, that is, communities of place. In this chapter we consider how symbols of good farming are established and influenced by communities of practice – peer groups which are not constrained to neighbourhood relat...

Chapter 5: Morality and the ‘good farmer’ This chapter asks what is good about the concept of the good farmer. That is, what are the moral and ethical ideas implied when someone is referred to as a good farmer. The corollary then exists that some people are considered bad farmers. Drawing on insights from moral philosophy and the social science of...

Chapter 1: The ‘good farmer’: cultural dimensions of farming and social change This chapter sets the scene for the book and introduces the concept of the good farmer: what the term means, its historical origins, and its contemporary uses. The ‘good farmer’ concept emerged in the context of a wider cultural turn in social science in the 1990s and e...

Chapter 3: How symbols of ‘good farming’ develop: the historical development of ‘tidy farming’ Chapter three addresses the issue of how (arable) ‘good farmer’ symbols change over time. This new historical analysis reveals the strong connection between the development of new technologies and changes in the symbols of good farming. ‘Tidy farming’ em...

Chapter 8: Future challenges for the ‘good farmer’ In the concluding chapter, we look at the relationship between the social and cultural dimensions of agriculture and processes of change in agricultural and food systems. We offer an attempt to reconcile change and farmers’ resistance by advocating an approach that would consider definitions of t...

Chapter 4: Theorising the ‘good farmer’: from common sense category to analytical construct The ‘good farmer’ concept is not a theory in itself, but a concept that enables theoretical inquiry into culture and identity in farming. This chapter offers an overview and synthesis of these theorisations and usages of the term to date. In historic litera...

Chapter 6: The gendered ‘good farmer’ This chapter addresses the key questions of how good farmer identities are gendered and whether the good farmer construct reinforces traditional gender roles, thus contributing to the invisibility of women on farms. To do this we first explore how gender is (and often is not) addressed within the ‘good farmer...

Chapter 2: The origins of the ‘good farmer’ In this chapter, we explore the early use of the term ‘good farmer’ in an Anglo context. Here we look at the earliest origins of the term in the English literature as the ‘good husbandman’, through the eyes of three 16th Century agricultural authors – John Fitzherbert, Thomas Tusser and Barnabee Googe. T...

Agricultural computer games engage millions of players world-wide in farming practices. This paper investigates how farm-based computer and video games act as sites of cultural production. I utilise a case study of Stardew Valley to assess how notions of idyllic rurality are staged, encountered and reworked both by and for the ‘desk-chair countrysi...

Developed by leading authors in the field, this book offers a cohesive and definitive theorisation of the concept of the 'good farmer', integrating historical analysis, critique of contemporary applications of good farming concepts, and new case studies, providing a springboard for future research. The concept of the good farmer has emerged in rec...

In this paper we develop a conceptualisation of retro‐innovation, simply defined as the purposeful revival of historic practices, ideas and/or technologies, and apply this conceptualisation to the analysis of the development of the organic farming movement in the Czech Republic. Within the agricultural sector, we argue that retro‐innovation represe...

The scope of this paper is to describe the most common and widespread social issues related with the implementation of renewable energy technologies (RET) on farm and at community level. It aims to outline circumstances, dominant characteristics and effects on RET implementation of farms and, finally define ways of their improvement and/or minimisa...

It is generally accepted that gendered occupational closure is a thing of the past and the inequalities that women now experience in the labour market are due to segregation and segmentation of employment. In this article it is argued that agriculture still displays gendered occupational closure. Previous research has considered structural closure,...

In this paper we develop a typology of ‘non-commercial’ approaches to farming, based on a survey of a representative sample of farmers in Scotland, United Kingdom. In total, 395 (16.6% of the sample) farmers indicated that they do not seek to make a profit on their farms. We estimate that these non-commercial approaches to farming are utilised on a...

This paper presents a methodology for undertaking research with a ‘difficult to reach population’ – hobby farmers. In an investigation designed to assess agrarian transition processes in a peri‐urban locale, data was sought on every agricultural holding in a Scottish parish (municipality). This ‘parish study’ methodology combined participant mappin...

In the western world, farming is the most dangerous occupation with the highest rates of accidents and fatalities. Farming remains largely a family business and most accidents happen to family members. Why do safety campaigns have such limited success and why do farm families bring this terrible grief on themselves? This article argues that farm ac...

This paper focuses on the privileges associated with agricultural land ownership, as reflected in a peri-urban transition process. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 56 land managers in and around a single Scottish parish (municipality), representing over 90% of the land in the region. Multiple intersecting transition processes were identif...

This study analyses the impact of the transfer of technological information (among other a priori identified factors) on the uptake of innovative crop technologies using structural equation modelling of data from a representative survey of Scottish crop farmers. The model explains 83% of the variance in current technological uptake behaviour and 63...

The contribution of small farms to local food supply, food security and food sovereignty is widely acknowledged at a global level. In the particular case of Europe, they often are seen as an alternative to large and specialised farms. Assessing the real role of small farms has been limited by a lack of information, as small farms are frequently omi...

In this paper we address the disconnection between multifunctional woodland management and current forestry policies in Europe, using a practice theory approach. Drawing on cases in the UK and Finland, we identified seven bundles forestry practices: creating an attractive place to live, pursuing forest-based leisure practices, wildlife and biodiver...

Responsibility for biosecurity in UK farming is being devolved from government to industry, with a greater emphasis on the veterinarian (vet)-farmer relationship. Although social science has shown that care for animals is part of ‘good farming', the British dairy sector sees a need to improve biosecurity. This research uses the good farmer concept...

This report provides information regarding the state of implementation of the current CAP young farmers’ mechanism. The different implementation styles of the Members States are described and the currently implemented policy tools are evaluated. Based on the secondary analysis and case studies, several policy recommendations are formulated, aimed a...

In this paper, we assess the recent and anticipated changes on Scotland’s livestock-producing crofts, using a representative survey of Scottish farmers undertaken in 2013. We find that crofters are similar to other livestock farmers, both inside and outside of the traditional crofting counties, in terms of age, years of involvement in the holding a...

Increasing woodland area in the United Kingdom is strongly supported in policies, but there is evidence of low rates of new planting, infrequent uptake of farm forestry, and negative attitudes to woodland among farmers. Additionally, there is a wider context of increasing farm diversification, and a need for greater understanding of farmers' attitu...

In this paper we assess the types of knowledge networks utilised by small-scale farmers in four case studies (located in Bulgaria, Poland, Portugal, and the United Kingdom). We focus on knowledge acquired to inform three new activities being undertaken by study participants: agricultural production, subsidy access and regulatory compliance, and far...

In this paper we broaden the debate on agri-environmental scheme participation to include farm woodland expansion and renewable energy production, developing a conceptualisation of ‘agri-environmental diversification’. Utilising structural equation modelling, we assess a telephone survey of 2416 Scottish farmers, undertaken in 2013. Findings demons...

As the owners of the majority of land in the U.K., farmers are well placed to contribute to renewable energy targets. Media coverage can both drive and reflect farmers’ views about renewable energy but has been largely unexplored to date. This article uses discourse analysis to examine the evolution of coverage of one form of renewable energy – on-...

Based on Habermas' Theory of Communicative Action, this paper critiques the transparency and legitimacy of participatory scenario planning, considering a case study of scenario development for the livestock industry within Scotland. The paper considers the extent to which the case study approximates the conditions for ‘ideal speech situations’ and...

This report concerns crofting: a form of small-scale farming system common in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Our study forms one component of a wider European study investigating Agricultural Knowledge and Information Systems (AKIS(see www.proakis.eu for more details)). This perspective analyses the network interactions of various actors, e...

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

Reform of the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) contributes to uncertainty in farm planning and a number of studies have examined farmer intentions to possible future support scenarios. This paper extends this literature by examining the effect of past reform on influencing farmer intentions towards the most recent reform of the CAP. Agricultural...

In this paper, processes of rural gentrification are assessed in the post-Soviet context. In-depth, qualitative interviews were undertaken with 22 dacha (second country home) owners and 11 rural dwellers in two Russian regions. We draw on Bourdieu's concepts of capital exchange to assess processes of capital investment, social-up grading, landscape...

The agriculture sector plays an important role in renewable energy transitions, owing to its historical involvement in managing key resources, particularly land and biomass. We develop the multi-level perspective in relation to these emergent transition processes, conceptualising transitions towards renewable electricity production as examples of m...

In this paper, we present a description of foresighting activities undertaken by EPIC, Scotland's Centre of Expertise on Animal Disease Outbreaks, to investigate the future uncertainty of animal health security in the Scottish sheep and cattle sectors. Using scenario planning methodologies, we explored four plausible but provocative long-term futur...

Recent years have seen a proliferation of state supports to increase agriculture and rural economic development through co-operative ventures. Implicit or explicit in these activities is the mobilisation of social capital to achieve economic aims. To date, few studies have addressed the long term evolution of social capital-based relationships. In...

The aim of this book is to improve the understanding of transition processes in European agriculture. It focuses on 'emerging transitions' - how new organizational forms and technologies change, and are changed by, mainstream actors and practices in the agricultural sector. This is achieved through an integration of recent academic theory on transi...

The multi-level perspective (MLP) has been applied to agri-food studies in the past, however, they have tended to focus either on large-scale ( national) and often historical transitions (e.g. Grin, 2010), or on very specific system innovations initiated by technical innovations (e.g. Elzen et al., 2012). The former focus on long-term processes and...

The aim of this book is to improve the understanding of transition processes in European agriculture. It focuses on 'emerging transitions' - how new organizational forms and technologies change, and are changed by, mainstream actors and practices in the agricultural sector. This is achieved through an integration of recent academic theory on transi...

The aim of this book is to improve the understanding of transition processes in European agriculture. It focuses on 'emerging transitions' - how new organizational forms and technologies change, and are changed by, mainstream actors and practices in the agricultural sector. This is achieved through an integration of recent academic theory on transi...

The aim of this book is to improve the understanding of transition processes in European agriculture. It focuses on 'emerging transitions' - how new organizational forms and technologies change, and are changed by, mainstream actors and practices in the agricultural sector. This is achieved through an integration of recent academic theory on transi...

The aim of this book is to improve the understanding of transition processes in European agriculture. It focuses on 'emerging transitions' - how new organizational forms and technologies change, and are changed by, mainstream actors and practices in the agricultural sector. This is achieved through an integration of recent academic theory on transi...

Assessment of soil organic matter content using laboratory analysis can be costly and time consuming, so limiting how often land managers assess this important property. This work demonstrates an ability to estimate topsoil organic matter content from field observations alone and provides a method by which rapid and cost-effective assessments of so...

In this paper, we go ‘beyond crofting’ to assess the changes to both croft and non-croft small-scale land management in Scotland from 2000 to 2011, through an analysis of agricultural census statistics. We find that although small-scale holdings (defined as holdings of less than 10 ha) occupy a very small percentage of Scotland's agricultural land,...

Stakeholder engagement and participatory processes are becoming increasingly established research requirements, enabling the building of trust in, and acceptance of, research outcomes. Contributing to the EU-funded FP7 'FarmPath' project, partners across Europe developed a 'visioning process', in order to involve stakeholder groups in the identific...

This paper illustrates the impacts of two potential CAP reform scenarios on beef farmers in Scotland post 2015 using an optimising farm level model. These results are then compared with farmers' perception about the policy changes, captured during a farmer intentions survey. The model results suggest that beef farms suffer a loss in farmer net marg...

Recent decades have seen a rapid increase in the rate of conversion from conventional to organic farming, as organic farming shifted from an alternative production approach practiced by a small number of idealists, to the de facto alternative to mainstream conventional production. Although there has been considerable academic debate as to the role...

Recent decades have seen the emergence and increasing prominence of a range of public and private sector providers of agricultural information and advice, owing to state transition away from direct provision of agricultural advisory services. In this paper, we evaluate the establishment of trust in agri-environmental agricultural advisory services...

In this paper, processes of gentrification are assessed in relation to non-commercial farming: the production of agricultural commodities without the intent of earning a living. The author argues that due to the connection between residence and productive assets (particularly land) inherent in farming, agricultural gentrification represents a speci...

In this paper we present a multi-disciplinary analysis of the potential impacts of undertaking, similar environmental actions on multiple farms in a small geographic area, using organic farming as a, proxy for a co-ordinated approach. Recent papers have called for more co-ordinated efforts between, farmers in terms of their environmental actions, b...

In this paper, we present a broad conceptualisation of major change in farm level trajectories. We argue that as a result of path dependency, major changes in farming practice primarily occur in response to 'trigger events', after which farm managers intensify their consideration of the options open to them, and may set a new course of action. In u...