I have expertise in place-based sustainable agricultural and rural development, place-based modes of food provisioning, learning and innovation processes and (social) transformations. I have a particular interest in place-based food, place-based development, community farming and regenerative agriculture, grassroots innovation and institutional reform.
Conventional gender analysis of development policy does not adequately explain the slow progress ... more Conventional gender analysis of development policy does not adequately explain the slow progress towards gender equality. Our research analyses the gender discourses embedded in agricultural and rural development policies in Myanmar and Nepal. We find that both countries focus on increasing women's participation in development activities as a core gender equality policy objective. This creates a binary categorisation of participating versus non-participating women and identifies women as responsible for improving their position. At the same time, gender (in)equality is defined exclusively as a women's concern. Such discourses, as constitutive practices, produce specific knowledge about rural women and new subjectivities that prescribe and govern them solely as subjects of development. Our research suggests that such a limited discursive practice invisiblises gendered power relations and structural and institutional issues, ultimately slowing progress towards gender equality. We demonstrate the importance of studying policy as discourse, beyond the effectiveness of policies or mainstreaming tools, and call for empirical evidence on the impact of these discourses on women's subjectivities and lived experiences.
Conventional gender analysis of development policy does not adequately explain the slow progress ... more Conventional gender analysis of development policy does not adequately explain the slow progress towards gender equality. Our research analyses the gender discourses embedded in agricultural and rural development policies in Myanmar and Nepal. We find that both countries focus on increasing women's participation in development activities as a core gender equality policy objective. This creates a binary categorisation of participating versus non-participating women and identifies women as responsible for improving their position. At the same time, gender (in)equality is defined exclusively as a women's concern. Such discourses, as constitutive practices, produce specific knowledge about rural women and new subjectivities that prescribe and govern them solely as subjects of development. Our research suggests that such a limited discursive practice invisiblises gendered power relations and structural and institutional issues, ultimately slowing progress towards gender equality. We demonstrate the importance of studying policy as discourse, beyond the effectiveness of policies or mainstreaming tools, and call for empirical evidence on the impact of these discourses on women's subjectivities and lived experiences.
Community supported agriculture (CSA) is a producer-consumer union that aims to shift the predomi... more Community supported agriculture (CSA) is a producer-consumer union that aims to shift the predominant paradigm in agriculture towards a model based on social justice, fairness, and participation. However, the long-term existence of CSA initiatives, and their ability to build the social capital envisioned by the initiators, can be challenged by a struggle to generate a sufficient income for a fair salary to be paid to the producer. This study aimed to explore the main challenges faced by eight CSAs in Switzerland, along with the pathways they used to address them. The expectations and perceptions of organisers were collected through indepth photo elicitation interviews, which were analysed using grounded theory. The perspective of members was evaluated using a quantitative survey with 254 responses. The results showed that organisers are often filled with enthusiastic ideas but experience a sense of deflation when they realise that the members follow a more pragmatic approach. The information flow from members to the organisers leading them to new insights for adjustments, is a key component in overcoming divergence between the expectations of members and organisers. Involving members in administration and fieldwork lowers the workload of the organisers and fosters informal social interactions and mutual understanding, which leads to an increase in social capital. Focusing on local embeddedness and co-creation between members and organisers, thus allowing a dynamic evolution of the CSA, was found to be more beneficial for the long-term existence of the CSA than rigidly trying to implement the initial vision of the organisers.
The shift in policy focus from agriculture to rural development enables rural families to diversi... more The shift in policy focus from agriculture to rural development enables rural families to diversify their economic activities. Household-based resources, particularly human capital, are essential for capitalizing on newly developed opportunities. Locals with sufficient resources seize possibilities in agriculture and emerging economic sectors such as tourism. A case study (33 in-depth interviews) of Caucasus mountain households in Kazbegi and Mestia municipalities revealed the importance of human capital in attaining other types of resources, such as social and financial capital, and, ultimately, in the process of family-based economic development. Local families are encouraged to engage in and embrace contemporary farming practices in order to determine the most effective sustainable livelihoods. Along with long-established industries, households employ traditional knowledge to enter entrepreneurial tourism activities.
This article highlights the emergence of a regenerative, agroecological mode of agriculture follo... more This article highlights the emergence of a regenerative, agroecological mode of agriculture following the ongoing process of experimentation and learning by a settlement of landless people and farm workers. It examines how they engaged anew with 'nature' and generated resourceful farming practices as a result of a threefold process of cultural re-appreciation, a re-grounding in local natural resources and a political-economic re-positioning towards prevailing regimes in policies, markets and technologies. We argue that the construction of resourceful farming culminates around: finding and forging productive alignments with non-human nature such as weeds, trees and mychorrizal fungi, viewing the contribution of non-human nature not only in terms of their value as a commodity, but as adding value in many different ways and building a socio-material resource base and an institutional setting that allows farmers to farm more autonomously.
This contribution draws on original data relating to a land settlement case in Araponga,
an admin... more This contribution draws on original data relating to a land settlement case in Araponga, an administrative area in Minas Gerais, Brazil. The settlement of the land and subsequent building of robust, more self-dependent, land-based livelihoods have followed a joint experimentation trajectory in which the agro-ecologicalisation of agrarian production practices to regenerate and enrich the resource base has been coupled with effective institutional reform and the creation of a favourable institutional setting. Key to this grassroots transformation process has been the enrolment of various strategic actors in a collaborative support network by a mediating change agent. The paper argues that the Araponga case represents a particular expression of re-peasantisation. The Araponga project has evolved without the involvement of landless peoples’ social movements such as the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST). This has been crucial to its character and impact.
Notions of care for humans and more-than-humans appear at the margins of the sustainability trans... more Notions of care for humans and more-than-humans appear at the margins of the sustainability transformations debate. This paper explores the merits of an ethics of care approach to sustainability transformations. It argues that more radical, transformative change can be fostered via three mutually reinforcing dimensions: (a) ethically informed practices; (b) rela-tional response-ability; and (c) emotional awareness. This novel theoretical and methodological lens emphasizes the transformative potential of caring practices and as such extends the reach of the sustainability transformations debate.
Green Care practices have received increasing scholarly attention in the last decade. Yet most st... more Green Care practices have received increasing scholarly attention in the last decade. Yet most studies are concerned with the aspect of human well-being, with less attention given to other caring dimensions and their relation to sustainability. This paper aims to contribute to an integrative understanding of Green Care by proposing an analytical framework inspired by the ethics of care literature and, in particular, Tronto's five stages of caring (about, for, with, giving, and receiving). The goal is to use a relational lens to appreciate the diverse caring practices and their potential in three Finnish cases studies-a care farm, a biodynamic farm, and a nature-tourism company. We apply the framework on data gathered during three years through an in-depth participatory action-oriented research. Findings show that: (a) Green Care practitioners share sustainability concerns that go beyond human well-being and that translate into practices with benefits for the target users, wider community, and ecosystems; (b) caring is a relational achievement attained through iterative processes of learning. Two concluding insights can be inferred: a care lens sheds light on practitioners' moral agency and its sustainability potential; in-depth creative methods are needed for a thorough and grounded investigation of human and non-human caring relations in Green Care practices.
There is a wealth of information, hype around, and research into blockchain's 'disruptive' and 't... more There is a wealth of information, hype around, and research into blockchain's 'disruptive' and 'transformative' potential concerning every industry. However, there is an absence of scholarly attention given to identifying and analyzing the political premises and consequences of blockchain projects. Through digital ethnography and participatory action research, this article shows how blockchain experiments personify 'prefigurative politics' by design: they embody the politics and power structures which they want to enable in society. By showing how these prefigurative embodiments are informed and determined by the underlying political imaginaries, the article proposes a basic typology of blockchain projects. Furthermore, it outlines a frame to question, cluster, and analyze the expressions of political imaginaries intrinsic to the design and operationalization of blockchain projects on three analytic levels: users, intermediaries, and institutions.
The eight papers in this Special Feature result from the EU funded SUSPLACE collaborative program... more The eight papers in this Special Feature result from the EU funded SUSPLACE collaborative programme that aimed to explore the transformative capacity of sustainable place-shaping practices, and if and how these practices can support a sustainable, place-based development. The programme encompassed 15 research projects investigating a wide range of place-shaping practices embedded in specific settings. From a common framework on sustainable place-shaping, each research project has developed its own theoretical and methodological approach. This editorial explains the overall approach to sustainable place-based development and more specifically the three analytical dimensions of transformative practices, that together propel sustainable place-shaping: re-appreciation, re-grounding and re-positioning. After an overview of the eight articles, the contribution to sustainability sciences is discussed. The research programme has provided insight into the transformative agency of practitioners and policymakers engaged in shaping sustainable places, as well as the transformative role of researchers.
The Journal of Peer Production New perspectives on the implications of peer production for social change, 2019
This article introduces the concept of 'place-based civic tech'-citizen engagement technology cod... more This article introduces the concept of 'place-based civic tech'-citizen engagement technology codesigned by local government, civil society and global volunteers. It investigates to what extent creating such a digital space for autonomous self-organization allows for the emergence of a parallel, self-determining and more place-based geography of politics and political action. It finds that combining online tools with offline collaborative practices presents a unique opportunity for decentralization of power and decision-making in a manner which both politically motivates civil society and begins to update the infrastructure of democracy. The discussion is supported by a combination of primary and secondary data, with research methods including ethnographic and participatory observation techniques. Research data is drawn from a range of empirical sources, including an in-depth case study of the radical municipalist movement in Spain. The article concludes that there is a clear and compelling narrative of cities taking power back, in the form of a plural and globally networked movement. As such, this study contributes to both the theory and practice of civic tech, collective impact, municipalism and place-based urban politics while emphasizing the need for further research on experiments and movements currently existing below the academic radar.
The city-regional scale is increasingly being considered the most suitable level for planning and... more The city-regional scale is increasingly being considered the most suitable level for planning and development, yet city-regions have often been established for purely economic reasons in the UK. This paper argues that city-regions are not mere socioeconomic units through which competitiveness can be achieved, but also rich, socioecological spaces. Although the progressive regionalist literature has taken significant steps in this direction, concerns remain that critical contemporary issues such as environmental sustainability, cultural viability, social exclusion or political (dis)empowerment have not been addressed in a holistic way. We attempt to advance the debate and overcome some of the shortcomings by connecting progressive regionalism with two other literature strands: collaborative governance and regenerative development. Based on the synergies found, we design a conceptual framework that can be used to study, understand and improve policy processes and practice, paving pathways towards regenerative city-regions. ARTICLE HISTORY
In various case studies across Europe the vital role of rural place leadership in enabling a plac... more In various case studies across Europe the vital role of rural place leadership in enabling a place-based approach to local and regional development has been highlighted, although not always explicitly addressed as such. This paper aims to do so by reviewing the findings from a selection of earlier research projects within a framework of the role of rural leadership in place-based development. Building on the increasing body of literature on place leadership, the review reveals how place leadership in rural areas is performed by varied public, private and civic actors; is able to bridge vested stakes and make new connections; is supportive to joint learning and innovation and an increasing range of bottom-up grassroots initiatives. Effective rural place leadership initiates joint reflection and enforces a collaborative spirit resulting in an expanding spiral of new alliances and new (institutional) arrangements. This underpins the importance of rural place leadership in building collective agency and its capacity to better attune the institutional setting to the specificities of place and thus enhance place-based development.
This article highlights the emergence of a regenerative, agroecological mode of agriculture follo... more This article highlights the emergence of a regenerative, agroecological mode of agriculture following the ongoing process of experimentation and learning by a settlement of landless people and farm workers. It examines how they engaged anew with 'nature' and generated resourceful farming practices as a result of a threefold process of cultural re-appreciation, a re-grounding in local natural resources and a political-economic re-positioning towards prevailing regimes in policies, markets and technologies. We argue that the construction of resourceful farming culminates around: finding and forging productive alignments with non-human nature such as weeds, trees and mychorrizal fungi, viewing the contribution of non-human nature not only in terms of their value as a commodity, but as adding value in many different ways and building a socio-material resource base and an institutional setting that allows farmers to farm more autonomously.
Nature and landscape are increasingly appreciated as public goods and community assets in need of... more Nature and landscape are increasingly appreciated as public goods and community assets in need of protection. Policy schemes aiming to protect vulnerable nature and landscape assets affect options for farm development and thus the opportunities for farm income strategies. Farmers as small business owners need to counter an ongoing income squeeze in their strategic decision. Farmers' perception of the options affects strategic decision making. In a case study with dairy farmers operating in a highly comparable biophysical and socioeconomic context, farmers differed in the perception leading to three main income strategies: 'maximising' or 'ending' of milk production and 'diversification of farm business' with the most dominant strategy being 'maximising'. Multiple regression analysis was used to explore the significance of seven drivers for the differences between farmers' perception of farm development options. The 'personal
Raising collective agency is key to successful place-based development approaches. Existing polic... more Raising collective agency is key to successful place-based development approaches. Existing policy arrangements have, however, been criticised, suggesting a need to effectuate more collaborative modes of governance. This paper shall contribute to a better understanding of how public support can best be arranged to raise collective agency for a more collaborative mode of governance in rural areas. The paper elaborates on findings of empirical investigations conducted within the EU FP7 project DERREG. It will be shown that differences in effectuating more collaborative modes of governance can partly be ascribed to different political dynamics, economic and demographic situations as well as the presence of a shared sense of place. To raise collective agency effectively requires a joint reconsideration and restructuring of the division of roles and tasks, including those of public administration. This can be supported by facilitating joint reflexivity among development actors and giving room for collaborative leadership and operational flexibility within policy arrangements.
This paper empirically identifies differences between dairy farmers in their perception of opport... more This paper empirically identifies differences between dairy farmers in their perception of opportunities for farm development. The construct 'perceived Room for Manoeuvre' (pRfM) is used which is defined as: 'the opportunities perceived as viable in order to obtain a (substantial part of) business income'. A unique case study of 79 dairy farmers operating in a highly comparable socio-material context at the level of the case study allows for an empirical analysis of differences in the pRfM using a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods exploratory research, a questionnaire and in-depth interviews with stakeholders in farm development. Differences in the pRfM will likely affect the early phase of strategic decision making and consequently explain heterogeneity in farm development. Data analysis revealed the following three dimensions of pRfM: perception of the opportunity (1) to diversify; (2) to end production; and (3) to maximise production. These dimensions proved useful to explain heterogeneity in farm development and thus showed the importance of a subjective approach towards opportunity identification in farm development. This paper shows the need to view the farmer as entrepreneurial actor in the process of strategic decision making who interacts with the socio-material context of the farm.
Conventional gender analysis of development policy does not adequately explain the slow progress ... more Conventional gender analysis of development policy does not adequately explain the slow progress towards gender equality. Our research analyses the gender discourses embedded in agricultural and rural development policies in Myanmar and Nepal. We find that both countries focus on increasing women's participation in development activities as a core gender equality policy objective. This creates a binary categorisation of participating versus non-participating women and identifies women as responsible for improving their position. At the same time, gender (in)equality is defined exclusively as a women's concern. Such discourses, as constitutive practices, produce specific knowledge about rural women and new subjectivities that prescribe and govern them solely as subjects of development. Our research suggests that such a limited discursive practice invisiblises gendered power relations and structural and institutional issues, ultimately slowing progress towards gender equality. We demonstrate the importance of studying policy as discourse, beyond the effectiveness of policies or mainstreaming tools, and call for empirical evidence on the impact of these discourses on women's subjectivities and lived experiences.
Conventional gender analysis of development policy does not adequately explain the slow progress ... more Conventional gender analysis of development policy does not adequately explain the slow progress towards gender equality. Our research analyses the gender discourses embedded in agricultural and rural development policies in Myanmar and Nepal. We find that both countries focus on increasing women's participation in development activities as a core gender equality policy objective. This creates a binary categorisation of participating versus non-participating women and identifies women as responsible for improving their position. At the same time, gender (in)equality is defined exclusively as a women's concern. Such discourses, as constitutive practices, produce specific knowledge about rural women and new subjectivities that prescribe and govern them solely as subjects of development. Our research suggests that such a limited discursive practice invisiblises gendered power relations and structural and institutional issues, ultimately slowing progress towards gender equality. We demonstrate the importance of studying policy as discourse, beyond the effectiveness of policies or mainstreaming tools, and call for empirical evidence on the impact of these discourses on women's subjectivities and lived experiences.
Community supported agriculture (CSA) is a producer-consumer union that aims to shift the predomi... more Community supported agriculture (CSA) is a producer-consumer union that aims to shift the predominant paradigm in agriculture towards a model based on social justice, fairness, and participation. However, the long-term existence of CSA initiatives, and their ability to build the social capital envisioned by the initiators, can be challenged by a struggle to generate a sufficient income for a fair salary to be paid to the producer. This study aimed to explore the main challenges faced by eight CSAs in Switzerland, along with the pathways they used to address them. The expectations and perceptions of organisers were collected through indepth photo elicitation interviews, which were analysed using grounded theory. The perspective of members was evaluated using a quantitative survey with 254 responses. The results showed that organisers are often filled with enthusiastic ideas but experience a sense of deflation when they realise that the members follow a more pragmatic approach. The information flow from members to the organisers leading them to new insights for adjustments, is a key component in overcoming divergence between the expectations of members and organisers. Involving members in administration and fieldwork lowers the workload of the organisers and fosters informal social interactions and mutual understanding, which leads to an increase in social capital. Focusing on local embeddedness and co-creation between members and organisers, thus allowing a dynamic evolution of the CSA, was found to be more beneficial for the long-term existence of the CSA than rigidly trying to implement the initial vision of the organisers.
The shift in policy focus from agriculture to rural development enables rural families to diversi... more The shift in policy focus from agriculture to rural development enables rural families to diversify their economic activities. Household-based resources, particularly human capital, are essential for capitalizing on newly developed opportunities. Locals with sufficient resources seize possibilities in agriculture and emerging economic sectors such as tourism. A case study (33 in-depth interviews) of Caucasus mountain households in Kazbegi and Mestia municipalities revealed the importance of human capital in attaining other types of resources, such as social and financial capital, and, ultimately, in the process of family-based economic development. Local families are encouraged to engage in and embrace contemporary farming practices in order to determine the most effective sustainable livelihoods. Along with long-established industries, households employ traditional knowledge to enter entrepreneurial tourism activities.
This article highlights the emergence of a regenerative, agroecological mode of agriculture follo... more This article highlights the emergence of a regenerative, agroecological mode of agriculture following the ongoing process of experimentation and learning by a settlement of landless people and farm workers. It examines how they engaged anew with 'nature' and generated resourceful farming practices as a result of a threefold process of cultural re-appreciation, a re-grounding in local natural resources and a political-economic re-positioning towards prevailing regimes in policies, markets and technologies. We argue that the construction of resourceful farming culminates around: finding and forging productive alignments with non-human nature such as weeds, trees and mychorrizal fungi, viewing the contribution of non-human nature not only in terms of their value as a commodity, but as adding value in many different ways and building a socio-material resource base and an institutional setting that allows farmers to farm more autonomously.
This contribution draws on original data relating to a land settlement case in Araponga,
an admin... more This contribution draws on original data relating to a land settlement case in Araponga, an administrative area in Minas Gerais, Brazil. The settlement of the land and subsequent building of robust, more self-dependent, land-based livelihoods have followed a joint experimentation trajectory in which the agro-ecologicalisation of agrarian production practices to regenerate and enrich the resource base has been coupled with effective institutional reform and the creation of a favourable institutional setting. Key to this grassroots transformation process has been the enrolment of various strategic actors in a collaborative support network by a mediating change agent. The paper argues that the Araponga case represents a particular expression of re-peasantisation. The Araponga project has evolved without the involvement of landless peoples’ social movements such as the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST). This has been crucial to its character and impact.
Notions of care for humans and more-than-humans appear at the margins of the sustainability trans... more Notions of care for humans and more-than-humans appear at the margins of the sustainability transformations debate. This paper explores the merits of an ethics of care approach to sustainability transformations. It argues that more radical, transformative change can be fostered via three mutually reinforcing dimensions: (a) ethically informed practices; (b) rela-tional response-ability; and (c) emotional awareness. This novel theoretical and methodological lens emphasizes the transformative potential of caring practices and as such extends the reach of the sustainability transformations debate.
Green Care practices have received increasing scholarly attention in the last decade. Yet most st... more Green Care practices have received increasing scholarly attention in the last decade. Yet most studies are concerned with the aspect of human well-being, with less attention given to other caring dimensions and their relation to sustainability. This paper aims to contribute to an integrative understanding of Green Care by proposing an analytical framework inspired by the ethics of care literature and, in particular, Tronto's five stages of caring (about, for, with, giving, and receiving). The goal is to use a relational lens to appreciate the diverse caring practices and their potential in three Finnish cases studies-a care farm, a biodynamic farm, and a nature-tourism company. We apply the framework on data gathered during three years through an in-depth participatory action-oriented research. Findings show that: (a) Green Care practitioners share sustainability concerns that go beyond human well-being and that translate into practices with benefits for the target users, wider community, and ecosystems; (b) caring is a relational achievement attained through iterative processes of learning. Two concluding insights can be inferred: a care lens sheds light on practitioners' moral agency and its sustainability potential; in-depth creative methods are needed for a thorough and grounded investigation of human and non-human caring relations in Green Care practices.
There is a wealth of information, hype around, and research into blockchain's 'disruptive' and 't... more There is a wealth of information, hype around, and research into blockchain's 'disruptive' and 'transformative' potential concerning every industry. However, there is an absence of scholarly attention given to identifying and analyzing the political premises and consequences of blockchain projects. Through digital ethnography and participatory action research, this article shows how blockchain experiments personify 'prefigurative politics' by design: they embody the politics and power structures which they want to enable in society. By showing how these prefigurative embodiments are informed and determined by the underlying political imaginaries, the article proposes a basic typology of blockchain projects. Furthermore, it outlines a frame to question, cluster, and analyze the expressions of political imaginaries intrinsic to the design and operationalization of blockchain projects on three analytic levels: users, intermediaries, and institutions.
The eight papers in this Special Feature result from the EU funded SUSPLACE collaborative program... more The eight papers in this Special Feature result from the EU funded SUSPLACE collaborative programme that aimed to explore the transformative capacity of sustainable place-shaping practices, and if and how these practices can support a sustainable, place-based development. The programme encompassed 15 research projects investigating a wide range of place-shaping practices embedded in specific settings. From a common framework on sustainable place-shaping, each research project has developed its own theoretical and methodological approach. This editorial explains the overall approach to sustainable place-based development and more specifically the three analytical dimensions of transformative practices, that together propel sustainable place-shaping: re-appreciation, re-grounding and re-positioning. After an overview of the eight articles, the contribution to sustainability sciences is discussed. The research programme has provided insight into the transformative agency of practitioners and policymakers engaged in shaping sustainable places, as well as the transformative role of researchers.
The Journal of Peer Production New perspectives on the implications of peer production for social change, 2019
This article introduces the concept of 'place-based civic tech'-citizen engagement technology cod... more This article introduces the concept of 'place-based civic tech'-citizen engagement technology codesigned by local government, civil society and global volunteers. It investigates to what extent creating such a digital space for autonomous self-organization allows for the emergence of a parallel, self-determining and more place-based geography of politics and political action. It finds that combining online tools with offline collaborative practices presents a unique opportunity for decentralization of power and decision-making in a manner which both politically motivates civil society and begins to update the infrastructure of democracy. The discussion is supported by a combination of primary and secondary data, with research methods including ethnographic and participatory observation techniques. Research data is drawn from a range of empirical sources, including an in-depth case study of the radical municipalist movement in Spain. The article concludes that there is a clear and compelling narrative of cities taking power back, in the form of a plural and globally networked movement. As such, this study contributes to both the theory and practice of civic tech, collective impact, municipalism and place-based urban politics while emphasizing the need for further research on experiments and movements currently existing below the academic radar.
The city-regional scale is increasingly being considered the most suitable level for planning and... more The city-regional scale is increasingly being considered the most suitable level for planning and development, yet city-regions have often been established for purely economic reasons in the UK. This paper argues that city-regions are not mere socioeconomic units through which competitiveness can be achieved, but also rich, socioecological spaces. Although the progressive regionalist literature has taken significant steps in this direction, concerns remain that critical contemporary issues such as environmental sustainability, cultural viability, social exclusion or political (dis)empowerment have not been addressed in a holistic way. We attempt to advance the debate and overcome some of the shortcomings by connecting progressive regionalism with two other literature strands: collaborative governance and regenerative development. Based on the synergies found, we design a conceptual framework that can be used to study, understand and improve policy processes and practice, paving pathways towards regenerative city-regions. ARTICLE HISTORY
In various case studies across Europe the vital role of rural place leadership in enabling a plac... more In various case studies across Europe the vital role of rural place leadership in enabling a place-based approach to local and regional development has been highlighted, although not always explicitly addressed as such. This paper aims to do so by reviewing the findings from a selection of earlier research projects within a framework of the role of rural leadership in place-based development. Building on the increasing body of literature on place leadership, the review reveals how place leadership in rural areas is performed by varied public, private and civic actors; is able to bridge vested stakes and make new connections; is supportive to joint learning and innovation and an increasing range of bottom-up grassroots initiatives. Effective rural place leadership initiates joint reflection and enforces a collaborative spirit resulting in an expanding spiral of new alliances and new (institutional) arrangements. This underpins the importance of rural place leadership in building collective agency and its capacity to better attune the institutional setting to the specificities of place and thus enhance place-based development.
This article highlights the emergence of a regenerative, agroecological mode of agriculture follo... more This article highlights the emergence of a regenerative, agroecological mode of agriculture following the ongoing process of experimentation and learning by a settlement of landless people and farm workers. It examines how they engaged anew with 'nature' and generated resourceful farming practices as a result of a threefold process of cultural re-appreciation, a re-grounding in local natural resources and a political-economic re-positioning towards prevailing regimes in policies, markets and technologies. We argue that the construction of resourceful farming culminates around: finding and forging productive alignments with non-human nature such as weeds, trees and mychorrizal fungi, viewing the contribution of non-human nature not only in terms of their value as a commodity, but as adding value in many different ways and building a socio-material resource base and an institutional setting that allows farmers to farm more autonomously.
Nature and landscape are increasingly appreciated as public goods and community assets in need of... more Nature and landscape are increasingly appreciated as public goods and community assets in need of protection. Policy schemes aiming to protect vulnerable nature and landscape assets affect options for farm development and thus the opportunities for farm income strategies. Farmers as small business owners need to counter an ongoing income squeeze in their strategic decision. Farmers' perception of the options affects strategic decision making. In a case study with dairy farmers operating in a highly comparable biophysical and socioeconomic context, farmers differed in the perception leading to three main income strategies: 'maximising' or 'ending' of milk production and 'diversification of farm business' with the most dominant strategy being 'maximising'. Multiple regression analysis was used to explore the significance of seven drivers for the differences between farmers' perception of farm development options. The 'personal
Raising collective agency is key to successful place-based development approaches. Existing polic... more Raising collective agency is key to successful place-based development approaches. Existing policy arrangements have, however, been criticised, suggesting a need to effectuate more collaborative modes of governance. This paper shall contribute to a better understanding of how public support can best be arranged to raise collective agency for a more collaborative mode of governance in rural areas. The paper elaborates on findings of empirical investigations conducted within the EU FP7 project DERREG. It will be shown that differences in effectuating more collaborative modes of governance can partly be ascribed to different political dynamics, economic and demographic situations as well as the presence of a shared sense of place. To raise collective agency effectively requires a joint reconsideration and restructuring of the division of roles and tasks, including those of public administration. This can be supported by facilitating joint reflexivity among development actors and giving room for collaborative leadership and operational flexibility within policy arrangements.
This paper empirically identifies differences between dairy farmers in their perception of opport... more This paper empirically identifies differences between dairy farmers in their perception of opportunities for farm development. The construct 'perceived Room for Manoeuvre' (pRfM) is used which is defined as: 'the opportunities perceived as viable in order to obtain a (substantial part of) business income'. A unique case study of 79 dairy farmers operating in a highly comparable socio-material context at the level of the case study allows for an empirical analysis of differences in the pRfM using a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods exploratory research, a questionnaire and in-depth interviews with stakeholders in farm development. Differences in the pRfM will likely affect the early phase of strategic decision making and consequently explain heterogeneity in farm development. Data analysis revealed the following three dimensions of pRfM: perception of the opportunity (1) to diversify; (2) to end production; and (3) to maximise production. These dimensions proved useful to explain heterogeneity in farm development and thus showed the importance of a subjective approach towards opportunity identification in farm development. This paper shows the need to view the farmer as entrepreneurial actor in the process of strategic decision making who interacts with the socio-material context of the farm.
System innovations, which comprise changes in socio-technical networks, rules and routines govern... more System innovations, which comprise changes in socio-technical networks, rules and routines governing particular fields of practice, are generally regarded as essential to a transition towards sustainability. Various researchers have tried to unravel the pathways of system innovations in order to understand how these innovations can be stimulated or facilitated as part of transition management. This chapter aims to contribute to knowledge on system innovation pathways by studying the development of care farming as a cross-sector system innovation. Care farming is a rapidly expanding form of multifunctional agriculture that combines agricultural production with an offer of day-care to a diversity of clients. It emerged when a few pioneers started to provide care services at their farms and successfully integrated the different regimes governing the rather distinct fields of agriculture and care. Since then, the number of care farms has increased substantially. A new intermediate care farming regime has evolved, comprising new rules and routines, and embedded in regionally and nationally organized care farmer networks that are increasingly acknowledged by the healthcare sector. Our findings suggest that, at niche level, farmer strategies of (individual and collective) alignment and self-empowerment facilitate the development and maturing of a new regime. At regime level, supporting pioneers, creating room for experimentation, and looking beyond sector borders are factors that contribute to the successful realization of system innovations.
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an administrative area in Minas Gerais, Brazil. The settlement of the land and
subsequent building of robust, more self-dependent, land-based livelihoods have
followed a joint experimentation trajectory in which the agro-ecologicalisation of
agrarian production practices to regenerate and enrich the resource base has been
coupled with effective institutional reform and the creation of a favourable
institutional setting. Key to this grassroots transformation process has been the
enrolment of various strategic actors in a collaborative support network by a
mediating change agent. The paper argues that the Araponga case represents a
particular expression of re-peasantisation. The Araponga project has evolved without
the involvement of landless peoples’ social movements such as the Movimento dos
Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST). This has been crucial to its character and
impact.
an administrative area in Minas Gerais, Brazil. The settlement of the land and
subsequent building of robust, more self-dependent, land-based livelihoods have
followed a joint experimentation trajectory in which the agro-ecologicalisation of
agrarian production practices to regenerate and enrich the resource base has been
coupled with effective institutional reform and the creation of a favourable
institutional setting. Key to this grassroots transformation process has been the
enrolment of various strategic actors in a collaborative support network by a
mediating change agent. The paper argues that the Araponga case represents a
particular expression of re-peasantisation. The Araponga project has evolved without
the involvement of landless peoples’ social movements such as the Movimento dos
Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST). This has been crucial to its character and
impact.