Farmer participation in agri-environmental schemes : regionalisation and the role of bridging social capital

European agri-environmental schemes are being criticised for reinforcing rather than negating an opposition between agricultural production and environmental production, and for assuming instead of securing a public willingness to pay for agri-environmental change. This paper explores if a regionalisation of agri-environmental governance may contribute to overcome these criticisms. The paper empirically explores three regionalised agri-environmental schemes from Flanders, Belgium, with the use of 40 qualitative interviews with farmers and other relevant stakeholders. Building on the Bourdieusian theory of capital and the conceptual distinction between bonding and bridging social capital, the paper analyses whether and why the regionalised arrangements incited farmers to integrate environmental production in their farm management to meet other regional stakeholders’ demands for agri-environmental change. In doing so, the paper particularly focuses on the role of bridging social capital in fostering farmer participation in agri-environmental governance, which is a topic that—despite a growing scholarly recognition of the importance of social capital in mediating farmers’ environmental behaviour—has to date received scant conceptual and empirical attention. The paper reveals that farmers principally participated in the regionalised agri-environmental schemes to enhance the long-term viability of their agricultural businesses by building up more cooperative and appreciative, bridging social ties with other regional stakeholders. Notably, such participation is only likely to be substantive and lead to long-term, pro-environmental behaviour change of farmers, if farmers actually succeed in building up bridging social capital by receiving other regional stakeholders’ appreciation for their agri-environmental work. The paper ends with discussing the implications of these findings for the future design and implementation of socially and ecologically robust agri-environmental schemes

Governing animal–human relations in farming practices: a study of group housing of sows in the EU

EU pig welfare legislation required European pig farmers to shift from individual to group housing of pregnant sows by 1 January 2013. This requirement was principally designed to meet the sows’ needs for locomotion and interaction with conspecifics. This article explores how the legislation affected everyday sow–farmer interactions, which influence farm animal welfare to an important degree. We start by analysing conceptualisations of sow welfare and sow–farmer relations as implicated in the EU directive and the scientific advice that informed it. Contending that these conceptualisations largely overlook co-developments in sow housing systems and sow–farmer relations, we subsequently introduce an alternative analytical framework that builds on sociological, practice-oriented theories. We then apply this framework to analyse 19 qualitative interviews with pig farmers in Belgium on the on-farm introduction of group sow housing. In this analysis, we discern different ways in which farmers’ choices for particular group housing systems were co-constituted by and co-constitutive of everyday sow–farmer relations. We conclude by reflecting on the scientific and policy implications of these findings

Governing farm animal welfare, governing stockmanship: a sociological analysis of the formulation and on-farm implementation of the EU group sow housing legislation

EU pig welfare legislation required European pig farmers to shift from individual to group housing of pregnant sows by 1 January 2013. This requirement was principally designed to meet the sows’ needs for locomotion and interaction with conspecifics. This paper explored how the legislation affected everyday sow-farmer interaction, which influences farm animal welfare to an important degree. We started by analysing conceptualisations of sow welfare and sow-farmer relations as implicated in the EU Directive and the scientific advice that informed it. Contending that these conceptualisations largely overlooked co-developments in sow housing systems and sow-farmer relations, we subsequently introduced an alternative analytical framework that builds on sociological, practice-oriented theories. We then applied this framework to analyse 19 qualitative interviews with pig farmers from Belgium on the on-farm introduction of group sow housing, and observations in these farmers’ group housing systems. We found that farmers’ practical, experience-based understandings of good animal-stockperson relations informed farmers’ choices for particular group housing systems to an important degree. Furthermore, we discerned that the effect of these choices on everyday sow-farmer relations differed, in the longer run, in at least three analytically distinct (negative, neutral to moderately positive, and positive) ways – according to if and to what degree the novel infrastructure allowed and motivated sows to portray, and farmers to perceive and act upon subjective and individual sow behaviour and needs. When failing to anticipate on this dynamic integration of legislation in on-farm contexts, opportunities are being missed to work towards preventing negative and promoting positive animal-farmer relations and concomitant animal welfare impacts when designing animal welfare policy. Most fundamentally, then, our study underlines a need to rethink the current focus in animal welfare science and policy on infrastructural criteria without attending to emergent co-developments in barn infrastructures, animal-farmer relations, and the well-being of animals and farmers

Multifunctionele landbouw en plattelandsontwikkeling: worden alle mogelijkheden benut? : een case-studie over zorglandbouw

Zorglandbouw biedt zorg op maat voor verschillende types zorgvragers, zoals jongeren uit de jeugdzorg of mensen met een verstandelijke beperking. De zorgvragers kunnen een tijdje meedraaien op een boerderij. Zorglandbouw in Vlaanderen ziet er anders uit dan in Nederland, Duitsland, Oostenrijk of Noorwegen. De formules verschillen, de financieringsbronnen ook. De veerkracht van het systeem in tijden van crisis of verandering eveneens. Sociologen legden verschillende systemen onder de loep. Naargelang het denkkader dat dominant is, krijg je mogelijkerwijze een andere invulling van het begrip ‘zorglandbouw’. In hun onderzoek hebben Joost Dessein van de ILVO-eenheid Landbouw en maatschappij, Michiel de Krom (UGent/ILVO) en Bettina Bock (WUR, Nederland) drie discoursen rond zorglandbouw ontrafeld en geanalyseerd. Wie goed leest, haalt er ideeën uit over innovatieve, creatieve plattelandsontwikkeling en verbreding die ons tot op heden in Vlaanderen onbekend zijn. De nogal eenzijdige benadering van zorglandbouw vanuit het zogenaamde multifunctionele landbouw-discours lijkt in Vlaanderen immers de toekomstmogelijkheden te beperken

Op zoek naar de wortels van een gepolariseerd publiek debat: de case van een gecontesteerde ggo-veldproef

De controverse rond de GGO-aardappelveldproef in Wetteren in 2011 was geen ideeënstrijd rond één, voor iedereen duidelijk omschreven wetenschappelijke proef. De posities van de verschillende betrokkenen in het debat zijn terug te voeren tot verschillende denkkaders die zich ontwikkelden in verschillende contexten (bijvoorbeeld natuurwetenschappelijke, maatschappelijke, politieke, beleidsgerelateerde) waarin de veldproef betekenis kreeg. Om de controverse te begrijpen moet men dus de vraag stellen naar welke veldproef men refereerde en naar welk bijhorend kader

Taking context into account in urban agriculture governance: Case studies of Warsaw (Poland) and Ghent (Belgium)

AbstractThis article explores the role of local particularism in relation to the global interest in urban agriculture (UA). A growing movement is advocating UA, but future prospects are limited by variability, unclear expectations, vague responsibilities and leadership in the UA movement. We wonder whether the poor understanding of UA governance is associated with a public discourse and academic literature that too easily adopt the generic and universally claimed benefits. We argue here that uncritical enthusiasm results in an overly instrumental approach to governance of UA with a main focus on stimulating formal (e.g., policy making) and informal advocacy (e.g., civic engagement in UA). We do not deny the importance of formal and informal advocacy in UA development, but rather claim that the potential of UA needs a more nuanced analysis. Study of the interplay between UA advocacy and a city’s contextual characteristics is a worthy pursuit, as it may provide significant and more profound explanations for the divergence observed in UA developments. Case studies performed in Warsaw (Poland) and Ghent (Belgium) serve to illustrate the importance of context. The results suggest that neither case is likely to benefit from a governance strategy that only stimulates greater advocacy and institutional support. The inclusion of city-specific needs, opportunities and pitfalls of UA in the governance strategy can help to move UA toward its full potential. We suggest a policy-making strategy for UA that expands beyond the realm of food production alone. Ultimately, the aim is to steer away from assessing (and critiquing) UA solely against the backdrop of these generic success factors

Governance of planning processes in peri-urban landscapes : a comparison of three 'good examples'

In metropolitan areas are experiencing an increasing competition for land. Besides urbanisation, this competition is due to new societal expectations of the countryside such as space for housing, commercial activities, nature and recreational areas. As a consequence, rural spatial planning processes must attempt to balance the expectations and goals of a variety of stakeholders. Developing a well-balanced, fair and participatory rural planning process appears to be difficult. Previous research has shown that spatial planning processes often lead to resentment among the involved actors and the implementation of the planning goals often lags behind. The objective of our research is to get a better grasp of these decentralised, participatory planning processes. By getting insight into the success and failure-factors of past planning processes we hope to formulate policy guidelines for the governance of rural planning processes. Within this research, we focus on cases in which the stakeholders were satisfied with the course of the planning process. Furthermore we focus on cases in which agricultural land is lost at the expense of other functions. In the highly urbanized region of Flanders, agricultural land is vulnerable and under a continuous pressure. Within our cases we therefore focus on planning processes in which agricultural land is taken over by other functions (e.g. nature or industrial developments). Insight in the governance of such planning processes should provide guidance to policymakers and practitioners in Flanders and other countries with similar planning challenges. With this contribution we want to present the results of a first case in which agricultural land is lost in order to build a new motor-way. The majority of the involved actors indicated that they had a positive perception on the process and its outcomes. By making a qualitative analysis of a series of in-depth interviews we were able to define success factors for rural planning that exceed the particularities of the case-study

Strategieën en instrumenten voor de vergoeding van publieke diensten van landbouw

Eindrapport van een project binnen het programma Landbouwonderzoek van het agentschap voor Innovatie door Wetenschap en Technologie (IWT080525 – januari 2010 tot augustus 2012)