Part II Farmers’ Experiences of the Farm Assessment: Interviews with Farmers

The objective of work package 463 was to test the implementation of the WQ assessment Scheme on regular broiler farms. We assessed the perception and attitudes of farmers towards animal welfare and on-farm assessment, the experience and evaluation of the assessment itself and the relevance and applicability of the results. at the same time animal scientists assessed the welfare of the animals by WQ monitoring instruments. In addition they scored foot pad lesions at the slaughterhouse by way of video imaging. Both studies proceeded in parallel; farmers told, hence, about their real-life experience. It is to be noted that the WQ monitoring instruments were not at their final state, and experiences and comments of the farmers are to be interpreted as reflection and discussion on work in progress. A team of sociologists carried out the study on farmers’ experiences, perception and attitude whereas the assessment of animal welfare was done by animal scientists. the study took place in three countries – Netherlands, Italy and the UK. We choose to focus on broilers for two main reasons. First of all the production cycle of broilers is relatively short and so it is possible to assess the welfare of different flocks within a short time-span and to check more easily any improvement of animal welfare as a result of farmers’ interventions. a second reason for focusing on broilers is that it allows us to link this project to another project where a new way of checking for foot-pad lesions is developed. this is, moreover, a relatively easy manner of checking animal welfare that allows us to lower the burden of three on-farm assessments considerably. In the following we report on the results of the welfare assessment (Part I) and the interviews with farmers about their perception and experience of animal welfare and the welfare assessment (Part II). In both parts we compare the results across the participating countries (Netherlands, Italy and United Kingdom). More in detail information on the national results of welfare assessment and interviews with farmers can be found in the deliverables 4.31.a (farmers’ interviews) and D4.31b (assessment results). as appendixes, we provide the technical and sociological questionnaires and the assessment reports that were sent to the farmers in the different countries. Bettina B. Bock Ingrid de Jon

Becoming a Care-Tizen: Contributing to Democracy Through Forest Commoning

This paper aims to expand current understandings on the relationship between forest commoning, citizenship and democracy. For doing so, it presents a case study of a community forest in the periphery of Vigo city (Galicia, Spain). Using interviews and historical records of the city and the neighborhood, the paper tells the story of the emergence of a forest commons in relation to citizenship claims and struggles. Through time, communal practices of care for forest forge care-tizens, a self-organized form of citizenship performed through mutual care and care for the commons. This care-tizenship was enabled by commoners’ affective relations to forests and more-than-human subjectivities. The conclusion underlines the mutually reinforcing relationship between commoning forests and citizenship, suggesting the importance of community forests as arenas to nurture alternative, expanded more direct, and ecological forms of democracy

State Support in Brazil for a Local Turn to Food

The local turn to food is often claimed to be a way to increase the value-added component retained by primary producers and to provide healthy, fresh and affordable food to consumers. Rio do Grande do Sul in Brazil has several governmental support programs that aim to empower family farmers and open up new market opportunities for them. This article examines these programs, investigates how small-scale farmers engage with them and the resultant changes in farming and marketing practices that ensue. The article uses cluster and content analysis to identify and interpret the extent, and the different ways, in which these farmers engage with and make use of the local knowledge and innovation system. The results provide useful insights into how policy instruments improve the performance of family agribusinesses, helping them to make better use of the resources available to them, encouraging farm diversification, and strengthening local interrelations between producers and consumers

Socially-Inclusive Development and Value Creation: How a Composting Project in Galicia (Spain) ‘Hit the Rocks’

This paper introduces the concept of commoning in circular economies, and explores how commons reproduce over time. The starting point is that commoning can have an important role in fostering circular economies and sustainable and socially-inclusive development. By commoning, we refer to local stakeholders working collectively to preserve or restore their natural resource base to generate benefits that are locally shared. Through the analysis of a specific case of a group of commoners’ associations in Galicia (Spain), the paper describes and discusses the development, and ultimate unravelling, of an innovative and decentralized waste management project to convert waste biomass from the monte (often-neglected upland green spaces, largely consisting of brush and trees) into compost. In order to make this composting project economically viable the possibility of collecting and processing urban green waste was also explored. While the project’s application of the principles of a circular economy had the potential to bring locally-shared economic and ecological benefits, and foster territorial prosperity and resilience, it was ultimately frustrated by questions of scale, administrative and regulatory barriers, competing and conflicting land-use claims and financial cutbacks in the public sector

Place branding and endogenous rural development. Departure points for developing an inner brand of the River Minho estuary

Place branding holds a promising contribution to sustainable territorial development and requires changes in the social organisation of places, which implies complex transitional processes towards new management regimes. This article explores place branding of the River Minho estuary in the borderland of Portugal and Spain. It deals with the tension between creating a brand, enhancing market development and sustainable (endogenous) development. The central question is: ‘How to develop a successful inner brand in the context of a geographically peripheral area facing severe ecological, social and economic vulnerabilities?’. In the case study, area rural dwellers, entrepreneurs and representatives of institutions represent contrasting viewpoints on innovation, ecosystem coordination and economic progress, viewpoints that point to power issues on control over the natural environment, but also provide input for the development of a common strategic vision or connective storyline. This article provides a ‘tool’ for sustainable development in this vulnerable estuary and contributes to our understanding of how place branding – as a means to create place distinctiveness and attractiveness – can be combined with an endogenous approach in vulnerable peripheral areas. Such an approach fits with the EU objectives of sustainable, inclusive and smart growth and an increasing focus on place-based development.European Union’s Regional Development FundDepto. de Economía Aplicada, Pública y PolíticaFac. de Ciencias Políticas y SociologíaTRUEpu

Images of the Past. 7 years of Images for the Future

Over a period of seven years Sound and Vision, EYE Film Institute, the National Archives and Kennisland preserved over 90,000 hours of video, 20,000 hours of film, some 100,000 hours of audio and 2,500,000 photos. The digitised material is now being reused for numerous purposes, from lesson material and Wikipedia to apps and services for the creative industry. Images for the Future has played a pioneering role in both the development of large-scale digitisation processes and the thinking on the role of heritage organisations in our digital society

Making a living: grassroots development initiatives, natural resource management and institutional support in Galicia, Spain

European policy increasingly supports territorially based rural development in which local actors play a decisive role in realising economically, socially and ecologically responsible development. This paper makes use of four case-studies, from a largely depopulated mountainous area in Galicia, Spain, where local people strive to combine the creation of new businesses with the revitalisation of the natural resource base. The paper, in analysing local knowledge infrastructure and its interface with policy, reveals the dominant role of grassroots development initiatives in effecting regional learning and capacity building. Further it is acknowledged that in Galicia progress is brokered in practice by individual stakeholders who manage structural constraints, cross boundaries and construct new cross-cutting, bridging networks. It is also apparent that these niche-actors constitute a largely untapped reservoir of knowledge brokers that could be used much more effectively if more direct cooperation with policymakers and the existing knowledge infrastructure could be achieved.Las políticas europeas apoyan cada vez más un desarrollo rural territorial en el que los actores locales juegan un papel decisivo al realizar un desarrollo económico, social y ecológicamente responsable. Este artículo utiliza cuatro estudios de caso localizados en un área con problemas de despoblación en Galicia, España. En los cuatro casos los actores luchan por combinar la creación de nuevas empresas con la revitalización de la base local de recursos naturales. El artículo analiza la infraestructura de conocimiento local y sus interfaces con el ámbito político. De esta forma revela el papel dominante que las iniciativas de desarrollo enraizadas en lo local tienen en la construcción del conocimiento regional y de la capacidad de implementación. En Galicia el progreso se construye a nivel práctico gracias a la labor individual de actores que son capaces de manejar limitaciones estructurales, cruzar límites y construir nuevas redes que facilitan sus objetivos. Así, estos actores-nicho constituyen una amplia y no del todo estudiada reserva de conocimiento, que podría utilizarse de forma más efectiva si se lograse una cooperación más directa con los hacedores de política y la infraestructura de conocimiento ya existentes.Depto. de Economía Aplicada, Pública y PolíticaFac. de Ciencias Políticas y SociologíaFac. de Trabajo SocialTRUEpu