The challenge of ecological justice in a globalising world

Ecological justice is a challenging concept in relation to the current development of agriculture, including organic agriculture, because it positions social and ecological interests against market liberalism and economic growth. Ecological justice concerns fairness with respect to common environments, and it is therefore closely connected to the idea of commons. The concepts of commons and ecological justice are particularly relevant to organic agriculture, which builds on close cooperation with ecological systems and cycles, and they may suggest ways to resist the pressures of globalisation and structural and technological developments

Sustainability assessment and complementarity

Sustainability assessments bring together different perspectives that pertain to sustainability in order to produce overall assessments and a wealth of approaches and tools have been developed in the past decades. But two major problematics remain. The problem of integration concerns the surplus of possibilities for integration; different tools produce different assessments. The problem of implementation concerns the barrier between assessment and transformation; assessments do not lead to the expected changes in practice. This paper aims to analyze issues of complementarity in sustainability assessment and transformation as a key to better handling the problems of integration and implementation. Based on a generalization of Niels Bohr’s complementarity from quantum mechanics, we have identified two forms of complementarity in sustainability assessment, observer stance complementarity and value complementarity. Unlike many other problems of sustainability assessment, complementarity is of a fundamental character connected to the very conditions for observation. Therefore complementarity cannot be overcome methodologically; only handled better or worse. Science is essential to the societal goal of sustainability, but these issues of complementarity impede the constructive role of science in the transition to more sustainable structures and practices in food systems. The agencies of sustainability assessment and transformation need to be acutely aware of the importance of different perspectives and values and the complementarities that may be connected to these differences. An improved understanding of complementarity can help to better recognize and handle issues of complementarity. These deliberations have relevance not only for sustainability assessment, but more generally for transdisciplinary research on wicked problems

Preliminary comments on Title II of the EC Proposal for a new Council regulation on organic production

In response to the conclusions of the European Action Plan for organic food and farming the European Commission has adopted a proposal for a new Council regulation on organic production and labelling of organic products. Although the aim of the new regulation is to improve clarity for both consumers and farmers, stakeholders have raised questions and expressed concerns on various issues of the proposed regulation (for example at the stakeholder conference held on March 27, 2006 by the European Parliament). In order to ensure the most relevant focus for research in Organic Revision, the project has nominated three contested areas that need to be further analysed. Following this refocusing the project (Alrøe and Padel) has provided preliminary comments concerning objectives and principles (Title II) of the EC Proposal for a new regulation. The conclusions are in short: * The term objectives and principles should be defined in article 2. * It should be considered to extend Title II to cover the whole food chain including trade. * Objectives (Art. 3) should be broader. It should include point 5 and 17 in the explanatory memorandum, Article 5b, as well as social objectives. * Principles (Art. 4) should include a systems approach as first priority and not only focus on inputs. * Organic actors and other stakeholders should be involved in formulating objectives and principles. * Further comments must depend on changes in objectives etc

Helhedsvurderinger af økologi

Økologisk jordbrug vil gerne være et svar på ’det hele’. Men hvordan kan man overhovedet lave og formidle helhedsvurderinger

Jordbrug, strukturelle koblinger og bæredygtighed

Artiklen analyserer udviklingen i landbruget med udgangspunkt i Luhmanns systemteori og med særlig fokus på begreberne om afkobling og strukturelle koblinger. I et stadigt mere komplekst samfund er reduktion (eller rettere udgrænsning) af kompleksitet en nødvendig men kontingent udvikling. I landbruget ser vi denne udvikling både i form af en uddifferentiering af semantikker og tilhørende funktionssystemer og i form af horisontale og vertikale specialiseringer og uddifferentieringer. De logiske konsekvenser heraf er for det første at de enkelte organisations- og funktionssystemers omverden (dvs. den verden de kan lade sig irritere af) bliver forenklet, og dermed sker der en række afkoblinger. For det andet, og som kompensation for denne udvikling, er det nødvendigt at udvikle nye strukturelle koblinger mellem disse systemer for at kompensere for uddifferentieringen. En yderligere konsekvens af denne udvikling er, at der sker en række reaktioner i omgivelserne som begynder at irritere tilbage i andre former, og der opstår endnu flere specialiserede semantikker. De semantikker der er uddifferentieret som egentlige funktioner, søger at genintroducere irritationen af landbrugsbedrifterne via f.eks. lovgivne restriktioner eller i form af skatter og afgifter. I artiklen fokuserer vi analysen på andre og nye muligheder for strukturelle (gen)koblinger, med udgangspunkt i en række aktuelle tiltag og bevægelser; koblinger der kan bidrage til at genintroducere omgivelsernes irritation til systemerne. Vi skelner mellem tre former for strukturelle koblinger: 1) De strukturelle koblinger som landbrugsvirksomheden producerer for at genintroducere omgivelser til omverden, dog i reduceret form via de generaliserede medier som funktionssystemerne tilbyder. 2) Strukturelle koblinger mellem organisationer der kan håndtere andre dimensioner end blot pris og kvantitet. Her skelner vi mellem de medierede koblingsmuligheder som de generaliserede medier, som f.eks. Ø-mærket, tilbyder, og koblingsmuligheder i bindende men dynamiske samarbejdsaftaler i netværket, som afhænger af og giver mulighed for ko-evolution. 3) Anden ordens semantiske strukturelle koblinger af iagttagelser af iagttagelser, som f.eks. knytter sig til bæredygtighedssemantikken; semantikker der netop har deres styrke og udfordring ved at de forbliver ubestemte i deres form. Analysen viser at Luhmanns begreb om strukturelle koblinger ikke kun er stærkt når det gælder om at analysere og forstå udviklingsprocesserne i jordbruget, men at dette begrebsapparat også kan danne grundlag for at arbejde konstruktivt med de udfordringer som uddifferentieringen producerer

A polyocular framework for research on multifunctional farming and rural development

The paradox of multifunctionality is that, on the one hand, the specialized functionalities of agriculture only arise because of the functional differentiation of social systems and scientific disciplines and, on the other hand, multifunctionality can only enter as a way to mediate between conflicts, interests and fragmented knowledge when different functions and observations of functions combine. The aim of this paper is to contribute to a theoretical and methodological platform for multidisciplinary research on multifunctional farming. With the notions of polyocular cognition and polyocular communication we introduce a second order, interdisciplinary communication process that can meet the challenge of creating a shared view on multifunctional farming. Polyocular communication must be based on other rules than the rules of the involved disciplines. Whereas disciplinary communication is about providing consistent, efficient and precise knowledge in the context of a sharply delimited research world, polyocular communication is about extending a multidimensional space of understanding

Quality dimensions as an analytical tool to study food networks and development trajectories – A Pirsigian based framework illustrated by Danish organic food chains

This paper includes some reflections upon the main theme of this working group: That the different trajectories of European organics are strongly linked to different development pathways in the food networks, and how this question could be interrogated

Fra sektorforskning til universitet – pædagogiske udfordringer for feltorienterede uddannelser

De nye uddannelser ved Det Jordbrugsvidenskabelige Fakultet er ikke veldefinerede disciplinorienterede eller professionsorienterede uddannelser; de er hvad vi kalder feltorienterede uddannelser. Sådanne uddannelser er karakteriserede ved at være multidisciplinære af natur, og kandidaterne skal kunne indgå i mange forskellige jobfunktioner i forhold til feltet. I feltorienterede uddannelser må der træffes nogle særlige pædagogiske og didaktiske valg omkring indhold og afgrænsning af studiet. Ud fra en forskningsbaseret, problem- og caseorienteret undervisning tilstræber DJF at opbygge kompetencer til både en forskningslignende tilgang til at håndtere komplekse problemstillinger og kompetencer til kommunikation og samarbejde på tværs af discipliner og perspektiver. The new educations established at the Faculty of Agricultural Science at Aarhus University are not well-defined disciplinary or professional educations, but what we call field-oriented educations. Such educations are multidisciplinary by nature, and the graduates must be able to fulfil many different jobs in relation to the field in question. In field oriented educations there are special educational and didactic choices to be made regarding the content and delimitation of the curriculum. With research based, problem and case oriented teachings, the Faculty aims to build competences in research-like approaches to complex problems as well as in communication and cooperation across disciplines and perspectives

Second-Order Science of Interdisciplinary Research: A Polyocular Framework for Wicked Problems

Context: The problems that are most in need of interdisciplinary collaboration are “wicked problems,” such as food crises, climate change mitigation, and sustainable development, with many relevant aspects, disagreement on what the problem is, and contradicting solutions. Such complex problems both require and challenge interdisciplinarity. Problem: The conventional methods of interdisciplinary research fall short in the case of wicked problems because they remain first-order science. Our aim is to present workable methods and research designs for doing second-order science in domains where there are many different scientific knowledges on any complex problem. Method: We synthesize and elaborate a framework for second-order science in interdisciplinary research based on a number of earlier publications, experiences from large interdisciplinary research projects, and a perspectivist theory of science. Results: The second-order polyocular framework for interdisciplinary research is characterized by five principles. Second-order science of interdisciplinary research must: 1. draw on the observations of first-order perspectives, 2. address a shared dynamical object, 3. establish a shared problem, 4. rely on first-order perspectives to see themselves as perspectives, and 5. be based on other rules than first-order research. Implications: The perspectivist insights of second-order science provide a new way of understanding interdisciplinary research that leads to new polyocular methods and research designs. It also points to more reflexive ways of dealing with scientific expertise in democratic processes. The main challenge is that this is a paradigmatic shift, which demands that the involved disciplines, at least to some degree, subscribe to a perspectivist view. Constructivist content: Our perspectivist approach to science is based on the second-order cybernetics and systems theories of von Foerster, Maruyama, Maturana & Varela, and Luhmann, coupled with embodied theories of cognition and semiotics as a general theory of meaning from von Uexküll and Peirce

Synthesis, part of a Special Feature on Multicriteria Assessment of Food System Sustainability Three perspectives on motivation and multicriteria assessment of organic food systems

ABSTRACT. Organic food systems are based on a complex of value criteria that often are not explicitly considered when agents think, communicate, and make decisions concerning organic food. Multicriteria assessment (MCA) refers to a group of tools that help the user to tackle such highly complex issues. The question is how an MCA tool should be designed to facilitate reflections, communication, and decision making in relation to organic food systems. A key issue is motivation. There are several divergent theories of motivation, and the question cannot be adequately answered by using any single theory. We discuss an economic, a psychosocial, and a relational perspective on motivation and MCA. Using the example of a consumer assessing and choosing products in the supermarket, the economic conception of motivation offers a focus on decision-making processes. The psychosocial approach to motivation draws attention to the influence of cognitive structures and experience-based emotional drivers. Finally, the relational approach stresses that motivation is situated in the relations between agents. We discuss how the three perspectives converge and diverge regarding the purpose of using an MCA tool, the scope of the MCA, the strategic focus, and challenges and potentials associated with an MCA tool. Through this multiple-perspective approach, the general idea of MCA is expanded and elaborated to refine the design of an MCA tool for organic food systems