New venture creation in the farm sector - Critical resources and capabilities

New venture activities and diversification at farms seem to be perceived as inherently beneficial both to farmers and to rural development. However, the benefit of such efforts and the critical resources and capabilities leading to them seem not to be well understood yet. The purpose of this paper is therefore to explore critical resources and capabilities for farm businesses engaged in entrepreneurial activities through on-farm diversification. The theoretical framework builds upon the resource-based view (RBV) and the dynamic capability (DC) perspective which have emerged as significant research streams within entrepreneurship and strategic management literature. A longitudinal study of three Norwegian farms engaged in on-farm diversification was undertaken through farm visits and in-depth interviews. Analyses show that the farm setting, its traditional production, its relative location, buildings and landscape might all be important resources which add value and uniqueness to the final product that is not easily copied by others. However, in order to reconfigure their resource base and perform necessary changes these farm businesses also rely heavily on developing appropriate dynamic capabilities. The farm businesses appear active in learning and integration of external resources and knowledge, but seem to struggle on building appropriate networks and strategic alliances. Implications for policy makers and practitioners are discussed.     

HOUSEHOLD, GENDER, AND POLITICAL RESPONSES TO ECONOMIC DOWNTURN:

Although sociologists have given increased attention to political responses of populations experiencing economic restructuring, existing research remains conceptually limited. Building upon resource mobilization theory and longstanding structural approaches, we extend the conceptual discourse of mobilization by considering alternative bases of action involving the household and its gendered relationships. We provide an empirical example using data from a twelve-state midwestern sample of farm couples during the 1980s farm crisis. In addition to predictors outlined by conventional structural mobilization frameworks, we find that political socialization between spouses (an alternative, generally unexplored base of political action) is an important determinant of action. Relative to men, women tend to exert a more radicalizing political influence on their spouses.     

Rural Women and Decision Making: Women's Role in Resource Management During Rural Restructuring1

Abstract The intense, uneven, and often contradictory processes of agricultural restructuring impact upon the family farm in ways that are gendered. Those impacts may create, reproduce, or exacerbate contradictions within the farm family. We interviewed farm women about the decision making structure of families on Australian cereal properties and about land use and resource management strategies. Key informants working in government, agriculture, and management were asked about effects of restructuring on farm women and their role in resource management on the family farm. Different patterns were found: most decision making structures remain sex segregated, with women making more decisions about “inside” and men about “outside” resource management issues; shared decision responsibility was greater than expected. Farm women have views about farming, soil conservation, and the environment that have an influence on strategic planning in the sector whether they maintain their traditional family position or increase their agency and visibility.     

Human–environment interactions in South Florida's Everglades region: Systems of ecological degradation and restoration

This chapter examines the societal drivers of environmental change in South Florida's Everglades region during the past 150 years. This historical geography is developed through the use of a conceptual framework constructed to facilitate the analysis of human–environment interactions and nature–society systems of ecological degradation and restoration at the regional scale. The framework is composed of four basic interlinked components: interaction mechanisms (e.g., land use, direct resource utilization, pollution and external inputs, resource competition), feedback mechanisms (e.g., basic needs, quality of life, environmental ethics), control systems (e.g., governmental regimes, legal institutions, resource management), and the societal context (e.g., population and demographic patterns, social structure and organization, technology, economic conditions, societal values). A primary objective of this chapter is to determine the presence and importance of each of these components during the process of environmental change over the period of study—1845 to 1995.Data for the analysis are drawn from primary and secondary sources on the environmental, social, economic, and political history of South Florida. The results indicate that although elements of each component were present throughout the entire period, different elements of each component play more significant roles at differing moments. The shifts in importance are used to define four periods of environmental change within the region. The periods are the following: (1) frontier settlement (1845–1900), focused on basic needs acquisition and direct utilization of the resource base; (2) drainage and land conversion (1900–1930), focused on population and economic growth, land use change, and increased resource management and competition; (3) flood control and consolidation (1930–1950), focused on inputs from external sources and infusion of advanced technology, the development of governance and social structures, and increased concern for quality of life; (4) postwar boom, flood control, and water supply (1950–1970), focused on accelerated land use change, increased pollution, and further heightened concern for local quality of life; and (5) period of limits (1970–1995), focused on pollution and resource competition concerns, a developing regional environmental ethic and amenity values, and environmental preservation governance strategies.Taken together, the five periods represent the differing nature–society systems through which South Florida's regional ecosystem was degraded and which is now entering a phase of restoration.     

Farm women in Canada,New Zealand and Australia redefine their rurality

This paper focuses on rural women's networks in Ontario, New Zealand and Australia. It investigates three issues: the social contexts in which farm women in Canada, Australia and New Zealand have developed new networks since the late 1970s; the responses of farm women in each country to the changes in the agricultural industry in the last two decades; and the way farm women's organisations are responding to contemporary changes in rural society. In the concluding section, the farm women's movement is interpreted in terms of agency and structure. It is suggested that the establishment of organisations that can speak for farm women at government levels has countered their deep sense of marginalisation and alienation within their industry. In keeping with the dynamic nature of contemporary society, farm women's organisations will need to be flexible and adaptable in order to facilitate quick responses to rapidly evolving economic an social issues.     

The union within the union: Filipinos,Mexicans, and the racial integration of the farm worker movement

Throughout the twentieth century, California farm workers endeavored to build viable farm labor unionism. In 1966, Filipino and Mexican farm workers merged their respective farm labor unions, the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee and the National Farm workers Association, which laid the foundational base for the United Farm Workers of America (UFW). The merger constituted a moment of interracial unity, which Filipinos and Mexicans had previously lacked; by 1970 the UFW would negotiate landmark collective bargaining agreements. This article demonstrates how Filipinos and Mexicans resolved deeply rooted racial division and that doing so built a path to successful farm labor mobilization. The study complements previous farm worker scholarship that concentrates on exogenous causal factors of success by drawing focus to endogenous causal factors, particularly racial identity within the movement.     

Across the divide (?): Reconciling farm and town views of agriculture–community linkages

In North America and elsewhere it is frequently asserted that changes in rural society have led to an economic and social ‘decoupling’ of agriculture from the wider rural community. Casual analysis of contemporary media reporting and popular discourse would suggest that interactions between the two spheres are as often characterized by neglect or conflict as by complementarity and collaboration. However, scholarly interpretation of evolving relations between farming and the wider rural community, and whether these constitute a trend to relinking or decoupling, has remained elusive and problematic. This paper advocates for and articulates a case study approach to the analysis of ‘ambiguous interdependency’ at the local level. Specifically, it is argued that much can be learned from a comparative analysis of farm and town views of sector-specific development trajectories and of implications for agriculture–community linkages. Insights obtained from in-depth interviews with 68 farm and town residents of South Huron County, Ontario, suggest a strong tendency for farmers to undervalue their importance and influence within the local community, but also highlight certain consequences of ongoing agricultural change and recent municipal restructuring that point toward the continued reshaping of agricultural community linkages. The research suggests both points of convergence and divergence that may be valuable in understanding, and perhaps managing, future development at the local scale and beyond.     

“It's Definitely a Good Time to Be a Farmer”: Understanding the Changing Dynamics of Successor Creation in Late Modern Society

This article considers the implications of the wider systemic shift from modernity to late modernity for the process of intergenerational farm transfer. The article argues that the shift from the collective to the individual, indicative of late modern society, is particularly pertinent in the context of intergenerational transfer, which has long been rooted in collective thinking. Drawing on the perspectives of incumbent farmers and potential successors, the article utilizes results from semistructured interviews with 29 farmers and 19 potential successors in Devon, England. Using a thematic analysis, the article provides a nuanced understanding of the impact of the systemic shift and the associated emphasis on the individual on successor identification. Although the article reaffirms understanding of successor creation as a collective process, determined by factors such as gender and birth order, it also identifies an emergent cohort of younger potential successors, for whom succession was the outcome of an evaluation of farming as a career. It concludes that, within the case study area, modernization is changing the way in which farm children are identifying themselves as “the successor.” The article suggests how this increasingly judicious approach to succession leaves reproduction of the family farm increasingly vulnerable to negative externalities.     

Nature conservation and the management of the wider countryside in Eastern England

The total value of nature conservation depends not just on designated sites but also on the areas of less intensively-used land which may protect the designated sites or have their own conservation value. Given the steady erosion in the extent and quality of designated sites, the wider countryside has become an increasingly important element within conservation policy over the last decade. Such land can form a lattice of micro-habitats linking and enhancing the value of designated sites. This paper draws on a review of the conservation resource in seven counties of eastern England and a survey of landholders in a 2000 km² study area in Norfolk and Suffolk to examine the factors affecting the management of the conservation resource in the wider countryside. It considers, in particular, the extent and management of less-intensive arable, pasture, woodland and wetland areas, and the relationships between such management and the nature and size of farm business operations with which such areas are located. From this, the paper seeks to explore the potential for conservation policy development to promote the enhancement of nature conservation values in the countryside.     

Agrarian Transformation and Rural Diversity in Globalizing East Asia

Abstract: In East Asia the rural society is not a society based upon agricultural industry anymore and the peasant society with its long history has been disappearing. The occupation and income sources of rural inhabitants have diversified and among them those who specialized in farming are the minority. There is a shortage of rural labor, which used to be abundant in the past, and presently it is not as easy to hire the farm workers. The reason for the diversification of the rural occupations is, to put it simply, because people cannot live merely on farm income. Indeed the farm operation costs have become more expensive due to labor saving techniques, but the livelihood costs have become more expensive due the new uniform lifestyle standards from globalization. Electric machines and education are the typical of these increased costs. The background of this rural change is industrialization and urbanization in the context of globalization and its strong impact is penetrating into the rural society through the regional urban center as the relay point of the global mechanism. This change is different based upon the location of each rural society. Generally, rural societies around a big urban center enjoy opportunities for the younger generation, but remote areas have serious problems with few employment opportunities and a smaller youth population. To reproduce and sustain the regional society as a whole, it is necessary to attract younger people and make them stay. We should plan to develop a variety of industries and the resultant diversified work opportunities in the broader region beyond the narrowly demarcated village and community. Subsistence and commercial agriculture might merely be a part of such diversity.     

The Socioeconomic Basis of Farm Enterprise Diversification Decisions1

Abstract In contrast to earlier studies, recent research on socioeconomic and ecological factors affecting farm decision making suggests that, at the microlevel, farm size is inversely related to specialization and directly related to diversification decisions but empirical tests have been limited. Using a social behavioral, farming systems perspective, we examine factors affecting diversification and specialization decisions, including land tenure, off-farm work, and education (which are crucial to successful management) and environmental variation (which affects the decision to select appropriate enterprises). Data from a random sample of Kentucky farmers were used to test the model. Diversification, whether defined according to crops or commodities, is significantly related to farm size, human capital, and regional variation in land and soil types. The study clarifies the relationship between diversification and farm size issues and broadens understanding of farm diversification decisions. The findings indicate that increased farm size and better farm management reduce the rate of increase in farm specialization.     

Self-Care—New Challenge to Individual Health

Abstract

We are beginning to recognize that further improvements in health care are best achieved through the development of the lay resource in health in contrast to the professional resource. Recent research has shown that the vast proportion of health care still remains in the hands of lay people, and that efforts aimed at improving this resource can have a powerful effect on health and the health care industry. It is important now that health professionals recognize a new public interest in demystifying medicine and deprofessionalizing health care.

With this increased recognition we can begin the road back to establishing a health competent society, less dependent on unnecessary professional intrusion. We can also look forward to a broader-based perspective on health and health care, which may very well involve new concepts of health that are at variance with present professional views and practices. We can also expect to achieve a new level of equity in responsibility for the production of health care as well as its consumption.     

Farm forests and rural livelihood in Finland

In the rural areas of Finland, a substantial share of incomes is derived from private farm forests. Regional variation, however, is great: significance of forestry on farms is higher in eastern than in western and southern Finland. The membership in the European Union (EU) is expected to alter rural economic development because of considerable negative effects on farm incomes. This study aims at evaluating the effects of Finland's EU membership on the significance of forests on farms in particular, and in rural economy as a whole. Five scenarios with different development of prices for agricultural and forest products are analysed by a linear programming model. Farms are assumed to practice a combination of activities to maximise farm revenue. The share of forestry in total farm revenue is likely to increase due to EU membership and the application of the Common Agricultural Policy. However, the increased significance of forests is only relative as a result of the considerable absolute decline in agricultural income. These results indicate that farm forestry will require increased attention and investment in order to maintain livelihood and economic activity in the mainly agriculture-oriented vast rural areas of Finland.     

‘Water divide’ in the global risk society

In contemporary society, which is also defined as global risk society, the water crisis plays a controversial but decisive role in comparison with other kinds of risk (health care, environmental, financial, warlike). However, the sociological debate does not confer to the world water crisis the right significance: the essay precisely highlights this lack and focuses on the hypothesis that it could be also connected to the lack of interest that mass media agenda-setting shows to this issue. The result is that, in most cases, industrialized countries show an irresponsible approach towards a resource which is so precious for the simple fact that it is exhaustible. Furthermore, the advantages of both development and globalization are not equally distributed from a geographic point of view, and the gap between the ‘rich’ and the ‘poor’ is getting deeper and deeper also within this phenomenon. According to the author's perspective, it would be reasonable to talk about a water divide and assume a sustainable development capable of dealing with the overall problem of drinking water availability, its quality, its public access, with a view to democratic management and the sharing of this resource.     

Farm business and the development of alternative farm enterprises: An empirical analysis in Greece

The objective of this paper is to provide a conceptual framework and an empirical evidence of farm business change in relation to the adoption and development of alternative farm enterprises (AFE). The present paper adopts a business typology and looks at the various paths of development. A range of factors condition which path of farm business development will be selected. Some factors relate to the farms' physical characteristics, its business and its human capital. A sample of 200 farmers in the prefecture of Etolia-Akarnania in Greece is analysed in order to identify the factors influencing the choice of farm business development. Three main paths of farm business development are identified in this lagging region of Greece. Conventional (mainstream) farming, alternative farm enterprise development and conventional farming with off-farm employment. Appropriate statistical modelling revealed that both economic and social factors exert an independent effect on the choice of farm business development. Proposals concerning the formulation of future rural policy in the lagging regions of Greece are drawn, based on the results derived from the analysis of the present sample.     

Anti-development or identity crisis? Misreading civil society in Meghalaya,India

This paper discusses the complex relationship between civil society and development in Asia by examining the role of ethnic identity in anti-development movements. Local and transnational movements by civil society actors against dams, mines, and deforestation have gained increased attention in academia and activist circles in the last decade, often used as evidence in arguments that development as part of neo-liberalism and/or state-led socialism is faltering. Furthermore, tribal, indigenous, and minority communities are often portrayed as having a closer relationship to the environment, which is seen as instrumental in their opposition to development projects. While agreeing with these arguments to some extent, this paper examines the local context of anti-development movements using research from fieldwork in the Indian state of Meghalaya and argues that struggles over development projects are also struggles over ethnic identity. In Meghalaya, civil society actors from the Khasi ethnic group have opposed several large development projects on the +grounds that these projects will attract labourers from Bangladesh and other parts of India, threatening the survival of the Khasi ethnic group. Damage to the environment, livelihoods, and loss of land are rarely a concern. The failure to recognize the influence of ethnic identity politics in critiques of development raises the risk of misreading both the extent of anti-development sentiments in civil society and the potential for development projects to be reframed by proponents into an acceptable ethnic guise. Furthermore, the actors contesting development through identity politics are overwhelmingly from urban areas, leaving rural people with limited access to civil society. This paper attempts to add a critical perspective to current literature on development and civil society using empirical examples from one of the least researched regions in Asia.     

The role of local actors in transforming the urban fringe

In interpreting the transformation of rural space, much attention has been given to the macro scale processes shaping capitalist society, particularly those of accumulation and uneven development. Often, the role of the individual and of local agency generally is relegated to that of a pawn. However, with the retreat of the central state from many domains, the role of the individual and particularly the local community in shaping development processes has received more and more attention. Proactive roles have been recognized increasingly for communities and individuals in relatively depressed regions as being an integral part of the emerging ‘new economy’, but the urban fringe has received little attention from this perspective. Glimpses of the role for local agency come partly from research into urban fringe agriculture over the past 20 years which has profiled the role of the individual farmer and farm family, but little progress has been made in the appreciation of locality, or socially constructed localized action space, in the urban fringe, particularly in its manifestation through the actions of local groups, organizations and communities. A conceptual framework is proposed to advance our understanding of local agency in the processes of differentiation within the urban fringe. Local agency acts upon the transformation of the local environment to become one of the driving forces behind the process of uneven development and, more generally, differentiation of urban fringe space.     

Multiple business ownership in the Norwegian farm sector: Resource transfer and performance consequences

This paper examines the case of multiple business ownership in the Norwegian farming sector, focusing on the extent of resource transfer between farms and their newly created ventures and the subsequent effects on the performance of these new ventures. The results demonstrate that substantial resource transfer takes place, mediated both by the resource richness of the farm and the degree of similarity in the activities of the farm and the new venture. The results also demonstrate a complex relationship between resource transfer and the performance (measured in terms of profitability) of the new venture. The transfer of physical resources tends to enhance, while the transfer of organizational and knowledge-based resources tends to reduce, new venture performance.     

Institutions and Policies for Pro‐poor Agricultural Growth

Global experience with pro‐poor growth and empirical work spanning India, Malawi and Zimbabwe demonstrates the importance of agricultural growth for poverty reduction in poor rural areas, while also pointing to the need for complementary non‐farm sector growth. Theoretical arguments, historical evidence and livelihoods modelling in poor medium‐potential rural economies suggest that, contrary to thinking dominating much of current development policy, subsidies to relieve critical seasonal credit and cash restraints and reduce market and input supply uncertainties need to help in ‘kick‐starting’ agricultural markets if increased smallholder productivity in food‐grains is to drive rural non‐farm growth. Establishing the base conditions for these to work, designing and implementing them to be effective, and then phasing them out are major challenges facing policymakers.     

广州市两型社会进程监测综合评价研究——基于2000—2010年的追踪数据

本文以广州市两型社会发展情况为研究对象,选择2000—2010年11年间的广州市纵向追踪数据为评价对象,以科学性、客观性、可比性、系统性、层次性和可行性原则建立指标体系,并使用因子分析方法,分别从两型社会的两个方面（即资源节约型社会和环境友好型社会）进行了综合动态监测,研究结果总结如下：在2000—2010年间,广州市资源节约型社会综合指数呈现波浪式上升的趋势;广州市环境友好型社会综合指数基本呈现逐年上升的趋势;广州市“两型社会”综合指数整体上呈现三个阶段,一是从2000-2004年,呈现快速上升趋势、二是从2004—2007年,逐渐稳步下降的趋势、三是从2007年至今,呈现2007年上升后又快速下降到平缓的稳定趋势。