Rethinking the links between farm modernisation, rural development and resilience

摘要

The six articles in this special issue explore alternative pathways of agricultural modernisation. The authors argue that such pathways, and the strategies needed to embark on them, are commonly overlooked in policy and the formal agricultural knowledge and information system which tend to concentrate on the conventional, unilinear, modernisation trajectory that involves scale-enlargement, specialisation and, more and more, digitalisation. The focus of these papers is on development strategies that can increase the resilience of farms, the agricultural and agri-food sectors and rural areas, and that can enhance the prosperity and well-being of farmers and rural communities, issues of growing importance. The papers set out what these alternative strategies might mean for the future of farming, and how we might move towards them. Four theoretical, but also practical, issues that will influence this transition play a key role here: resilience, prosperity and well-being, governance and the role of knowledge and learning. All six articles are based on empirical work carried out as part of the trans disciplinary research project RETHINK, which was supported by the European Commission and funding bodies in 14 countries under FP7 and the RURAGRI ERA-NET (CA 235175). (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.