TY - JOUR
T1 - Operationalising resilience in farms and rural regions - Findings from fourteen case studies
AU - Ashkenazy, Amit
AU - Calvão Chebach, Tzruya
AU - Knickel, Karlheinz
AU - Peter, Sarah
AU - Horowitz, Boaz
AU - Offenbach, Rivka
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - The limited resilience of agricultural and food systems, and of rural communities, has become an important concern in rural and agricultural policy. However, while the term has been heavily theorised and discussed, particularly in the natural and environmental sciences, it is sufficiently ambiguous to support divergent and even contradictory policy goals and farmers' strategies. This paper focuses on the more encompassing notion of social-ecological resilience and contends that among the causes of this divergence are the disparate spatial and temporal scales used to assess and plan enhancing resilience. Based on empirical evidence, we show that strategies that may increase farmers' abilities to persist in a difficult economic environment may undermine the resilience of the wider region, while decisions that enhance farmers' resilience in the short term may lock them onto a path that weakens their future resilience. Using case studies from 14 different countries across Europe and beyond, we address two main questions. Firstly, how the notion of resilience is being operationalised at a farm or regional level. That is to say, what are the different strategies that farmers, rural residents and other decision-makers in rural areas are using to enhance resilience? Secondly, we look at how the outcomes of implementing these strategies vary according to spatial and temporal factors.
AB - The limited resilience of agricultural and food systems, and of rural communities, has become an important concern in rural and agricultural policy. However, while the term has been heavily theorised and discussed, particularly in the natural and environmental sciences, it is sufficiently ambiguous to support divergent and even contradictory policy goals and farmers' strategies. This paper focuses on the more encompassing notion of social-ecological resilience and contends that among the causes of this divergence are the disparate spatial and temporal scales used to assess and plan enhancing resilience. Based on empirical evidence, we show that strategies that may increase farmers' abilities to persist in a difficult economic environment may undermine the resilience of the wider region, while decisions that enhance farmers' resilience in the short term may lock them onto a path that weakens their future resilience. Using case studies from 14 different countries across Europe and beyond, we address two main questions. Firstly, how the notion of resilience is being operationalised at a farm or regional level. That is to say, what are the different strategies that farmers, rural residents and other decision-makers in rural areas are using to enhance resilience? Secondly, we look at how the outcomes of implementing these strategies vary according to spatial and temporal factors.
KW - Adaptability
KW - Agricultural development
KW - Persistence
KW - Resilience strategies
KW - Rural development
KW - Rural resilience
KW - Transformability
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85028303217&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2017.07.008
DO - 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2017.07.008
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85028303217
JO - Journal of Rural Studies
JF - Journal of Rural Studies
SN - 0743-0167
ER -