Journal of Rural Studies最新文献

Mitigating impact between agricultural livelihoods and water conservation efforts in the face of significant drought requires a sophisticated understanding of policy efforts enacted to manage water supply and the logic of human livelihood decision-making. This case study extends literature on human-water decision-making in agricultural areas by using a political ecology framework to understand how and why farmers facing significant water shortages make livelihood decisions, and how such decisions are affected by broader socio-political contexts. Specifically, we focus on farmers' livelihood strategies in the Central San Joaquin Valley of California. Here, the effects of extreme and persistent drought have resulted in a resource management governance structure that forces farmer decision-making within the narrow bounds of the newly emerging California water policy. We argue that government public policy intervention has created a potential system of “big winners and big losers,” leading to three divergent strategies farmers adopt: Nimbility, Abandonment, and Policy Engagement. These findings raise questions about how policy interventions shape livelihood strategies of farmers in the Tulare Lake Basin and by extension other areas where public policy intervention is emerging to respond to decreased water supply resources.

Egalitarian gender norms and legislative rights to property may be a threat to the successful intergenerational transfer of the family farm. This article examines how the land holding generation perceives the role of daughters-in-law in reproducing the family farm. We examine the site of farm succession and intergenerational transfer. We draw on interviews with 22 farm succession professionals. Our analysis demonstrates the land holding generation see the financial reproduction of the Australian family farm as reliant on women's off-farm work and the biological, social and cultural reproduction of the family farm is reliant on women's role adherence to traditional gender norms. This creates tensions within family farms that the landholding generation aim to resolve through legal protections of the farm asset against a claim by the daughter-in-law and by discursively punishing role digression. Given the reliance of Australian family farms on women's labour contributions, these actions may threaten rather than ensure the continuity of family farming.

This paper uses Will County in Illinois as a case study to examine the relationship between food citizenship and local food consumption in what we term to be the rural-urban blend of America. Food citizenship is participating in food-related actions promoting democratic, socially and economically equitable, and environmentally sustainable food systems. On the other hand, local food consumption is choosing and preferring to buy and eat local food over other conventional forms of food. The study used data analysis from a survey of 342 residents in Will County, Illinois, to test a conceptual model that considers various socio-psychological traits that food citizens might have, which could explain their preferences for local food, including local patriotism, perceived similarity with local farmers, social concern for the community's well-being, and environmental concerns. The findings reveal the intertwined nature of local patriotism and place identity, shedding light on their direct influence on food citizens' preferences. The perceived similarity with farmers and active engagement with local food producers deepen food citizens' understanding and connection, ultimately influencing their preferences for locally sourced food. The study also highlights the distinct roles of men and women in local food preferences, with local patriotism being more significant for men aged 40 and above. Finally, the results underscore the Midwest's unique socio-political landscape and the complex interplay of factors shaping local food preferences within rural-urban blends like Will County.

Despite the extensive scholarship on women's empowerment and gender equality in the Global South, few studies have examined how changing livelihoods create new challenges and opportunities for women seeking access to intra-household decision-making. Here we examine pastoralist Maasai women's access to a range of household-level decisions that span more longstanding and more recent aspects of changing social and economic life. Our team conducted a mixed-methods data collection in 10 Maasai communities in northern Tanzania in 2018 and 2022. We (1) interviewed groups of women and men (n = 18) to identify key types of household decisions and the factors affecting women's access to them; and (2) conducted a survey of married women (n = 321) to identify individuals' perceptions of access to intra-household decision-making and other characteristics. We applied an information theoretic approach to model selection of fitted cumulative link mixed effects models. Our findings show that newer sources of human, social, and physical capital for women, including school-based education, land tenure, and community group membership, are associated with access to more contemporary decision types, including income generation, children's schooling, and children's health care. Alternatively, we find fewer pathways to decision-making for more longstanding decision types, including livestock management and children's marriage. Notably, agricultural land has a complex relationship with decision-making wherein basic access to land is associated with lower access to decision-making, but land tenure is associated with greater access. This study shows how marginalized women can leverage changing social and economic contexts to gain greater access to intra-household decision-making.

Farmers' participation in rural public goods provision (PGP) is vital to improving rural public goods conditions and achieving rural revitalization in China. The factors influencing farmers' participation are, however, far from clear. This paper aims to investigate how social capital and income, the two most prominent factors, affect rural residents' participation in PGP. We use the Heckman sample selection model to empirically estimate the effects of both social capital and family income on farmers' participation and contribution to PGP based on a household survey conducted in four representative provinces in China. We further investigate the moderating effect of village location and elite ability on the effect of social capital on farmers' participation. Our results show that social capital generally has a positive impact on farmers' participation. Specifically, improving the formal norm, size of networks, and density of network would increase farmers' participation propensity. Enriching norms, particularly formal norms, can significantly improve farmers' contribution to public goods. Surprisingly, family income, mainly non-farm income, has a slightly negative effect on farmers' participation. Moreover, village-county distance can undermine the effect of social norms on farmers' participation, while elite ability can enhance the effect of social trust on farmers' participation. Thus, we suggest authorities should focus on enhancing social capital in the rural community to promote farmers’ participation in PGP.

Market reforms are considered as an important strategy to support poverty reduction amongst small-scale agrifood producers in developing and emerging economies. Most attention is commonly focused on voluntary initiatives that provide a guaranteed minimum price to farmers and improve services for rural communities, supplemented by good agricultural practices for higher productivity, environmental quality and to support living incomes. Whereas alternative trade movements have become ‘mainstream’ their market shares are stagnating. Since agrifood markets have changed substantially and trade networks are restructured, smallholders are increasingly controlled by midstream agents (traders and processors) and captured into contract farming arrangements. This article outlines a new discourse around value chain transformation that supports local processing for income and employment generation and favours better integrated supply chains based on circularity and trust. It identifies new alliances between producers and traders that change market governance beyond simple adjustments in exchange relationships. Combining public investments (market infrastructure) with civic-driven organization (cooperation and contracts) and private networks (for profit redistribution along the value chain) offers interesting opportunities for linking sustainable business practices with value-driven trade arrangements.

Climate change can have a negative impact on agriculture and lead to significant crop losses and increasing food insecurity. Despite the growing body of research on farmers' adaptive behaviors to climate change, there remains a lack of comprehensive classification of influencing factors. In our systematic literature review comprising 87 articles, we identified 179 distinct drivers, categorized into socio-demographic characteristics, farm attributes, financial resources, situational influences, experiential aspects, and cognitive elements. Notably, cognitive drivers, such as beliefs about climate change consequences, were frequently cited (348 times), along with critical socio-demographic factors like age and education. Drawing from a case study of farmers in central Colombia, we illustrate how these factors interact. Through the lens of four exemplary farmer types, we observe that older farmers were less likely to adapt due to limited exposure to climate emergencies and higher age, whereas for others community relationships drove adaptive behaviors. High-income motivated adaptation, while direct experience with climate disasters increased adaptation willingness. Finally, the framework we have developed highlights the importance of understanding the complex interplay of different factors behind farmers’ adaptation decisions, paving the way for the development of more localized and context-specific climate adaptation strategies.

Defined as signs denoting products linked to discrete characteristics of an area, geographical indications (GIs) acquired prominence in the economic development agenda. Gains from GIs triggered processes of redefinition and extension of the underlying territorial boundaries. Extensions increased the number of beneficiaries of the returns from GIs but also ignited tensions that deserve to be observed to distil theoretical insights on the evolution of indications and actionable guidelines for practitioners and policymakers. This study investigates the processes governing the settlement of tensions after the extension of a GI and attempts at understanding how contestations among incumbents and newcomers can be managed. Through a retrospective longitudinal analysis of the Prosecco extension, we find that incumbents and newcomers clashed based on different visions of the GI. Three elements allowed the management of tensions: political agency, the design of governance mechanisms, and a territorial portfolio strategy.

Support networks play a crucial role in channeling state resources to rural areas for targeted poverty alleviation (TPA) in China. The “pairing-up” support system (PSS) and its paired helpers are key to this process. This study uses natural randomized trials in a poverty-stricken village to analyze the effectiveness of helpers in alleviating poverty. The results show that, first, the paired helpers exhibit varying levels of effectiveness in collecting information, implementing poverty alleviation policies, and promoting the self-development of poor households. Furthermore, the effectiveness of an organization-reshaped support network is superior to that of an organization-maintained support network. Second, the main factors that restrict the effectiveness of helpers in poverty alleviation are local knowledge and incentive compatibility, but not the helpers' abilities. Third, the PSS design is highly rational in TPA.

This paper deals with the role of digital solutions in (re)shaping farms’ relational architectures and new territorial proximities. More precisely, our study aims to explore the reconfiguration of social capital relations when digital solutions are adopted in rural contexts and, consequently, the emergence of new territorial proximities that combine geographical and organized proximities. A qualitative research design permitted us to uncover diversified paths of relational reconfiguration as the outcome of the uptake of a digital solution. As a further result, the analysis evidences how the unchanged and the new relational architectures differently affect the reconfiguration of territorial proximities, only partially redesigning rural development trajectories. We conclude by arguing that digital technologies either engender temporary territorial proximities or may act as “context enablers”.