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Professionalization of agriculture and distributed innovation for multifunctional landscapes and territorial development

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Abstract

Professionalization of farmers and rural entrepreneurs is identified as a potential resource to advance transition to multifunctional landscapes and territorial development. Drawing on interactive conceptions of knowledge creation and technical change, I argue that collective structures that support pooling of experiential knowledge can complement public and private sector engagement in innovation systems. Through exercise of leadership in advancing integration of farming into regional development and in integrating ecological and social concerns into agriculture, farmers can forge a professional identity and broker a new social contract entitling them to renewal of their political and economic status.

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Acknowledgments

Thanks to Jill Harrison, anonymous reviewers and participants in the August 2007 RSS-SAFRIG mini-conference in Santa Clara, CA for critical comments on earlier versions of this paper. Also, thanks to Gilles Allaire for broadening my understanding of professions.

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  1. Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University, 118 Fernow Hall, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA

    Steven A. Wolf

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  1. Steven A. Wolf
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Correspondence to Steven A. Wolf.

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Wolf, S.A. Professionalization of agriculture and distributed innovation for multifunctional landscapes and territorial development. Agric Hum Values 25, 203–207 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-008-9117-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-008-9117-1

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