| 1. |
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| 2. |
- Bruckmeier, Karl, 1952
(författare)
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Rural development in Europe: the EU LEADER programme reconsidered : LEADER in Germany and the discourse of autonomous regional development
- 2000
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Ingår i: Sociologia Ruralis. - : Wiley. - 0038-0199 .- 1467-9523. ; 40:2, s. 219-227
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The LEADER programme in Germany has built on the ideas and approaches of independent rural initiatives that have crystallized in a rural movement for autonomous regional development. Since the mid-1980s,ideas such as these have found resonance in regional development programmes in some West German federal states.The implementation of leader projects in West Germany can be characterized by the institutionalization and neutralization of the approaches of the independent movements. Leader's catalytic role has not yet taken place to the same extent in East Germany where, after the unification in 1990,a rapid growth of local and regional development projects has been observed. Although leader has only adopted these in part, one can still project that official, institutional project sponsorship seems inevitably to undermine the innovative, independent and critical character of these rural development initiatives. The critical factors for the assessment of leader projects are the criteria of innovation and participation that play a central role in the community initiative. It can be concluded that the criteria of innovation are insufficient to direct the innovation process in a direction of sustainable rural development.
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| 3. |
- Ahnström, Johan, et al.
(författare)
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Swedish Farmers Talking about Nature – A Study of the Interrelations between Farmers' Values and the Sociocultural Notion of Naturintresse
- 2011
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Ingår i: Sociologia Ruralis. - : Wiley. - 0038-0199 .- 1467-9523. ; 51, s. 420-435
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Agro-environmental schemes (AES) aim to counteract declining biodiversity on farmland and to improve ecosystem services, such as pollination and pest regulation. Studies show, however, that an involvement in AES does not lead to any substantive cognitive or motivational change in farmers' behaviour. Hermeneutic studies have tried to explain these modest effects by analysing farmers' mentalities and behaviour. This article contributes to these studies by using self-identifications and stories of 16 Swedish farmers about nature and AES to create a typology of different farmers' valuations. In pursuit of this objective the article establishes a conceptual link between these hermeneutic studies and so-called farming style analysis (FSA). The study lays bare latent points of friction between the views of these farmers and more conventional sociocultural notions about nature and nature conservation.
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| 4. |
- Tellström, Richard, et al.
(författare)
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Local food cultures in the Swedish rural economy
- 2005
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Ingår i: Sociologia Ruralis. - Oxford : Blackwell. - 0038-0199 .- 1467-9523. ; 45:4, s. 346-359
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A rising interest in the commercial benefits of locally and regionally connoted food culture for rural development is notable in Sweden. Local and regional food culture is used as a tool both to encourage the rural economy, but also to fulfil urban residents' dreams of an authentic rural idyll. A qualitative study of a government project involving ten rural food businesses was performed to analyse how local food culture was used as a business advantage. The managers were interviewed and their conceptions analysed using company documents, observational notes and photographs. The results revealed that the managers do use food culture to gain a competitive advantage. They produce only those products that signal perceived 'good taste' and those that best reflect urban customers' ideas of rurality. It is also important to satisfy their kitchen staff's demands to work with developing urban food trends, otherwise the managers risk losing skilled staff. Rural customers are of minor day-to-day economic value, except when using the restaurant on festive occasions. But on those occasions, rural customers demand meals prepared in an urban classical style, not the local and regional food culture they eat at home. The most advantageous local and regional food culture for rural development is therefore that which best combines the urban ideal of the countryside, authentic rural products, and the rural ideal of urban classical cuisine.
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| 5. |
- Alarcon Ferrari, Cristian
(författare)
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Contemporary Land Questions in Sweden, Far-Right Populist Strategies and Challenges for Inclusionary Rural Development
- 2020
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Ingår i: Sociologia Ruralis. - : Wiley. - 0038-0199 .- 1467-9523. ; 60, s. 833-856
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article analyses the rural politics and discursive strategies of the Sweden Democrats political party and contrasts them with the politics of movements proposing inclusionary rural development in Sweden. The article examines political and media documents on rural issues produced by the Sweden Democrats, uses documents of and interviews with representatives of rural development initiatives in Sweden and analyses relevant forest owners' magazines. The results show that the defence of property rights and exclusionary politics are a prominent part of the populist strategy of the Sweden Democrats in rural areas and that technological development and mechanisation of forestry and agriculture become crucial challenges in articulating political efforts for inclusionary rural development in Sweden. The article concludes by highlighting differences between the Sweden Democrats' populist strategies and the political efforts to build inclusionary rural politics in the context of contemporary land questions in Sweden.
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| 6. |
- Alarcón Ferrari, Cristián
(författare)
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Digitalisation, politics of sustainability and new agrarian questions: The case of dairy farming in rural spaces of Italy and Sweden
- 2023
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Ingår i: Sociologia Ruralis. - : Wiley. - 0038-0199 .- 1467-9523. ; 63, s. 703-728
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The article analyses how and why agricultural digitalisation unfolds in contrasting agricultural sub-sectors and rural spaces in Europe, with a particular focus on dairy farming. The authors explore the differences and similarities underpinning and produced by agricultural digitalisation and how this intersects with meanings of rural development and the politics of sustainability. Building on qualitative research carried out in the regions of Uppsala (Sweden) and Calabria (Italy), the article unveils the contradictory nature of agricultural digitalisation as a process intertwined with the capitalist development of agriculture that raises key political questions. The cases of Uppsala and Calabria, in particular, show that the transformation of dairy farming through automation and digitalisation is uneven and combined, being deeply connected to how politics of sustainability and rural development are embedded-and negotiated-in specific agrarian settings. The authors discuss their empirical findings in terms of new agrarian questions in Europe.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Asztalos Morell, Ildikó, 1958-
(författare)
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The Role of Public Private Partnership in the Governance of Racialised Poverty in a Marginalised Rural Municipality in Hungary
- 2019
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Ingår i: Sociologia Ruralis. - : WILEY. - 0038-0199 .- 1467-9523. ; 59:3, s. 494-516
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article explores the local governance of poverty alleviation in a marginalised Hungarian rural community, with over 50 per cent Roma inhabitants, most of whom were either unemployed or participated in public work projects. Kisbalog is among those marginalised rural communities which are characterised by increasing social polarisation and ethnic cleavages as a result of selective outmigration and a municipal leadership which negotiates access to public work along racialised notions of deservingness. Hungary follows the EU concept of public private partnerships for local governance. This article unravels the room for manoeuvre for NGOs working for poverty alleviation in the context of the racialised narratives of a paternalistic local welfare state. Utilising Young's notions of social justice it explores the complicit nature of recognitional, associative and distributional justice in order to understand the interplay in partnerships between public and private agencies. From among three types of strategies, coercive, isolated and deliberative, the last one has the potential to bring about transformative changes.
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| 9. |
- Dobeson, Alexander, 1985-
(författare)
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Economising the rural : how new markets and property rights transform rural economies
- 2018
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Ingår i: Sociologia Ruralis. - : Wiley. - 0038-0199 .- 1467-9523. ; 58:4, s. 886-908
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- How do new markets and property rights transform rural economies? Based on an ethnographic case study of the Icelandic fisheries, this article shows how the organisation of markets for fishing rights and fresh fish has transformed the rural periphery into a globally entangled site of investments, valuation and exchange. The empirical material shows, on one hand, how the economisation of the traditional small‐boat fisheries has disentangled locally bound fishers into independent market actors and investors; and on the other hand, how daily economic coping re‐entangles fishers into a new web of money‐mediated relations and debt that pushes them to economise their operations for the purpose of increasing profit‐making in order to stay afloat. While economisation has led to a general valorisation of small boats and the construction of a 'quality'‐oriented market niche, fishing communities of the rural periphery maintain their struggle to survive in a new and volatile culture of liberal rural capitalism.
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| 10. |
- Fischer, Anke
(författare)
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The Trouble with Community: How 'Sense of Community' Influences Participation in Formal, Community-Led Organisations and Rural Governance
- 2019
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Ingår i: Sociologia Ruralis. - : Wiley. - 0038-0199 .- 1467-9523. ; 60, s. 243-259
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The term community has proved to be remarkably resilient in rural policy-making, where it is used across a range of policy discourses. Policy narratives seldom acknowledge the multiple meanings associated with the term community; they therefore fail to make a distinction between community as it is experienced in everyday settings, and more formal community organising. However, policies and governance seeking to mobilise communities often rely on formal community organisations to represent the 'community' in multi-level governance partnerships. Following research with two rural communities in Scotland this article explores different experiences of community, and sense of community in place. We then look at what these understandings and experiences of community mean for the creation and maintenance of formal, community-led organisations, their inclusion in policies of community empowerment and resilience, and rural governance more widely.
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| 11. |
- Glass, Jayne, et al.
(författare)
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Translating community resilience theory into practice : A deliberative Delphi approach
- 2022
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Ingår i: Sociologia Ruralis. - : Wiley Blackwell. - 0038-0199 .- 1467-9523.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Despite the availability of important theoretical insights that could enhance the resilience of rural communities to complex challenges, there is a paucity of guidance on how to apply these insights in practice. This paper therefore presents and assesses a deliberative research process using the Delphi technique to elicit expert knowledge from 22 academics, community practitioners and policy makers working in roles related to community resilience delivery in rural Scotland. The participants co-produced an operational framework for community resilience, with support from researchers who facilitated the three-stage, interactive process. The methodology enabled participants to work together in an iterative and inclusive manner, culminating in the collective development of a conceptual framework consisting of eight resilience-enabling factors and corresponding criteria for monitoring change, which can be used to plan practical action and provide feedback to enable ongoing adaptation. The process also produced an in-depth understanding of participants’ perceptions of rural community resilience, identified key factors that enable or impede rural community resilience, analysed the potential to assess community resilience, and explored scale-related issues. The paper explores the implications of this framework for those working to make rural communities more resilient and reflects on the benefits and wider application of this type of research approach for developing shared understandings of complex concepts.
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| 12. |
- González Hidalgo, Marien
(författare)
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Affected by and affecting forest fires in Sweden and Spain: A critical feminist analysis of vulnerability to fire
- 2023
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Ingår i: Sociologia Ruralis. - 0038-0199 .- 1467-9523. ; 63, s. 729-750
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Usually, vulnerability is equated to weakness and resistance to strength. Drawing on a feminist critique of this conceptualisation, this article aims to discuss how vulnerability to forest fires and local action are mutually and contradictorily related. I analyse the ways in which people in two rural communities surrounded by tree monocultures in Sweden and Spain think, feel and act after being exposed to acute forest fires in 2018 and 2017, respectively. Attentively listening to the experiences of vulnerability during and after the fire in the two cases helps to explain vulnerability to forest fires as an emotional, care-related process that opens up contradictory and transformative interconnections between peoples, nature and the state. Also, looking at the two cases together, this article shows how vulnerability to fire is mediated through unequal expectations across Europe's North-South divide. By re-signifying the implications of vulnerability, disasters such as those analysed here can be seen as facilitators of radical transformations towards new rural futures in Europe's forests.
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| 13. |
- Grubbström, Ann, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
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Retired Farmers and New Land Users: How Relations to Land and People Influence Farmers' Land Transfer Decisions
- 2018
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Ingår i: Sociologia Ruralis. - : Wiley. - 0038-0199 .- 1467-9523. ; 58, s. 707-725
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Access to land is a key challenge for prospective farmers in Europe. Retiring family farmers who lack a successor resort to leasing or selling their land, but the decision has implications for the community and the rural landscape for generations to come. It is thus crucial to know more about values and decisions linked to keeping, leasing or selling land, and the opportunities these provide for young farmers seeking to establish a business. It is also important to consider the choice of lessee/buyer and the relationship between the former farmer and lessee/buyer. This study is based on interviews with retired farmers, young farmers and farm advisors in Sweden. The results revealed that the lessee/buyer tends to be carefully chosen by the outgoing farmer and that non-monetary values and motivations, such as social interaction and concern for the environment, the rural community and the agricultural landscape are important. In some cases, the relationship between landowner/former farmer and lessee/buyer resembled family ties. The decision to lease/sell sometimes appeared to be a relief for the retiring farmer. For some lessees/buyers a close relationship with the former farmer provided valuable mentorship, while others valued the greater degree of freedom in leasing/buying compared with inheritance.
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| 14. |
- Haandrikman, Karen, 1977-, et al.
(författare)
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New immigration destinations in Sweden : Migrant residential trajectories intersecting rural areas
- 2023
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Ingår i: Sociologia Ruralis. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0038-0199 .- 1467-9523.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper aims to examine the residential trajectories of immigrants that intersect rural areas in Sweden. It adds to the literature on new immigration destinations (NIDs) and addresses the need to include migration routes intersecting rural areas, immigrants’ secondary migration patterns and temporal dimensions of migration, as well as the multiplicity of migrants in such destinations. We examine whether NIDs have emerged in Sweden and immigrants’ subsequent internal mobility from such areas and its determinants. Employing sequence analysis to full-population register data, we identify typical migration pathways. According to the results, NIDs are an emerging phenomenon in rural and small-sized cities in Sweden. We find limited support for the Swedish discourse that the diverse groups of rural migrants leave soon after arrival; also, those leaving are not doing so for labour market–related reasons, nor are they heading for metropolitan areas. We suggest that NIDs offer an important contribution to understanding migration patterns.
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| 15. |
- Joosse, Sofie
(författare)
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The Making and Re-making of a Regional Product : The Case of Zeeland Madder
- 2016
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Ingår i: Sociologia Ruralis. - : Wiley. - 0038-0199 .- 1467-9523. ; 56:2, s. 248-269
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Regional products play an increasingly important role in European economies and policies. The economic value of these products is considerable, and they are frequently regarded as significant generators of rural and regional development. But what processes underlie the formation of a regional product? While scholars have rightly called for attention to be paid to the contextual nature of regional products, this article aims to take a progressive step in this discourse and explore if, given the contextual nature of regional products, specific patterns can be identified that serve to make products regional. To this end I investigate the qualification of a reinvented agricultural product, madder (Rubia tinctorum), which is grown to produce dyestuff in Zeeland, The Netherlands. Based on the case of Zeeland madder and a comparison with other regional products I identify five qualification patterns, namely essentialism, strategic positioning, identity work, internal mobilisation and localising control. These patterns cross the divide between economy and culture and show how both elements become interwoven in the process of making products regional. Moreover, the patterns usefully highlight the hybridity of regional products, that is, their association with alternative food networks and conventional food networks.
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| 16. |
- Kuns, Brian, 1973-
(författare)
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Beyond Coping : Smallholder intensification in southern Ukraine
- 2017
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Ingår i: Sociologia Ruralis. - : Wiley. - 0038-0199 .- 1467-9523. ; 57:4, s. 481-506
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper empirically investigates rural, small-scale household farming in post-Soviet southern Ukraine, focusing on a particular group of households that have managed to intensify their production beyond subsistence without help from large farms. Large-farm support for small-scale household agricultural production in the former Soviet Union is generally considered necessary for small-scale household farming, so the absence of this support is noteworthy. The conditions of this intensification are explored and mapped out. Further, this intensification is related to discussions in the peasant study literature on the general viability of intensive smallholder production. While the investigated farms do present some sustainability concerns, this paper concludes that this production is not less viable than large-scale agricultural production. The main future challenge is how upcoming agrarian reforms will affect smallholders, particularly with respect to formalising informal resource use.
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| 17. |
- Kuns, Brian, et al.
(författare)
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From panic to business as usual : what coronavirus has revealed about migrant labour, agri-food systems and industrial relations in the Nordic countries
- 2023
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Ingår i: Sociologia Ruralis. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0038-0199 .- 1467-9523. ; 63:4, s. 907-927
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article focuses on migrant labour in Nordic agriculture, wild berry picking and food processing. The starting point is the fear of a food crisis at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic (2020) because of the absence of migrant workers. The question was raised early in the pandemic if food systems in the Global North are vulnerable due to dependence on precarious migrant workers. In the light of this question, we assess the reactions of farmers and different actors in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden to what looked like an unfolding food crisis. In many ways, the reactions in the Nordic countries were similar to each other, and to broader reactions in the Global North, and we follow these reactions as they relate to migrant workers from an initial panic to a return to business as usual despite the continuation of the pandemic. In the end, 2020 proved to be an excellent year for Nordic food production in part because migrant workers were able to come. We discuss reasons why the Nordic countries did not face disruptions during the pandemic, map out patterns of labour precarity and segmentation for migrant labour in agriculture and food production in the Nordic countries and propose questions for further research.
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| 18. |
- Linke, Sebastian, 1974, et al.
(författare)
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Aligning top-down and bottom-up modes of governance? How EU Fisheries Local Action Groups support small-scale fisheries and coastal community development in Sweden
- 2023
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Ingår i: SOCIOLOGIA RURALIS. - 0038-0199 .- 1467-9523.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Small-scale fisheries and coastal communities experienced dramatic downward trends over recent decades impacting rural development on European coastlines. Fisheries governance in the European Union (EU) follows exogenous top-down regulations steering fishing practices through detailed regulations. In contrast, the EU's structural funding system of Fisheries Local Action Groups (FLAGs) involves an endogenous approach consisting of more participatory bottom-up processes. This article explores these approaches by investigating the capacity of Swedish FLAGs to support small-scale fisheries and coastal communities. Using document analyses and interviews, we show that, in principle, the FLAG approach has the capacity to support local fisheries developments and to foreground small-scale fisheries interests in combination with community interests. However, the unique Swedish FLAG experience reveals a diminished scope for including small-scale fisheries' and coastal communities' interests on a structural basis. The Swedish FLAG experience, we conclude, mirrors a path-dependent trajectory of marginalisation and disempowerment of local fisheries interests hampering the potential of endogenous development.
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| 19. |
- Mamonova, Natalia, et al.
(författare)
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Right-Wing Populism in Rural Europe. Introduction to the Special Issue
- 2020
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Ingår i: Sociologia Ruralis. - : WILEY. - 0038-0199 .- 1467-9523. ; 60:4, s. 702-709
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This special issue aims to understand the rise of right-wing populism in the European countryside, as well as the forms of resistance and the alternatives being built against it. In this short introduction, we briefly present the main objectives and conceptual position of the special issue and introduce its articles. Each article is discussed here based on its contribution to one of the following themes: (1) analysis of the existing socio-economic system and power relations that gave rise to right-wing populism in rural Europe; (2) critical examination of the major assumptions about rural support for populist movements; (3) problematic overlap between politics and rhetoric of right-wing populist parties and left-wing (green) parties and agrarian movements; (4) agrarian populism and food sovereignty movement as progressive alternatives to right-wing politics in the European countryside.
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| 20. |
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| 21. |
- Milestad, Rebecka, 1973-, et al.
(författare)
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Managing growth in medium-sized organic businesses : Implications for local orientation and resilience building
- 2023
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Ingår i: Sociologia Ruralis. - : Wiley. - 0038-0199 .- 1467-9523. ; 63:1, s. 45-65
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article explores how locally oriented organic businesses adapt to handle crises during a growth process to build resilience, how these businesses maintain the local orientation when growing and what the implications are for the relationship between territoriality and organic production. We explored four cases of organic businesses in Sweden, Norway, Germany and Austria. The cases can be described as Values-based Territorial Food Networks. All cases experienced challenges and crises during their growth processes and sought to provide stability and flexibility in order to deal with change. The restructuration process required internalising learning into their organisations, using diversity in a strategic way and forming long-term partnerships within their value chains. While organic certification was never at stake, the meaning of ‘local’ shifted in some of the cases.
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| 22. |
- Nilsson, Bo, 1959-, et al.
(författare)
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Morality of discontent : The constitution of political establishment in the Swedish rural press
- 2019
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Ingår i: Sociologia Ruralis. - : Wiley-Blackwell. - 0038-0199 .- 1467-9523. ; 59:2, s. 314-328
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Swedish media regularly indicate that people's confidence in politicians is low. This distrust in or discontent with politicians is often related to rural politics. This paper focuses on the populist tendencies in the representations of politicians in the Swedish rural press during the parliamentary election year of 2014. A discourse analysis of the press material illustrates three closely related and critical themes; politicians are regarded as being urban centred, as doing anything for power, and as acting in an autocratic manner and misusing their power. The discourse analysis also reveals how the critical press material is linked to a moral geography relating space to a specific moral order. Drawing on theories on rural populism, the article shows how the media's references to a rural‐based victimhood, and to an alleged inequality between urbanity and rurality, can morally legitimate and bluntly express their contempt for 'scandalous' politicians, and they can present their critique as rational and justified.
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| 23. |
- Phillipson, Jeremy, et al.
(författare)
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Fisheries local action groups, small-scale fisheries and territorial development
- 2024
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Ingår i: SOCIOLOGIA RURALIS. - 0038-0199 .- 1467-9523.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In comparison to the wealth of critical evaluation of LEADER (i.e., Liaison entre actions de developpement de l'economie rurale), there has been no consolidated attempt to reflect on the contribution of Fisheries Local Action Groups (FLAGs), now entering their third EU programming period. Set up in the image of LEADER, and a novel governance instrument within the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), FLAGs aim to activate local responses that build resilience and adaptability within the fisheries sector and wider communities. In addition to introducing the accompanying articles that make up this special issue of Sociologia Ruralis, our article gives an account of the emergence of community-led local development (CLLD) in fisheries and the attributes that have characterised the application of the LEADER approach within a fisheries-territorial development context. In many cases, FLAGs have led to improved relationships between the small-scale fishing sector and wider local social and economic networks, helping the sector reimagine its role within local economies. Yet outcomes vary as the FLAG approach has been applied across different cultural and institutional settings. There are indications that the system is becoming enveloped by wider priorities of coastal development and blue growth. Yet FLAGs may well provide a successful test case for widening participation in the CFP and upscaling integration of the fishing industry within local and regional economies. For CLLD in general, they are a reminder of the value of a differentiated CLLD approach tailored to different sectoral-territorial contexts.
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| 24. |
- Pitkänen, Kati, et al.
(författare)
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Leisure Activities and Rural Community Change : Valuation and Use of Rural Space among Permanent Residents and Second Home Owners
- 2014
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Ingår i: Sociologia Ruralis. - : Wiley. - 0038-0199 .- 1467-9523. ; 54:2, s. 143-166
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Rural communities are getting more diversified in terms of people's backgrounds, sources of livelihood and interests towards the rural landscape. A common way to discuss rural community change has been to contrast in-migrants and seasonal residents with long-term rural residents. In this article, we aim to challenge this segmentation. We ask what it is to be a dweller in the modern countryside and how much the residential status has to do with people's interests and use of space. Based on a postal survey in a case study area in Finland, we look into the differences in the valuation of different leisure activities performed in rural space between second home owners and permanent residents. After dividing permanent residents and second home owners into further subgroups based on their spatial and temporal possibilities to engage in rural leisure, we found that there are no specific activities or groups of activities typical for certain groups of rural leisure space users. Differences between local residents and second-home owners are rarely explained by this simple dichotomy, rather the differences are better explained by spatial and temporal accessibility.
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| 25. |
- Saunders, Fred, 1961-
(författare)
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Complex Shades of Green : Gradually Changing Notions of the 'Good Farmer' in a Swedish Context
- 2016
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Ingår i: Sociologia Ruralis. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0038-0199 .- 1467-9523. ; 56:3, s. 391-407
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- There are ever-growing demands on farmers to consider the wider environmental implications of production, not least in the Baltic Sea Region where concerns about agricultural-related eutrophication are significant. In Sweden, farmers are being nudged through voluntary agri-environmental measures, enticed by the market and compelled to make the transition from a productivist agriculture to a multifunctional one. Drawing on the ‘good farmer’ concept, inspired by Bourdieu, this paper studies Swedish conventional and agri-environmental farmers’ views and reflections on the changing relationship between farming practices and the environment. The paper finds that despite 25 years of agri-environmental policy in Sweden, some conventional farmers are still mired in a narrow productivist mindset. That said, the study concludes that we should be wary of conceiving the ‘good farmer’ too strictly in productivist terms, given that the ‘rules of the agricultural game’ in Sweden are leading to a more divergent farmer habitus. Farmers are looking for opportunities within the multifunctional agricultural field, which increasingly demands and expects all farmers to embed social and environmental goals into production considerations.
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| 26. |
- Slätmo, Elin, et al.
(författare)
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The Framing of Sustainability in Sustainability Assessment Frameworks for Agriculture
- 2017
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Ingår i: Sociologia Ruralis. - : Wiley. - 0038-0199 .- 1467-9523. ; 57, s. 378-395
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Various frameworks for assessing sustainability in agriculture have emerged in recent years. We analysed how sustainability is framed as a governing concept for agriculture within three such frameworks. The results suggest that in all three frameworks sustainability is perceived as a fixed, definable end goal, rather than a process, and its assumed that if all stake holders understand each other and are informed about the negative impacts of agriculture, sustainability will be achieved. The characteristics of the assessment frameworks, which are primarily developed by and based on expert knowledge, provide limited possibilities for farmers to influence how sustainable agriculture is framed and acted upon, limiting the utility of the frameworks. A number of challenges that need to be solved for successful implementation were uncovered, including how assessment frameworks should be used in practice and identification of conflicts between different goals in relation to assessment results.
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| 27. |
- Stenbacka, Susanne, 1968-
(författare)
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Responsibilities, caring practices and agriculture : Farmers' perspectives on recruitment and employer–employee relationships
- 2019
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Ingår i: Sociologia Ruralis. - : Wiley. - 0038-0199 .- 1467-9523. ; 59:2, s. 255-274
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- With Swedish agriculture as its point of departure, this paper seeks to explore farmers’ recruiting practices and employer–employee relationships. Taking on the employer’s role means becoming subject both to formal statutory obligations and to regulations on wages, security and other aspects of working conditions. This article focuses on the more informal aspects of acting as an employer. The results show that recruiting, interacting and engaging with employees involve multiple responsibilities towards individuals and society alike. The practices of care identified are thus both private and public in nature, and exist within a framework of norms and ethical principles, a ‘moral economy’. The farmers’ strategies and decisions are understood as merged into negotiations regarding their identity, tradition, role in society and position in a global industry. Caring practices are embedded in farming practices and the focus on recruitment and employers’ experience adds to a multifaceted understanding of caring practices in which male farmers’ caring practices, too, become visible.
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| 28. |
- Tickle, Lara, et al.
(författare)
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Expanding arenas for learning hunting ethics, their grammars and dilemmas : An examination of young hunters' enculturation into modern hunting
- 2022
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Ingår i: Sociologia Ruralis. - : Wiley. - 0038-0199 .- 1467-9523. ; 62:3, s. 632-650
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Although hunting is declining in western countries, the number of people taking the hunting exam in Sweden are stable, and new demographic groups are becoming hunters. Through interviews done in Sweden with both new and experienced hunters, as well as focus groups with young hunters at agricultural colleges, we investigate how they navigate praxis and ethical frameworks taught in hunting. Using theories on moral learning, as well as Walzer's thick and thin moral argument, we contrast the views of these young hunters with the ethical principles outlined in the educational literature for the hunting exam. We then present how young hunters reasoned around issues regarding hunting ethics, animal welfare and the place of hunting in modern society, both inside and outside the classroom. The young hunters we spoke to acted as moderators of modern trends in hunting, often bringing 'destabilising' influences like social media and female hunters. Young hunters are enculturated into traditional hunting structures and, in the process, caught in a dialectic between modern influences and traditional hunting culture. Our findings highlight challenges such as 'false consensus' and 'ethical trade-offs' in the learning of hunting ethics, which emerge potentially due to a lack of space for deliberation on hunting ethics.
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| 29. |
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| 30. |
- Von Essen, Erica, et al.
(författare)
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Leisure or Labour: An Identity Crisis for Modern Hunting?
- 2020
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Ingår i: Sociologia Ruralis. - : Wiley. - 0038-0199 .- 1467-9523. ; 60, s. 174-197
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Modern hunting appears to be undergoing an identity crisis as a result of transitioning from labour to leisure. This transition is by no means linear or absolute. Today, hunting is framed both as a hobby for the leisure participant, and as a societal duty that delivers wildlife management, pest control for agriculture, sustainably sourced meat and euthanasia of injured wildlife. Hunting is hence doubly serious as 'serious leisure': it involves skill and perseverance, but it is also seen as serious in constituting societal labour. In this article, we employ netnographic research to examine how and in what contexts labour-leisure tensions are manifested among Swedish hunters. We observe hunters struggle with the balance between leisure and labour on four levels: (1) internally, when it comes to reconciling their personal motivations for hunting; (2) between hunters, resulting in the normative differentiation between 'urban leisure hunters' and everyday hunters in the countryside doing 'real' work; (3) between different hunting practices; and (4) between wanting to enjoy the freedom afforded by the leisure label, while also inviting formalisation of hunting's role as a public service, including compensation. Our findings show the contradiction between labour and leisure is also differently managed across these levels.
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| 31. |
- Wernersson, Hanna Charlotta, 1992, et al.
(författare)
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Making meat moral: A comparison of rearing and killing practices in Swedish cattle farming
- 2024
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Ingår i: SOCIOLOGIA RURALIS. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0038-0199 .- 1467-9523.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- To eat or not eat meat? That has become a central sustainability question. This article zooms in on the moral sustainability of cattle farming and does so from an on-farm perspective: through an ethnographic study of two Swedish cattle farms, we explore how rearing animals for food is made moral. The farms represent two distinct styles of farming, and discursive and non-discursive methods are used to analyse differences in narratives and practices. We combine insights from the farming styles literature with affective and multispecies approaches to theorise farming moralities as situated, embedded and relational beliefs that pertain to practices of work. Our study demonstrates how scale and endogeneity are key factors shaping farming morality by generating different on-farm notions of animal agency and interspecies relationships. We discuss the implications of this conclusion for a potential shift in meat practices.
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| 32. |
- Bååth, Jonas
(författare)
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Relational work in an alternative food network : The fundamental role of shared meaning for organising markets differently
- 2024
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Ingår i: Sociologia Ruralis. - 0038-0199.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article studies the role of shared meaning for organising Alternative Food Networks (AFNs). Extant research shows that organisational elements, such as rules, and hybridisation of conventional and alternative modes of food provisioning are important for AFN organisation. Yet, they might both enable and hinder the aims of AFNs. Complementing this body of research, the article investigates how AFN participants work out the appropriate kind of organisation for realising ‘a promise of difference’. Introducing Zelizer's ‘relational work’, the article investigates how AFN participants foster a shared meaning of participating and thereby identify what practices are appropriate for its organisation. The analysis draws on extensive ethnographic materials from Swedish REKO-rings (a direct marketing arrangement for local foods). The findings show how the REKO-ring participants’ relational work negotiates and establishes shared meaning; what practices are appropriate and inappropriate for organising decent food provisioning. The study contributes to extant research by showing the fundamental role of shared (and discordant) meaning for the organisation of market-based alternatives to the current food system.
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| 33. |
- Von Essen, Erica
(författare)
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Taking Prejudice Seriously: Burkean Reflections on the Rural Past and Present
- 2018
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Ingår i: Sociologia Ruralis. - : Wiley. - 0038-0199. ; 58, s. 543-561
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Urban-based nature conservation elites often condemn rural communities as backwards when they appeal to the value of tradition. Nevertheless, drawing from an interview study of Swedish hunters, we show that appeals to tradition express a coherent, if problematic, philosophical vision. We ask, then, two questions: (1) Do the ideas of Swedish hunters reflect a coherent philosophical vision? (2) Could this vision have a positive function in facilitating improved public dialogue over conservation policy? We examine this overlooked phenomenon of philosophical beliefs as the basis for contesting conservation policy. We also elucidate the negative consequences of this oversight for nature conservation policy debates. Finally, we discuss its positive function in nature conservation policy-making. Overall, we argue that policymakers should strive for a better understanding and appreciation of the hunters' philosophical vision and that the hunters themselves should strive to better articulate this vision rather than their resentments.
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