The Transformation to Organic: Insights from Practice Theory - Organic Food and Agriculture: New Trends and Developments in the Social Sciences - page 177

with integrative practices, which cover complex entities. There the acting and speaking is
diverse, but is combined through practical understanding or a set of rules and a teleo-
affective structure (goal oriented; combined with emotions etc.). Practical understanding is
thus the capability to do or say something.
Fifth, some practices are in a certain sense self-evident (non-discursive), while others are
discussed (i.e., discursive) (Reckwitz 2008a). Non-discursive practices are socially normed
and routinized forms of behavior, which comprise certain knowledge, or “know how”,
including interpretations, motivations and emotions. Discursive practices on the other hand
are temporary and intended to be the starting point for new practices (Schatzki 2002, 85).
Reckwitz assigns the discourses as primary generators of meaning for orders of thinking
and saying (2008b, 193).
Sixth, an additional approach for distinguishing practices is how actor and actants are
involved in their practices. Inter-subjective practices ask for more than one actor and are
discourse oriented. Inter-objective practices are those between objects or artifacts and are
self referential, if the practice is directed towards the individual (Reckwitz 2002a, 206). Adler
(2005) describes in this context, communities of practices, as communities of common
distributed actions instead of a common organizational structure.
4. The social practice perspective of agricultural transformation processes
4.1 Approach
In order to understand this overall process of transformation, it is important to have a
broader view of the farm history from the non-organic period through the start of acquiring
organic status. For the purposes of discussion we compare a 'typical' high-intensive non-
organic farm with an 'ideal type' of diversified organic farm 8 . In addition, we use the case of
a farmer who wishes to become certified, according a set of national organic standards or
regulations. Finally, we consider the transformation process as one of moving from non-
organic farming practices through a series of practices to becoming 'organic'. We use plant
production with a focus on selected practices, such as crop rotation, weeding techniques,
pesticide and fertilizer use in the three phases - non-organic, organic and the transformation
towards organic.
The diverse farm histories, the complexity of agricultural practices, the diversity of farm
structures and agro-ecological realities, farmers and their families and the understanding of
a farm as an individuality, all of these teach us to be cautious with generalizations of
farming arrangements and practices. However, there are some patterns, which characterize
the types of farms on which we will focus in the following analysis. These are the
arrangements -“assemblages of material objects, persons, artifacts, organisms, and things” -
(Schatzki 2006, 1864), which are widely accepted as part of farming practices and the
structural and organizational environment of the farm. However, these only partly inform
how the practices are carried out.
We select several relevant characteristics, which frame non-organic and organic farming
(Figure 2) and which describe the main artifacts and natural objects, etc. used in plant
production (Table 3), and to make the systemic character of agricultural approaches more
explicit. Moreover, we introduce with Table 3 the paradigms (cf. Lorand 1996, modified;
Beus and Dunlap 1990; Guba 1990) of non-organic and organic agriculture in order to serve
8 We do not consider the multiple changes or practices after a farm is recognition as an organic farm.