Introduction - Transition Pathways towards Sustainability in Agriculture: Case Studies from Europe - page 2

 Of particular concern has been the potential impact of climate change, especially

with regard to water availability (mainly in southern Europe, but also in northern
and Eastern Europe) and shifting agricultural zones northwards, leading to increased
environmental uncertainty for rural stakeholders (Cline, 2007; Mestre-Sanchis and
Feijoo-Bello, 2009) and potential impacts on production (Wilson, 2007).

In the European context, issues linked to rural development (e.g. depopulation and
ageing in rural areas, preservation of cultural landscapes, demand for recreation spaces
close to urban areas) also play an important role in the search for a more sustainable agr i-
food system (Robinson, 2008). There is also concern about the lack of young people in
agriculture. Some European countries suffer from a shortage of young people taking up
farming as a profession, caused by inadequate generational turnover and leading to ageing
populations and greying communities (Eurostat, 2011).
These challenges demonstrate both the need and opportunity for transition in European
agriculture. In this topic we assess transition processes: fundamental changes that
incorporate processes of societal, ecological, economic, cultural, technological and
institutional co-evolution (Loorbach and Frantzeskaki, 2009). Transitions involve several
sectors or sub-sectors as well as a range of societal actors at multiple scales. Through the
interdependency and co-evolution of these, society or an important societal subsystem,
fundamentally changes. A transition is thus qualitatively different from an incremental
change that is limited in scope (e.g. does not affect a whole sector of the economy), in time
(is only a fad and does not stabilize) or in space (only takes place in some regions). For a
transition to occur, different developments and actors at regional and national levels have to
come together, engendering a development pathway based on new practices, technologies,
knowledge, institutions, social organization, guiding principles and values.
The aim of this topic is to improve our understanding of transition processes in
European agriculture. We focus on 'emerging transitions' - how new organizational forms
and technologies change, and are changed by, mainstream actors and practices in the
agricultural sector. This is achieved through an integration of recent academic theory on
transition and change in agricultural systems and assessing its utility for empirical research.
The multi-level perspective (MLP) on system transition (Geels et al ., 2004; Geels and
Schot, 2010) is applied to clusters of case studies, which focus on different types and
aspects of transition processes within agriculture. Our purpose in studying transition in
agriculture is not only to understand how change has occurred, but to assess how
intervention can successfully be made to facilitate sustainability transitions. Most of the
cases studied in this topic have had active policy intervention, although some demonstrate
that transition processes can occur endogenously without such assistance. In this chapter we
delve further into the definitions of sustainability and transition, key challenges to
achieving sustainability transitions, and conclude with brief insights into the content of
subsequent chapters.