Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
sustainability issues of the region were identified and classified according to their relation
to the three sustainability pillars (environmental, economic, social). These sustainability
issues were then connected with the niche dimensions and niche-regime interactions. More
specifically, these sustainability issues were used as one axis of a matrix, whilst the
'dimensions' of primary activities and impacts of the initiative were placed on the other
axis. Three such matrices were constructed, one for each pillar of sustainability. These
inductively identified 'sustainability criteria' were then compared with lists of indicators
proposed by the research team, based on established indicator sets, such as the 'Signals'
series of reports by the European Environmental Agency (2002).
Using the indicator list,
appropriate indicators were selected for the issue and dimension concerned. There could be
more than one indicator per cell: the same indicator could be used for more than one issue.
The impact of the initiative on a specific indicator was graded by a (+) positive, (-) negative
or (=) invariant. This assessment was accompanied by a justification and (where possible)
quantification of the grading. The change in an indicator towards one direction could be
positive for one sustainability pillar or issue, while negative for another. A good example of
this is the expansion of an irrigated area: it is a positive development in terms of economic
sustainability, while negative in terms of environmental sustainability.
An 'a-spatial' transition?
To date, it has been mainly the temporal aspects of transitions that have been explored
through the MLP, with the core concept of the 'regime' defined in terms of a functional
space. However, recent research on sustainability has shown the lack of a clear
conceptualization of the geographical dimension of historical and emerging transition
processes (Cooke, 2010; Coenen and Truffer, 2012).
In addition, other strands of literature suggest the pursuit of sustainability through the
relocalization
of modern agriculture and food systems (Feagan, 2007). For example, efforts
to analyse contemporary agriculture from a transition-to-sustainability perspective involve a
serious critique of the 'modernization' paradigm in agriculture; this implies, inter alia, the
reconnection of agriculture with specific agro-ecological contexts (Roep and Wiskerke,
2004). Moreover, agriculture has always been a highly heterogeneous activity. Various
structural characteristics are always intertwined with sectoral specialization within concrete
geographical and territorial contexts. The spatial character of recent restructuring
developments in the global agri-food system have also been identified, despite forceful
concentrating trends. This is evident, as “models of emerging alternatives can help
relocalize production/consumption relationships in the food system in equitable ways. In
other words, in relationships that are personalised and sustainable, and that are embedded in
place and community” (Hendrickson and Heffernan, 2002:361). The spatial embeddedness
of the agri-food system is also stressed recently by Marsden (2013), along with the need for
the creation of policy spaces for more place-based forms of reflexive governance in the
study of transitions to sustainability.
In the light of these findings, the focus of this research on
regional
scale and the
agri-
food
sector, has some methodological implications, related to the spatial character of the
transitions under study. The emphasis on the regional scale permeates the analytical
framework of this research (see Darnhofer, this volume). In addition to this overall
emphasis on the regional scale, the current research includes various explicit references to
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