Government has been influential in substantially changing land management in England since WWII and currently aims to help farmers to become more sustainable. A five year project in Norfolk worked with 31 , farmers, 13 communities, and many partner organisations to define and measure the sustainability of land management on each farm holding. Substantial variation in the sustainability of land management was discovered. Farmers themselves defined a number of key factors aff~cting their land management, including social capital. Using a locally adapted World Bank technique (SoCAT) to measure social capital, all 31 farmers engaged with the measurement process showed a rapid, instinctive grasp of the concept. Spearman's Rank Correlation coefficient revealed a strong, positive association between the overall sustainability of land management and all aspects of social capital (r=0.687, p<O.Ol). Patterns of correlation between the two variables guided qualitative data collection using a grounded theory approach. Six plausible mechanisms by which social capital might affect land management were identified using quantitative and qualitative methods. These were: i) 'Buy-Out': effective partnerships with government agencies to achieve policy outcomes; ii) Commodity Markets: farmers' changing relationships with their buyers; iii) Unwritten, Unspoken: how norms of rural conduct affect public good provision; iv) Village Engagement: noblesse oblige, prestige and local people; v) Social learning: creativity and exclusion amongst farmers; vi) The Dating Game: social failures in cooperation. Four of the six mechanisms assisted some, but not all, farmers to become more sustainable. This in tum led to increasing polarisation between the most- and least-sustainable farms. Trials to increase bonding, bridging and linking social capital were successful. Low-cost methods involving a range of local stakeholders, operating at a domestic scale and using women to overcome conflict were more successful than better-resourced methods operating with larger, homogenous groups of farmers. Policy makers should learn to use social capital (and overcome social deficit) to assist farmers' transitions towards more sustainable land management.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:495572 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Hall, E. J. B. |
| Publisher | University of Essex |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
Page generated in 0.0015 seconds