TY - CHAP
T1 - Globalisation and local agricultural landscapes
T2 - patterns of change, policy dilemmas and research questions
AU - Swaffield, Simon
AU - Primdahl, Jørgen
PY - 2010/1/1
Y1 - 2010/1/1
N2 - Introduction The rich diversity of agricultural landscapes within developed economies that have evolved around the world over sometimes thousands of years are now becoming more and more interconnected. The local agents who manage these landscapes - farmers, other landowners, managers and communities - are increasingly part of a global network society (Castells, 2000), made up of transnational organisations, rapidly changing global markets and international policy imperatives, linked through new technologies (Stringer and Le Heron, 2008). The interrelatedness of local landscape change with the processes of globalisation was illustrated in the opening chapter of this volume through an account of two dairy farmers on opposite sides of the world, each affected in various ways by the intersecting dynamics of market liberalisation and sustainability agendas. The farmers' situation was described on a November morning in 2007. In the 12 months that followed, much happened in the global network society of which they are both part. A global financial crisis led to economic recession in developed and developing countries, and as a consequence, the two farmers had to deal with increasingly volatile market conditions for their products, currency fluctuations and a rapid change in the environment for new investment. Both farmers experienced a sharp introduction to the economy of food (Marsden, Morgan, 2007), when the cooperatives to whom they supply milk were both affected by a food safety scandal in China involving contamination of milk powder, which affected the lives and health of thousands of babies.
AB - Introduction The rich diversity of agricultural landscapes within developed economies that have evolved around the world over sometimes thousands of years are now becoming more and more interconnected. The local agents who manage these landscapes - farmers, other landowners, managers and communities - are increasingly part of a global network society (Castells, 2000), made up of transnational organisations, rapidly changing global markets and international policy imperatives, linked through new technologies (Stringer and Le Heron, 2008). The interrelatedness of local landscape change with the processes of globalisation was illustrated in the opening chapter of this volume through an account of two dairy farmers on opposite sides of the world, each affected in various ways by the intersecting dynamics of market liberalisation and sustainability agendas. The farmers' situation was described on a November morning in 2007. In the 12 months that followed, much happened in the global network society of which they are both part. A global financial crisis led to economic recession in developed and developing countries, and as a consequence, the two farmers had to deal with increasingly volatile market conditions for their products, currency fluctuations and a rapid change in the environment for new investment. Both farmers experienced a sharp introduction to the economy of food (Marsden, Morgan, 2007), when the cooperatives to whom they supply milk were both affected by a food safety scandal in China involving contamination of milk powder, which affected the lives and health of thousands of babies.
M3 - Book chapter
SN - 978-0-521-51789-8
T3 - Studies in Landscape Ecology
SP - 245
EP - 270
BT - Globalisation and agricultural landscapes
A2 - Primdahl, Jørgen
A2 - Swaffield, Simon
PB - Cambridge University Press
ER -