Resource Management and Geography - Theses
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ItemAs if the landscape matters: the social space of 'farming styles' in the Loddon catchment of Victoria( 2001)Farming practice is spatially and culturally constructed. Fanners define ‘good’ farming through the social relations of everyday life, and through observation of landscape change. ‘Farming Styles’ is a sociological concept that aims to understand apparent homogeneity within diverse agricultural regions. Existing theoretical and methodological approaches to ‘farming styles’ have been unable to decide whether styles are ‘real’, and have struggled to provide an understanding of why and how styles emerge. This thesis re-conceptualises 'farming styles' as emerging from common patterns of responses by farmers to structural, cultural and physical influences. I agree that styles of farmer exist, but I reject the notion that farmers choose a particular style of farming (and the strategies and repertoire of practices that are associated with that style) because individual perceptions differ with respect to aspects of each style. Data were collected in a mail-out survey of farmers in the Loddon catchment with farms with a capital improved value over $50 000 and from all industries (n==366). To test the hypothesis that styles emerge from patterns of beliefs and behaviours, farmers were assigned to 10 groups by K-Means clustering. The clustering process was based on respondents’ answers to 31 belief/attitude statements about farming. Data on reported behaviours were also collected with respect to: participation in industry training; involvement in strategic natural resource management planning (Regional Conservation Strategy and Salinity Management Plans); Landcare membership; and adoption of conservation works, farm planning and quality assurance. Different groups (fanning styles) are found to have different average behaviours, and these are consistent with their beliefs about farming. To test the hypothesis that there is a relationship between the distribution of fanning styles and landscape type, five focus groups involving 32 farmers (9 women, 23 men) were convened to explore the importance of the landscape to farmers in 'reading' clues to farming practice. The focus groups revealed that clues to 'good' and 'bad' fanning are important in fanners' understandings of the landscapes around them and that landscapes themselves are mythologised. The focus groups also explored the way in which fanners differentiate and distinguish landscapes, aiming to produce an ethno-taxonomy of landscape types within the Loddon catchment. While mapping landscape types from the perspective of farmers was difficult due to the variability in individual perceptions of landscape difference, there was relative consensus at the larger' land system' scale. The relationship between the distribution of fanning style (10 styles) and landscape type (6 land systems) is found to be significant (x2 = 75.87, 45df, p=0.003). The relationship between the distribution of fanning styles and shopping towns (groceries) is also significant (x2 = 317.30, 252df, p=0.003), as it is for farm supplies shopping towns (x2 = 301.52, 243df, p=O.006). The results suggest that both the observation of farming practices within the landscape and the social interaction of farmers at locales such as shopping towns reinforce patterns of behaviour and belief about fanning. Thus, the continual exposure to sets of particular ways of thinking and doing farming within the local setting provides the context within which farmers perceive and adjust their own farming practice. However, the range and extent of each farmer's social networks and behavioural space will vary, and thus different farmers will be exposed to a different range of options and influences. Despite the diversity in approaches to farming, and the variability of individual's social networks and spatial behaviours, the landscape is important because it provides an underlying, recognisable and meaningful set of symbolic and material evidences of farming practice. The landscape enables a farmer to compare and contrast a range of farm practice options against a benchmark that each farmer knows intimately - his or her own land.