Multifunctional Agricultural Policies – Pathways towards Sustainable Rural Development?

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

The article starts from two assumptions: it understands global shocks as both social-ecological crises and, as a way out of them, offering sustainable development.
Sustainability in the area of agricultural policies and rural development is inherently connected to multifunctionality, a leading principle of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
To make a real estimate of the contribution of multifunctional agricultural policies to sustainable rural development, this article argues that the possibilities
need to be discussed of integrating different and partly contradictory rural development goals and objectives. An understanding of sustainable development is therefore developed whose purpose is not to unify the un-unifiable, but which asks for sustainable economies that preserve and regenerate society’s ecological and social functions.
This is the heuristic background against which two CAP documents are analysed:
the rural development regulation EFRAD, on the one hand, and the Community
Strategic Guidelines for Rural Development on the other. The analysis demonstrates the multiple biases and internal contradictions proposed that make it hard to identify pathways towards sustainable development.
As a result, two interpretations of multifunctional agricultural policies are generated:
adaptation sees multifunctional agricultural policies from a critical perspective,
and argues that the economic mechanisms and strategies that have led to the crises in rural areas are reproduced rather than reflected upon. Transformation introduces a visionary perspective in its argument that multifunctional agricultural
policies lead to a changed and extended perspective, so that (re)productive economies can be developed and established, and a transformation process initiated
towards sustainable rural development
Original languageEnglish
JournalInternational Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food
Volume21
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)97-114
Number of pages18
ISSN0798-1759
Publication statusPublished - 2014

Recently viewed

Researchers

  1. Ulrike Pilarczyk

Publications

  1. The Ecological Impact of Time
  2. Lesarten des Natürlichen
  3. Solid solution treatment on strength and corrosion of biodegradable Mg6Ag wires
  4. University students' sense of coherence, future worries and mental health
  5. Understanding relational values in cultural landscapes in Romania and Germany
  6. Selbst is(s)t der Mann - Essen kochen in der Jugendarbeit
  7. Flow und imaginative Bildung
  8. Klein, Naomi (b. 1970) and the Movement Against Neoliberal Globalization
  9. Using social media photos to explore the relation between cultural ecosystem services and landscape features across five European sites
  10. Forschung für nachhaltige entwicklungen
  11. Gefühle als Atmosphären
  12. Adolescence in times of social-ecological crisis. Perspectives for social pedagogical analysis and research
  13. Gefahrenwahrnehmung im Straßenverkehr
  14. "Durch den Tod hindurch ging ich hinein ins Leben"
  15. Überwachung operationeller Risiken mit Frühwarnindikatoren
  16. Access to Information on Legislative Proceedings - Case Note on Judgment of the Court (2nd Chamber) of 18 July 2013 - C 515/11
  17. The effect of elevated CO2 concentration and nutrient supply on carbon-based plant secondary metabolites in Pinus sylvestris L.
  18. Rechtsgespräche
  19. Lesen
  20. Entrepreneurship in Africa: What do we know and where do we have to go from here?
  21. Beschäftigung statt Ruhestand
  22. Die Angst vor Migranten. Gefühle als Modus des politischen Denkens
  23. Degrees in economic psychology
  24. Zwischen Weltveränderung und Innerlichkeit
  25. Der städtische Raum
  26. Die Finanzierung des Flächenrecyclings durch Kreditinstitute
  27. Weltarmut und geistiges Eigentum
  28. Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung
  29. Perceived Price Fairness in Pay-What-You-Want
  30. Analyse von Lernmaterialien zum „Satz des Pythagoras“ für einen inklusiven Matehmatikunterricht in der Sek. I