Understanding the social-ecological Transformative potential of Farming initiatives (TransFarm)

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Berta Martín López
• Subject Area: Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Policy, Agricultural Sociology ; Empirical Social Research ; Ecology of Land Use
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 433163377

Drawing on the knowledge gained in VaNaTe, TransFarm expands its focus on values by exploring how farmers’ value systems can mobilize sustainability transformations. In TransFarm, we aim to comprehensively understand the transformative potential of farming initiatives, practices, projects, and organizations in the three study sites of the Biodiversity Exploratories. To do so, we draw on our research as part of VaNaTe about farmers’ values and two existing transformation frameworks: (1) ‘Seeds of Good Anthropocenes’ and (2) values-rule-knowledge. Specifically, we aim (1) to identify archetypes of farming transformations based on the decision-making patterns of these ‘Seeds’ as defined by their values, rules, and knowledge (scientific objective 1, WP1), (2) to characterize these archetypes based on their transformative outcomes (scientific objective 2, WP2), and (3) to explore the hindering and enabling conditions and processes that influence the potential to leverage transformations (scientific objective 3, WP3). To identify archetypes of farming ‘Seeds of Good Anthropocenes’ based on the values, rules, and knowledge underlying their decision-making, in WP1, we conduct semi-structured interviews, content analysis, and multivariate statistics. To assess the transformative potential of the Seeds, we examine the Seeds’ (1) main impacts, sustainability outputs, and outcomes, and (2) actions to purposively increase their transformative impact. In WP3, we explore the hindering and enabling conditions and processes that influence the potential to leverage transformations through qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) of the interviews and focus groups. TransFarm enriches the existing database of the Biodiversity Exploratories by providing new data on the societal aspects that contribute to leverage sustainability transformations in farming systems and provides critical information to inform how to foster sustainability transformations in grasslands and arable fields in rural Germany. By adding the transformative dimension, TransFarm provides a novel aspect to the Biodiversity Exploratories while contributing to the research field of transformative change.

• DFG Programme: Infrastructure Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 1374: Biodiversity Exploratories