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Can resilience thinking provide useful insights for those examining efforts to transform contemporary agriculture?

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Abstract

Agricultural industries in developed countries may need to consider transformative change if they are to respond effectively to contemporary challenges, including a changing climate. In this paper we apply a resilience lens to analyze a deliberate attempt by Australian governments to restructure the dairy industry, and then utilize this analysis to assess the usefulness of resilience thinking for contemporary agricultural transformations. Our analysis draws on findings from a case study of market deregulation in the subtropical dairy industry. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with dairy producers, their service providers, and industry and government staff. We found the adaptive cycle concept contributed to understanding how deregulation changed industry structures and working practices, how those changes led to feedbacks within the production system and supply chain, and how the industry following deregulation has experienced periods of stability and instability. Regime shifts were associated with an increase in demand for human capital, a degradation of cognitive social capital and a reduction in farm income. Findings identified that were not readily explained by the resilience thinking conceptual framework include a producer’s ability to anticipate and make choices and the change in social and power relationships in the industry.

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Abbreviations

NCP:

National competition policy

NSW:

New South Wales

SES:

Social-ecological system

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, Wollongbar, NSW, 2477, Australia

    Katrina Sinclair

  2. Institute for Land, Water and Society, Charles Sturt University, Albury, NSW, 2640, Australia

    Allan Curtis

  3. National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training, Charles Sturt University, Albury, NSW, 2640, Australia

    Emily Mendham

  4. School of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, 7000, Australia

    Michael Mitchell

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  1. Katrina Sinclair
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  2. Allan Curtis
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  3. Emily Mendham
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  4. Michael Mitchell
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Correspondence to Katrina Sinclair.

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Sinclair, K., Curtis, A., Mendham, E. et al. Can resilience thinking provide useful insights for those examining efforts to transform contemporary agriculture?. Agric Hum Values 31, 371–384 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-014-9488-4

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