Article,
Co-construction of agency and environmental management. The case of agri-environmental policy implementation at Finnish farms
Journal of Rural Studies, 22 (2): 205-216 (2006/4)
Abstract
One of the main challenges of European environmental policies is to
recruit local-level actors to fulfil set targets. This article explores
how targets of European agri-environmental policy have been achieved
in Finland. It also analyses how implementation practices produce
conditions for agri-environmental management and how policy success--or
sustainability in general--relates to the different actors' capacities
to act. It is argued that we need to adopt a relational view in order
to analyse the success and outcome of agri-environmental policy.
This article assesses the ways in which the actor-network theory
could contribute to this discussion by a notion of co-construction
of agency. The empirical part of the article follows farmers' sociologies.
The practices and conceptualisations through which the policy goals
are translated into farming practices are analysed, and it is shown
how different forms of knowledge have become relevant stakes in the
politics of agri-environmental management. It is argued, that the
notion of co-construction of agency will help to open up the translation
process and scaling between local and universal knowledge. Most importantly,
it reveals the different forms of resistance deriving from farming
practices. Finally the challenges that the notion of co-construction
of agency poses for the agri-environmental policy are discussed.
