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In a time of great agricultural and rural change, the notion of 'multifunctionality' has remained under-theorized and poorly linked to wider debates in the social sciences. This book analyses the extent to which the proposed transition towards post-productivist agriculture holds up to scientific scrutiny, and proposes a modified productivist/non-productivist model that better encapsulates the complexity of agricultural and rural change. By combining existing notions and concepts, this book (re)conceptualizes agricultural change, creating a new transition theory, and a new way of looking at the future of agriculture.
Part 1: Conceptualising Transition; Theorising transition; Transitions: Social and natural science debates; Reconceptualising transition: The complexity of transitory systems; Part 2: From Productivist to Post-Productivist - and back again?; Productivist agriculture; Post-productivist agriculture; 'Post-productivism' or 'non-productivism'? Part 3: Conceptualising Multifunctional Agricultural Systems; Contemporary conceptualisations of multifunctionality; (Re)conceptualising multifunctionality; Multifunctional agricultural transitions.
Multifunctionality is emerging as a key concept in contemporary debates about agricultural and rural change. Geoff Wilson's book attempts one of the intellectually most ambitious surveys of the issues to date and will be an important source book for anyone interested in the way ideas and competing policy concepts are reshaping the rural world. Clive Potter, Imperial College London, UK"
