Browsing by Author "Leeuwis, C."
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- Communication for Rural Innovation: Rethinking Agricultural ExtensionLeeuwis, C. (Oxford, United Kingdom: Blackwell Science Ltd, 2003)The aim of this book is to adapt the view of what agriculture extension is and why it is important. This opening chapter outlines the problems that agriculture extensions are facing, breaking them down into two sections: challenges that farmer and agriculture face, and challenges within the agriculture extension. The authors provide areas for challenges that farmers and agriculture face through: food production, food security and intensification; poverty alleviation, income generation and future prospects; sustainability, ecosystems and natural resource management; globalization and market liberalization; multi-functional agriculture; agrarian reform; food safety and chain management; and knowledge intensity, knowledge society and commoditization of knowledge. Challenges within the agriculture extension involve: dealing with collective issues; co-designing rather than disseminating innovations; matching the technical and social dimensions of an innovation; catering for diverse farming and livelihood strategies; managing complexity, conflict and unpredictability; becoming learning organizations; being brokers in an era of participation; coping with dwindling resources; and changing professional identities. Although these issues deal with agriculture and land-use, they also broadly encompass rural resource management. The authors note that the problems that humans face are partly man-made and can be solved largely through effective communication. They conclude that agriculture extension's new role should be "to manage communication in processes that are somehow aimed to bring about new patterns of coordination."
- Understanding human practices: The example of farmingLeeuwis, C. (Oxford, United Kingdom: Blackwell Science Ltd, 2003)In this chapter, the authors use the practices (things that people do on a regular basis) of farmers to illustrate a model developed to understand human practices and/or responses to proposed changes. Broadly speaking, the model suggests what people do or do not do depends on what they: BELIEVE to be true, ASPIRE to achieve, think they are ABLE to do, and think they are ALLOWED and/or EXPECTED to do. It draws on several disciplines including agrarian and rural sociology, anthropology, and social psychology, and is further refined by acknowledging and explaining the interrelations between the variables. The model simply offers a checklist for identifying factors explaining what people do, what they refuse to do and also what they already do, revealing entry points for contributing to change and innovation by influencing the four variables. The model provides various insights into the potential, limitations and principles of communication for innovation which the authors briefly highlight and discuss in further chapters.