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Resilience and why it matters for farm management

2014; Oxford University Press; Volume: 41; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/erae/jbu012

1464-3618

I. Darnhofer,

Agriculture and Rural Development Research

This paper examines the concept of resilience and its increasing use in the face of both economic uncertainty and climate change, and applies it to farm management. Resilience is understood as encompassing buffer, adaptive and transformative capability. I argue that resilience thinking offers alternative insights into farm management and how farmers balance short-term efficiency and long-term transformability, balance exploitation and exploration. Farm resilience can be strengthened or eroded by policy measures and family dynamics. Overall resilience proposes an alternative conceptual lens to one building on equilibrium, thus highlighting complex dynamics and the role of farmer agency in navigating change.