R-05/08 Agricultural Restructuring and Family farming in Norway. Strategier for sustainable practices
The report is the authors dr.polit thesis (sociology) at the University of Science and Technology. The thesis consists of seven published papers and a synthesizing introduction. Why does family farming still exist? Why do many choose to farm when economic output fails, policy continuously changes and prospects for an improvement in the farming situation seem unlikely? Making a living is one side of it, maintaining traditions and values another. Structural perspectives have dominated traditional analysis of family farming. This thesis adds an actor sensitive perspective to the classical questions of the sociology of agriculture when it asks; how people in farming, who hold a diversity of backgrounds and engage in a variety of modes of production, challenge or adapt differently to new societal expectations of a social, environmental and economically sustainable agriculture. Gender perspectives are employed on these questions.