Ruralis Brage
Not a member yet
495 research outputs found
Sort by
Towards sustainable family farming and independent food co-operatives in Cuba? Possible lessons from Norway.
Get PDFpublishedVersio
Nasjonen som eigedsomsfellesskap: Nasjonsbyggingstradisjonen frå Philadelphia og Eidsvoll
Get PDFsubmittedVersio
Dairy farmers’ job satisfaction and the influence of automatic milking systems
Get PDFpublishedVersio
Rural communities and schools-valuing and reproducing local culture
Get PDFSchool closures are frequently and widely discussed and provoke debates both at the local community level and in national arenas. Our study was inspired by the local resistance to school closures in Norwegian rural areas, asking how local inhabitants cope with threats of school closure. The study is based on seven group interviews with parents, grandparents, and teachers in four rural communities which have experienced recurring threats of school closure. In this article we explore how they argued to keep their schools open and how this links with valuing and reproducing local communities and cultures. The teachers and parents reported on extended school-community activities involving local populations and next of kin across generations. Through the school the inhabitants possess resources enabling them to deal with the activities and ceremonies that belong to life in general, and which frame and give integrity to their lives in the local community. When introducing village activities at school and school activities in the village, multi-generational learning and socialisation become part of the rural community's viability and continuity. The school imports and transfers knowledge related to the curriculum (natural science, math, history, geography) through practical events and exercises. These practices and activities potentially also inspire and create new generations of hunters, fishermen and mountain hikers giving them a sense of belonging to and being affiliated with the local community. The gendered aspects of rural life and how this is reflected in the teachers' practices and local inhabitants' participation in school activities became evident when analysing practices toward hunting and fishing. Whether the school-community-nature practices preserve or explode traditional gender ideologies is to be researched further.acceptedVersio
Territorial fitting of small farms in Europe
Get PDFThis paper proposes a novel concept of territorial fitting for the analysis of the functioning of small farms in broader food, environmental, and socio-economic systems. We elaborate on the framing and definition of ter-ritorial fitting (TF) in relation to other concepts, such as territorial and social embeddedness, nested markets and territorial governance. Based on an analysis of empirical manifestations of territorial fitting as found in sample studies of small farms in Latvia, Portugal, and Norway we determine dimensions of territorial fitting such as natural resources, integrated landscape, social ties, and economic ties. Our approach to the identification and articulation of TF is characteristic of exploratory studies that attempt to conceptualise emerging findings. The study suggests that TF works by: (i) improving integration in niche markets and regional food systems; (ii) supporting micro-management of nature and eco-systems; (iii) connecting fields of activity, like agriculture, forestry, rural and environmental services; and (iv) establishing new territorial linkages. We argue that the concept of territorial fitting has the potential for further research on the role of small farms in food systemspublishedVersio