The aim of this book is to improve the understanding of transition processes in European agriculture. It focuses on 'emerging transitions' - how new organizational forms and technologies change, and are changed by, mainstream actors and practices in the agricultural sector. This is achieved through ...

This chapter delves further into the definitions of sustainability and transition and the key challenges (including recession, outmigration and global competition) to achieving sustainability transitions in European agriculture; and concludes with brief insights into the content of subsequent...

The primary purpose of this book has been to assess the mechanisms involved in enabling sustainability transitions in European agriculture. This chapter highlights the cross-cutting themes from the research, emphasizing in particular the implications for sustainability transitions and the role of...

This chapter presents the core characteristics of studies of 'socio-technical transitions to sustainability', focusing on the multi-level perspective (MLP) and niche-regime linking. It includes a very brief overview of previous work on niche-internal processes, which was situated within research on ...

This chapter establishes the backdrop for regional-level transition in European agriculture, through an analysis of trends in the agricultural sector and rural areas over the past 30 years, proposing a typology of rural areas in Europe. It first sketches out the structure and diversity of European...

This chapter identifies the challenges of operationalizing the multi-level perspective (MLP) in empirical field research, and draws on experiences from field work in the FarmPath project as a case study of how these issues can be addressed. The purpose of the FarmPath project is to examine...

This chapter deals with the role of 'countryside consumption' as a driver of change in agricultural and land-based activities in Europe. It analyses how increasing utilization of the countryside as a space of consumption (such as for amenity, living space, and leisure activities) has led to a shift ...

This chapter provides insights into the role of collaboration in transition processes in agriculture. It shows how collaboration can be conceptualized as a socio-technical innovation, based on the in-depth analysis of three initiatives (machinery rings in eastern Scotland, CRIE Montado in Portugal...

This chapter focuses on possible transition pathways towards sustainable agriculture through an understanding of the environmental, social, cultural and economic advantages of 'high nature value farming' (HNVF) and its implications for European regions. The overall objective is to explore how the...

Transitions relating to public goods from the agricultural sector, particularly water quality, are addressed in this chapter. The common characteristic of the three case studies presented in this chapter is that they focus on areas where agriculture is exerting pressure on water resources. The...