10 pages., Via online journal., Development of natural resource user typologies has been viewed as a potentially
effective means of improving the effectiveness of natural resource management engagement
strategies. Prior research on Corn Belt farmers’ perspectives on climate change employed
a latent class analysis (LCA) that created a six-class typology—the Concerned, Uneasy,
Uncertain, Unconcerned, Confident, and Detached—to develop a better understanding of
farmer perspectives on climate change and inform more effective climate adaptation and
mitigation outreach strategies. The LCA employed 34 variables that are generally unobservable—beliefs about climate change, experience with extreme weather, perceived risks of
climate change, and attitudes toward climate action—to identify types. The research reported
in this paper builds on this typology of Corn Belt farmers by exploring 33 measures of observable farm enterprise characteristics, land management practices, and farmer demographics to
assess whether variations in these observable characteristics between the six farmer classes
display systematic patterns that might be sufficiently distinctive to guide audience segmentation strategies. While analyses detected some statistically significant differences, there were
few systematic, meaningful observable patterns of difference between groups of farmers with
differing perspectives on climate change. In other words, farmers who believe that anthropogenic climate change is occurring, that it poses risks to agriculture, and that adaptive action
should be taken, may look very much like farmers who deny the existence of climate change
and do not support action. The overall implication of this finding is that climate change
engagement efforts by Extension and other agricultural advisors should use caution when
looking to observable characteristics to facilitate audience segmentation. Additional analyses
indicated that the farmer types that tended to be more concerned about climate change and
supportive of adaptive action (e.g., Concerned and Uneasy) reported that they were more
influenced by key private and public sector actors in agricultural social networks. On the
other hand, farmers who were not concerned about climate change or supportive of adaptation (e.g., the Unconcerned, Confident, and Detached groups, comprising between one-third
and one-half of respondents) were less integrated into agricultural networks. This suggests that
Extension and other agricultural advisors should expand outreach efforts to farmers who are
not already within their spheres of influence.
9 pages., via online journal., Natural Resource Management (NRM) can be looked upon from different perspectives: (1) the bio‐physical science perspective, (2) the economic perspective and (3) the social actor perspective. After briefly contrasting the three complementary perspectives, the article focuses on the third, which is the least developed. The social actor perspective requires that one distinguish between (1) the natural resource (be it a farm, a water catchment, underground water resources, etc.) and (2) the social actors who hold a stake in, and/or affect it. These stakeholders ideally form a platform for integral decision making about the natural resource. The platform/resource combination highlights communication processes of interest in sustainable NRM: creating a rich picture of intentions and realities; (land use) negotiation and accommodation; making things visible; raising the level of social aggregation at which platforms operate; and information systems for platform decision support. Such and other platform processes need active facilitation. The article outlines the implications for communication support, and explores professional contributions.
Huysveld, Sophie (author), Van Meensel, Jef (author), Van linden, Veerle (author), De Meester, Steven (author), Peiren, Nico (author), Muylle, Hilde (author), Dewulf, Jo (author), and Lauwers, Ludwig (author)
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
2017-01
Published:
Belgium: Elsevier
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 161 Document Number: D07798
Holt-Gimenez, Eric (author) and Mora, Orlando Cruz (author)
Format:
Book chapter
Publication Date:
1993
Published:
Nicaragua
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: C17247
Notes:
Pages 51-65 in Carine Alders, Bertus Haverkort and Laurens van Veldhuizen (eds.), Linking with farmers: networking for low-external-input and sustainable agriculture. Intermediate Technology Publications, London, UK. 298 pages.
Hiemstra, Wim (author), Benedictus, Fokke (author), de Bruin, Rene (author), and de Jong, Pieter (author)
Format:
Book chapter
Publication Date:
1993
Published:
Netherlands
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: C17248
Notes:
Pages 67-80 in Carine Alders, Bertus Haverkort and Laurens van Veldhuizen (eds.), Linking with farmers: networking for low-external-input and sustainable agriculture. Intermediate Technology Publications, London, UK. 298 pages.
