Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D08686
Notes:
Pages 43-66 in William Ascher and John M. Heffron (eds.), Cultural change and persistence: new perspectives on development. Palgrave McMillan, New YorkCity, New York. 263 pages.
Byrnes, Kerry J. (author) and Iowa State University, Ames, IA.
Format:
Dissertation
Publication Date:
1975
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: KerryByrnes2 Document Number: D00882
Notes:
Kerry J. Byrnes Collection, Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. 310pp.
McLaughlin, Martin M. (author / Senior Fellow, Overseas Development Council, Washington, D.C.) and Senior Fellow, Overseas Development Council, Washington, D.C.
Format:
Conference paper
Publication Date:
1978
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 34 Document Number: B03652
Notes:
James F. Evans Collection; Burton Swanson Collection, In: Proceedings of Special International Conference on Agricultural Technology for Developing Nations : farm mechanization alternatives for 1-10 hectare farms; 1978 may 23-24; University of Illinois, Urbana, IL. 1978.
Campbell, Rex R. (author) and Heffernan, William D. (author)
Format:
Book chapter
Publication Date:
1986
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: C14124
Notes:
Chapter 3 in Peter F. Korsching and Judith Gildner (eds.), Interdependencies of agriculture and rural communities in the Twenty-first Century. Conference proceedings, North Central Regional Center for Rural Development, Ames, Iowa. 237 pages.
12 pages., Via online journal., This article is concerned with the shaping of agricultural knowledge among farmers, in the context of the rapid changes Polish agriculture has been subject to since the time of the country's EU accession. The theoretical underpinnings of this work have been described in terms of the significant notional categories, i.e. knowledge, knowledge-cultures and sources of knowledge. The research made use of the joint interviews method. Interviews were run with representatives of different generations in 10 farming families in central Poland. The main research objective was to determine sources of farming knowledge among farmers. The use of joint interviews allowed for the identification of sources of knowledge of different kinds. These reflect a division into farmers' closer and more distant surroundings, i.e. to the family and neighbours on the one hand, and to institutions and media on the other. Knowledge acquisition among farmers is in fact found to be a complex process, reflecting socialisation in a multi-generation environment of family and neighbours, on the one hand, and the impact of the institutional and legal system, on the other. In a general sense, this corresponds to the well-known division of sources of knowledge into the tacit and the explicit, with the acquisition of tacit (i.e. informal) knowledge not meeting with any more major obstacles thanks to proximity in a sense that may be cultural (i.e. the agriculture itself), family-related (and in fact multi-generation) and spatial (physical proximity in a given locality). Microsocial conditioning thus plays a major role in the shaping of this source of knowledge. However, the most important factor distinguishing contemporary cultures as regards knowledge on farming is the capacity to adapt to conditions set by the institutions supporting the latter's development. Formal knowledge flowing into farming families from their institutional surroundings requires growing adaptability and preparation if a succession of innovations are to be taken on board. The multi-source nature of knowledge and the achievement of some kind of balance in this respect actually poses a major challenge for the future functioning of family farms as cultural microsystems.
