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2. Digital and virtual spaces as sites of extension and advisory services research: social media, gaming, and digitally integrated and augmented advice
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Klerkx, Laurens (author)
- Format:
- Editorial
- Publication Date:
- 2021-06-18
- Published:
- United States: Taylor and Francis
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 203 Document Number: D12224
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension, The
- Journal Title Details:
- Volume 27, Issue 3 Pages 277-286
- Notes:
- 11pgs, Taylor and Francis Online, The field of research on agricultural and rural extension and education, also referred to as advisory services and intermediaries, has always engaged with different aspects of the spaces in which agricultural producers (farmers, growers, ranchers) are situated and operate. In this editorial, I will reflect on the elements and environments which jointly constitute and shape the farm (Darnhofer 2020) and their connection with extension and advisory services in the digital age, opening up new digital and virtual spaces. Extension and advisory services receive ample consideration in current debates on digitalization and digital transformation of the agrifood sector, and are an important focus of attention for agriculture and food systems research, practice and policy (Ehlers, Huber, and Finger 2021; Ingram and Maye 2020; Klerkx 2020). In what follows, I will elaborate on some digital and virtual spaces as sites of extension and advisory services research, to progress the field of study for which The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension serves as a publication outlet.
3. Bridging behavioural factors and standard bio- economic modelling in an agent- based modelling framework
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Huber, Robert (author), Xion, Hang (author), Keller, Kevin (author), and Finger, Robert (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2021-05-17
- Published:
- United States: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D12349
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Agricultural Economics
- Notes:
- 29 pages, Agent-based models are important tools for simulating farmers’ behaviour in response to changing environmental, economic or institutional conditions and policies. This article introduces an agent-based modelling approach that combines behavioural factors with standard bio-economic modelling of agricultural production. More specifically, our framework integrates the cumulative prospect theory and social interactions with constrained optimisation decisions in agricultural production. We apply our modelling approach to an exemplary bio-economic model on the assessment of weed control decisions. Results show the effects of heterogeneous farm decision-making and social networks on mechanical weed control and herbicide use. This framework provides a generic and conceptually sound approach to improve the scope for representing farmers’ decision-making and allows the simulation of their decisions and recent advances in behavioural economics to be aligned with existing bio-economic models of agricultural systems.
4. Farm size shapes friend choice amongst rice producers in China: Some evidence for the theory of network ecology
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Simpson, Cohen R. (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2020-05
- Published:
- Netherlands: Elsevier
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 203 Document Number: D12269
- Journal Title:
- Social Networks
- Journal Title Details:
- v. 61
- Notes:
- 21 pages, Multiple dynamics jointly determine who we befriend, however, researchers have failed to systematically assess which processes matter most under different circumstances. Here I draw on observations around how the demands of paddy rice cultivation shape social interaction to demonstrate that the relative importance of reciprocity, transitivity and generalised exchange to who rice producers choose as friends varies with the amount of agricultural land under their control. In doing so, I use unique data on farm size and friendship amongst 4713 rice-growing smallholders in 162 rural villages in Jiangxi, China along with a new technique for measuring the relative importance of effects in Stochastic Actor-Oriented Models. In line with the micro-level component of the recently advanced “theory of network ecology”, results suggest that features of an individual’s proximal environment can powerfully moderate the relative expression of network-formation mechanisms such that for some individuals, a dynamic may be expected to hold substantial sway over the process of choosing social contacts and, for others, no sway at all.
5. The formation of agricultural e‐commerce clusters: a case from China
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Zeng, Yiwu (author), Hongdong, Guo (author), Yao, Yanfei (author), and Huang, Lu (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2019-08
- Published:
- Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 78 Document Number: D10821
- Journal Title:
- Growth and Change
- Notes:
- 19 pages., via online journal., Agricultural e‐commerce clusters are new phenomena that have emerged in rural China. In examining the case of Shuyang County in Jiangsu Province, this paper puts forward an integrated model revealing the formation mechanism of agricultural e‐commerce clusters. The paper shows that the formation of agricultural e‐commerce clusters involves four processes of technology introduction, technology diffusion, quality crisis, and industrial agglomeration based on elements such as industry bases, e‐commerce platforms, network facilities, logistics services, entrepreneurial talent, local government, and market demand. Rural social networks and imitation behaviors promote technology diffusion by reducing the cost of technology introduction, and industrial agglomeration is found in the economies showing a deepening of labor divisions and geographic agglomeration. Throughout the formation process, a quality crisis may occur due to a race to the bottom and the opportunistic behaviors of local farmers. This work suggests that regional e‐commerce development is a systematic project. Governments of developing countries should not only realize the positive impacts of e‐commerce for the development of the agricultural industry but also recognize the premise and logic of how e‐commerce can play a prominent role.
6. The importance of county fairs
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Grobosky, Shelia (author)
- Format:
- Commentary
- Publication Date:
- 2019-08-01
- Published:
- USA
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 82 Document Number: D10834
- Journal Title:
- Pork
- Notes:
- Via online issue. 2 pages.
7. Mobile technology and food access
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Wantchekon, Leonard (author) and Riaz, Zara (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2019-02-16
- Published:
- USA: Science Direct
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 12 Document Number: D10352
- Journal Title:
- World Development
- Journal Title Details:
- 117 : 344-356
- Notes:
- 13 pages., Via online journal., Access to food is a basic pillar of human development. It is therefore unsurprising that it features so centrally on global development agendas and that a robust, interdisciplinary literature seeks to examine its determinants. This study focuses on the relationship between mobile technology and food access. Specifically, we ask whether mobile technology can strengthen the relationship between food access and certain social and political factors such as remittance flows and political participation. We use Afrobarometer surveys and highly disaggregated data on 2G network coverage to estimate a multilevel model testing how increased connectivity measured by mobile technology influences food access. We show that mobile phone use and higher frequency of use are significantly and positively correlated with food access, but we do not find evidence that remittances and political participation levels can explain the mechanisms linking mobile technology and food access. The study highlights that connectivity can play a powerful role in shaping food outcomes even when controlling for commonly identified impediments such as income constraints or physical isolation. These findings suggest that policies aimed at improving food access should devote attention to strengthening both communication and physical infrastructure.
8. Gatekeepers, shareholders, and evangelists: expanding communication networks of African American forest landowners in North Carolina
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Hitchner, Sarah (author), Dwivedi, Puneet (author), Schelhas, John (author), and Jagadish, Arundhati (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2019-02-08
- Published:
- USA: Taylor & Francis
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 152 Document Number: D10140
- Journal Title:
- Society & Natural Resources
- Notes:
- 17 pages., via online journal article, The Sustainable Forestry and African American Land Retention Program (SFLR) was launched in 2012 to increase adoption of sustainable forestry practices among African American landowners in the southeastern United States to prevent land loss, increase forest health, and build economic assets. One of its main goals was to build communication networks through which African American landowners could obtain and share information about forestry practices and landowner assistance programs independent of public agencies. To measure and examine the growth of these communication networks over a three-year period (2014-2017), we conducted 87 interviews with landowners (24 of whom were interviewed multiple times), SFLR personnel, and Federal and State staff members in North Carolina. We used complementary methods of data gathering and analysis, including social network analysis and qualitative analysis. Our results showed expanding communication networks will be sustained independently of the program over time, although there is still a heavy reliance on program personnel.
9. Growing tiny publics: small farmers' social movement strategies
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Steup, Rosemary (author), Santhanam, Arvind (author), Logan, Marisa (author), Dombrowski, Lynn (author), and Makoto, Norman (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018-11
- Published:
- Netherlands: Elsevier B.V.
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 203 Document Number: D12243
- Journal Title:
- Proceedings of the ACM on Human- Computer Interaction
- Journal Title Details:
- Volume 2, Issue CSCW
- Notes:
- 24 pages, Drawing from fieldwork of 14 small food farms in the Midwest, we describe the on-the-ground, practical challenges of doing and communicating sustainability when local food production is not well-supported. We illustrate how farmers enact learned and honed tactics of sustainability at key sites such as farmers' markets and the Internet with consumers. These tactics reveal tensions with dominant discourse from government, Big Ag, and popular culture. The success of these tactics depends on farmers having fortitude--control, resilience, and the wherewithal to be exemplars of sustainability. In our discussion, we highlight how the local farmers' social movement work constitutes loosely organized small groups connecting others to an amorphous idea of a sustainable society--one that sustains an environmental, economic, local, cultural, and physical way of life. Using Fine's concept of tiny publics, we identify design opportunities for supporting this less directed kind of social movement.
10. Customer experience with farmers' markets: what hashtags can reveal
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Pilai, Ladislav (author), Balcarova, Tereza (author), Rojik, Stanislav (author), Ticha, Ivana (author), and Polakova, Jana (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018
- Published:
- International
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 12 Document Number: D10413
- Journal Title:
- International Food and Agribusiness Management Review
- Journal Title Details:
- 21(6) : 754-770
- Notes:
- Social media networks are increasing in popularity and have been integrated into many aspects of daily life. Analysis of the ways in which individuals use social media is important for understanding social, cultural, and environmental issues. This study examines experiences of farmers’ market customers through their self- expression on social networks. Contributions to the Instagram social network based on the #farmersmarket hashtag were gathered on a single day, yielding 19,398 contributions created by 13,862 users. Six major linked hashtags were identified (#Organic, #Fresh, #Food, #Local, #Vegan, and #Healthy), providing key indicators of the characteristics of farmers’ markets that are valued by customers. Four customer segments were identified: Product Oriented, Emotional Oriented, Social Oriented, and Product-Social Oriented, with strong interconnections identified between these communities. The results of this study provide insights into consumer values and behaviors in the farmers’ market context and will be of practical use for future marketing and management.