Beyond Productivism?

1. SOC226 Rural Sociology
Topic 4
Beyond productivism?

2. Topic objectives
• Understand the concept of ‘multifunctionality’
and its merits and limitations in making sense
of changes in agricultural policies and rural
economies.
• Explain how the concept of multifunctionality
is applicable in an Australian rural context.
• Assess the extent to which multifunctionality
might contribute to more sustainable rural
spaces.
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3. Multifunctionality
A term that:
• Refers ‘to the multiple outcomes from
agriculture, which include not only the
production of food and other resources, but also
social and environmental benefits’ (Woods, 2011,
p.80).
• Acknowledges the reforms in (primarily
European) agricultural policy and practice since
the 1980s in which the rural is no longer viewed
only as a space of production.
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4. Approaches to multifunctionality
• Broad multifunctionality – preserving
economically marginal farmers and vulnerable
landscapes (the ‘European model’ of
agriculture).
• Narrow multifunctionality – payments to
farmers for the provision of public goods.
• Territorial multifunctionality – the re-
embedding of farming in rural territorial
development.
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5. Multifunctionality:
merits and limitations
• At a policy level, acknowledging the multiple
outcomes from agriculture has the potential to
address many of the limitations of productivism.
• However, multifunctional agricultural regimes:
– remain centred on exploitation of the land for farming
– acknowledge the continued significance of
productivist practices (especially in non-marginal
areas)
– have been criticised for supporting non-viable farmers
and for maintaining non-tariff trade barriers
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6. Multifunctionality and Australian
agriculture (1)
• As a discourse, multifunctionality does not feature in
Australian agricultural policy.
• Multifunctionality is usually associated with European
agriculture, and opposed as a non-tariff trade barrier.
• While there remains a predominant emphasis on the
virtues of a productivist, unsubsidised, and export-
oriented agriculture, a shift in philosophy and practice
is evident.
• This shift is a result of the limitations of previous
programs in addressing rural environmental problems,
and efforts to ameliorate the adverse ecological
outcomes of neoliberal policies.
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7. Multifunctionality and Australian
agriculture (2)
• Australia “has shifted ground on opposing support for
landholders, who are now increasingly constructed as
environmental ‘stewards’ and providers of public goods”
(Dibden and Cocklin, 2009, p.178).
• Evident in:
– Creation of new markets for environmental goods (e.g., water
trading)
– Promotion of market-oriented initiatives (e.g., Environmental
Management Systems; Organic production)
– Development of quasi-markets for environmental or ecosystem
services (e.g., conservation auction systems such as Bush
Tender)
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8. Can multifunctionality contribute to
more sustainable rural spaces?
• Represents a way in which the co-existence of
productivist and non-productivist activities in
rural regions can be supported (Woods, 2011,
p.90).
• Recognises that farming has broader
economic, social and environmental benefits
(i.e., it provides public goods).
• Has the potential to support rural territorial
development in Australia.
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9. Can multifunctionality contribute to
more sustainable rural spaces?
However…
• In Australia, government programs for non-productivist
activities tend to be short-term and have limited
funding.
• Landholders who receive funding for environmental
work may have undertaken that work regardless.
• Considerable work and investment is required by
landholders to pursue alternatives to productivism
(e.g., selling products based on their ‘qualities’, such as
environmental credentials).
• Productivism remains a dominant discourse and set of
practices.
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