It's Definitely a Good Time to Be a Farmer

Understanding the Changing Dynamics of Successor Creation in Late Modern Society

Bibliographic Data

ID2291237
AuthorsHannah M Chiswell (Countryside and Community Research Institute, University of Gloucestershire), Hannah Chiswell (0000-0003-4504-1319, Countryside and Community Research Institute, corresponding author), Matt Lobley (0000-0003-4774-8422, University of Exeter)
Year2018
Volume83
Issue3
Pages630-653
Publication date2018-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueRural Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0036-0112 • E-ISSN: 1549-0831
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/ruso.12205
OpenAlexW2768754331
LanguageEN
Citations received21
References cited30

This article considers the implications of the wider systemic shift from modernity to late modernity for the process of intergenerational farm transfer. The article argues that the shift from the collective to the individual, indicative of late modern society, is particularly pertinent in the context of intergenerational transfer, which has long been rooted in collective thinking. Drawing on the perspectives of incumbent farmers and potential successors, the article utilizes results from semistructured interviews with 29 farmers and 19 potential successors in Devon, England. Using a thematic analysis, the article provides a nuanced understanding of the impact of the systemic shift and the associated emphasis on the individual on successor identification. Although the article reaffirms understanding of successor creation as a collective process, determined by factors such as gender and birth order, it also identifies an emergent cohort of younger potential successors, for whom succession was the outcome of an evaluation of farming as a career. It concludes that, within the case study area, modernization is changing the way in which farm children are identifying themselves as 'the successor.' The article suggests how this increasingly judicious approach to succession leaves reproduction of the family farm increasingly vulnerable to negative externalities

Context (archaeology · Ecological succession · Economic growth · Economics · Geography · Modernity · Modernization theory · Political science · Qualitative research · Social science · Sociology · Successor cardinal · Thematic analysis · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Law · Rural development and sustainability · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics