Agroecological transition: understanding farmers' cultural identities and social practices to enable mixed farming futures

Agroecology is an essential innovation pathway for sustainable land use, maximising the use of ecological processes in the functioning of agroecosystems (Poux and Aubert, 2018; Food, Farming and Countryside Commission, 2020). However, there is limited social science analysis of how this agro-ecological transition is understood, practised and imagined from a farmer perspective (van der Ploeg et al, 2019). This PhD aims to fill this gap through a socio-cultural analysis of perceptions and practices on livestock and arable farms. Advocating 'mixed farming' portfolios, it considers how ruminant livestock and all-arable systems can adopt agroecology. The student will be located within the Soil Association's Farming and Land Use Policy group and will be part of an exciting new socio-economic programme related to agroecology.