ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to provide a better theoretical understanding of the continued (re)emergence and (re)surfacing of diversity. N. Long and Jan Douwe van der Ploeg maintain that an important reason for the continued generation of diversity lies in the room of manoeuvre that is implicit in very interaction. Enhancing design capacity regarding rural and agrarian development stems from becoming sensitive to the deviating, uncommon development paths people have developed and are developing. Several scholars have observed that despite the homogenizing forces that are attributed to the process of the global integration of localities and to the project of agricultural modernization in particular, heterogeneity continues to exist and sometimes even seems to be enhanced by this very integration. In the interface between the ‘state’ and the ‘citizen’, or between ‘agricultural extension’ and ‘farmer’, there always exists room for manoeuvre that is configured by the different agendas managed by both parts.
