ABSTRACT
This book sets out a new approach to the analysis of dynamic inter-relationships between public policies, the market and non-market activities and functions of agriculture and the development of rural regions. Because the non-market aspects of agriculture deal mainly with ‘public goods’, and because the creation and destruction of public goods are both key issues of ‘sustainable development’, the book is also about a new approach to the analysis of sustainability itself. The concepts of ‘multifunctional agriculture’, referring to both market and non-market functions, and ‘sustainable development’ both have their origins in ecosystem and resource management (Schuler, 1998) and became key concepts for agricultural and rural development after the Rio conference of UNCED in 1992 (Hediger and Knickel, 2009: 292).
