ABSTRACT
This chapter sets the scene for the book and introduces the concept of the good farmer: what the term means, its historical origins, and its contemporary uses. The ‘good farmer’ concept emerged in the context of a wider cultural turn in social science in the 1990s and early 2000s. However, the ‘good farmer’ term has multiple uses within and outside of academia, including by farmers and industry members themselves, to describe the norms and values (often conflicting) of what it means to be a farmer, and to farm well. Pushing beyond the usual questions of “how to change farmers” and “what are the impacts of change on farmers?” the ‘good farmer’ approach engages with a third option that integrates the processes of cultural change while acknowledging the structuring role played by symbols and cultural values in farming communities. This book does not offer any one definition of the ‘good farmer’ or a single ‘theory of the good farmer’. Rather, it presents a diversity of contextual definitions and symbols. The ‘good farmer’ concept is proposed as a general approach open to multiple theorisations in relation to particular aspects of the cultural object and/or behaviour under investigation.
