733333 Farming resilience and social sustainability

Type
Project course
Semester hours
3
Lecturer (assistant)
Darnhofer, Ika
Organisation
Offered in
Wintersemester 2023/24
Languages of instruction
Englisch
Content

To persist, farms need to cope with a rapidly changing environment. To effectively deal with change, farmers need to be resilient. These include the ability to read change in the external environment, define and redefine organizational purpose, as well as handle the complex trade-offs between demand by customers, resource constraints, and shifting relationships (on- and off-farm) while taking into account path-dependency. Thus, resilience includes the ability to buffer, adapt and transform the farm in response to both on-farm and off-farm developments. The focus is on family farms and what to the social sustainability of farming.

See detailed syllabus offered for download below (under additional information)

Please note that attendance at the first class is compulsory.
Previous knowledge expected

Students must have completed their Bachelor.
Objective (expected results of study and acquired competences)

Upon completion of the course, students can:
+ distinguish different approaches to resilience, reflect on the complexity of social interactions in agriculture, and understand how taking a system-based approach allows to better understand the persistence of farms;
+ present a convincing theoretical argument, using of carefully selected scientific texts and empirical evidence;
+ write a text that is well-structured and concise, using exact and clear wording;
+ reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of their work habits.
You can find more details like the schedule or information about exams on the course-page in BOKUonline.