Projects / Programmes
CHANGES IN AGRICULTURE THROUGH THE FARMERS’ EYES AND BODIES
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 6.03.02 |
Humanities |
Anthropology |
Social and cultural anthropology |
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 5.04 |
Social Sciences |
Sociology |
farming stress, moral economy, social suffering, health conjuncture, Slovenia
Data for the last 5 years (citations for the last 10 years) on
December 3, 2023;
A3 for period
2017-2021
Data for ARIS tenders (
04.04.2019 – Programme tender,
archive
)
| Database |
Linked records |
Citations |
Pure citations |
Average pure citations |
| WoS |
63 |
470 |
416 |
6.6 |
| Scopus |
76 |
731 |
643 |
8.46 |
Researchers (6)
Organisations (1)
Abstract
Since Slovenian independence in 1991 and joining the EU in 2004, farmers have been squeezed between contrasting sets of values of changing agricultural developmental imperatives on the one hand, and their ‘moral economy’ on the other hand. Living in a risky and uncertain climate and economic circumstances, farmers’ personal control over ‘good farming’ is endangered, thus exposing them to constant ‘farming stress’ contexts, to which they respond also in the form of health-related suffering. Moreover, health evidence in Slovenia and worldwide conveys that farmers have belonged to the most hazardous occupational group in terms of work-related health. Scholars explain such evidence in line with their respective epistemologies; however, statistically informed explanations of the phenomenon still prevail in designing health-related policies. The objective of the proposed project is to better explain the impact of radically changed post-1991 Slovenian agricultural developments on farmers’ health-related suffering than it is conveyed by occupational health evidence. The research questions are: whether and how agricultural restructuring since 1991 has come to be translated into personal health-related suffering of farmers in Slovenia, and how farmers respond to, interpret, make sense of, and engage with these health-related conjunctures in agriculture. The research questions will be explored by employing an anthropological approach of the originally introduced and combined theorizations of moral economy, social suffering and health conjuncture in the field of ‘farming stress’ problematic. A theorization of ‘moral economy’ will provide a framework for examining ways in which the observed farming economy intersects with ‘moral economy’, which has implications for farmers’ wellbeing. The intellectual tradition of medical anthropologists will shape observations of personal suffering as a response to a drastically changed social situation in one’s life. Finally, the health conjuncture perspective refers only to certain elements of socially structured and temporarily situated contexts which are relevant for farmers’ experience of ‘farming stress’ circumstances and farming-related health outcomes. It is expected that one may observe ‘the translation’ of various social pressures brought by changing agricultural developmental imperatives and farmers’ perceptions of contrasting moral economies into their health-related suffering. The research design includes two working sets (WSs). WS1 involves multisite fieldwork on several conventional and organic family farms to provide rich ethnographies about interrelated social, economic, political and emotional processes which form the underlying causes of farmers’ health-related suffering. In-depth interviews will be conducted with adult male and female research participants of younger and older generations on family farms to capture various voices of this occupational category, and the temporal dimension of their reasoning of ‘good farming’ important for their wellbeing and health in pre- and post-1991 Slovenian agricultural contexts. WS2 includes a review of occupational health and other health-related datasets and surveys associated with farmers to assess who among farmers (e.g. active/non-active) is included or excluded from the occupation category, and which datasets have to be harmonised to identify the health status of the ‘active’ and ‘non-active’ farmers. On the basis of results obtained from both WPs a scenario for ethnographically informed and improved health evidence of this occupational group will be designed. The project group is highly experienced and qualified for conducting tasks organized within the seven work-packages (WPs), which encompass internal communication and administration (WP1), upgraded and updated literature review (WP2), pre-fieldwork logistics (WP3), multisite fieldwork (WP4), a review of occupational and health-related datasets (WP5), final analysis and recommendations (
