Dr. Cornelia Flora Butler Talk
Dr. Cornelia Flora Butler
Charles F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor of Agriculture and Sociology
Director, North Central Regional Center for Rural Development
Iowa State University
Socio-technical Regime and the Changing Agricultural Landscape
Tuesday, October 3, 2006
Gold A Room – MSU Union, 3:45-5:00 pm
Why do farmers do what they do? The socio-technical regime, more than individual farmer characteristics, determines the agricultural landscape, often creating an industrial agricultural wasteland of corn and soybeans. Illustrated by Iowa agriculture, the socio-technical regime is the rule set comprised in the coherent complex composed of
- Technical knowledge
- Engineering practices
- Product characteristics
- Skills and procedures
- Ways of handling relevant artifacts and persons
- Production process techniques
- Ways of defining problems
These are embedded in institutions and infrastructures. Examples will be presented, along with discussion of how to change it.
Cornelia Butler Flora is past president of the Rural Sociological Society, the Community Development Society, and the Society for Agriculture, Food and Human Values. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She is author and editor of a number of recent books, including Interactions Between Agroecosystems and Rural Communities, Rural Communities: Legacy and Change 2nd edition, and Sustainable Agriculture in Temperate Zone, as well as over 175 articles and reviews. She was appointed to the National Agricultural Research, Education and Economics Advisory Board in 2003, where she is on the Executive Committee. Her research focuses on community-level interventions to bring about positive, systemic change that includes healthy ecosystems, vital economies, and social inclusion.
Sponsored by the Department of Sociology and the Community Vitality Initiative (of the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station and the Office of the Provost)
