TY - JOUR
T1 - Linking knowledge and action through mental models of sustainable agriculture
AU - Hoffman, Matthew
AU - Lubell, Mark
AU - Hillis, Vicken
N1 - Sustainability is notoriously difficult to define and put into practice in the context of agricultural and other social-ecological systems. A crucial task within this debate is to analyze how practitioners understand the idea of sustainability.
PY - 2014/9/9
Y1 - 2014/9/9
N2 - Linking knowledge to action requires understanding how decision-makers conceptualize sustainability. This paper empirically analyzes farmer "mental models" of sustainability from three winegrape-growing regions of California where local extension programs have focused on sustainable agriculture. The mental models are represented as networks where sustainability concepts are nodes, and links are established when a farmer mentions two concepts in their stated definition of sustainability. The results suggest that winegrape grower mental models of sustainability are hierarchically structured, relatively similar across regions, and strongly linked to participation in extension programs and adoption of sustainable farm practices. We discuss the implications of our findings for the debate over the meaning of sustainability, and the role of local extension programs in managing knowledge systems.
AB - Linking knowledge to action requires understanding how decision-makers conceptualize sustainability. This paper empirically analyzes farmer "mental models" of sustainability from three winegrape-growing regions of California where local extension programs have focused on sustainable agriculture. The mental models are represented as networks where sustainability concepts are nodes, and links are established when a farmer mentions two concepts in their stated definition of sustainability. The results suggest that winegrape grower mental models of sustainability are hierarchically structured, relatively similar across regions, and strongly linked to participation in extension programs and adoption of sustainable farm practices. We discuss the implications of our findings for the debate over the meaning of sustainability, and the role of local extension programs in managing knowledge systems.
KW - Agricultural decision making
KW - Collaborative policy
KW - Cooperation
KW - Network analysis
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84906968551&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1400435111
U2 - 10.1073/pnas.1400435111
DO - 10.1073/pnas.1400435111
M3 - Article
C2 - 25157158
AN - SCOPUS:84906968551
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 111
SP - 13016
EP - 13021
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
IS - 36
ER -