Agricultural development is looked at as a process in which the adoption of innovations plays an important role. In this context, there has been considerable interest in understanding how adoption processes work. This chapter starts from the observation that adoption has been conceptualised in most research and development efforts as a process at the level of individuals and/or individual households, resulting in the dominance of social-psychological modes of thinking. Drawing on case experiences and recent theories of innovation, this paper points towards the critical role that several types of interdependencies play in adoption processes, which leads to the conclusion that in many instances, adoption must be regarded as a collective rather than an individual process. It is therefore important to complement and re-orient our thinking about adoption and resort to more sociological and interactional concepts and explanations. After a discussion of relevant concepts, the chapter concludes with some reflection on how this perspective may inspire a different way of approaching two topical issues in the realm of agricultural innovation: scaling and ICT4Ag.

In various contexts, people talk about animal farming and meat consumption using different arguments to construct and justify their (non-)acceptability. This article presents the results of an in-depth qualitative inquiry into the content of and contextual patterns in the everyday-life framing regarding this issue, performed among consumers in various settings in two extremes in the European sphere: the Netherlands and Turkey. We describe the methodological steps of collecting, coding, and organizing the variety of encountered framing topics, as well as our search for symbolic convergence in groups of consumers from different selected demographic contexts (country, urban-rural areas, gender, age, and education level). The framing of animal farming and meat consumption in everyday-life is not a simple one-issue rational display of facts; people referred to a vast range of topics in the categories knowledge, convictions, pronounced behaviour, values, norms, interests, and feelings. Looking at framing in relation to the researched demographic contexts, most patterns were found on the level of topics; symbolic convergence in lines of reasoning and composite framing was less prominent in groups based on single demographic contexts than anticipated. An explanation for this lies in the complexity of frame construction, happening in relation with multiple interdependent contextual features.

Biodiversity restoration on a landscape level requires people with different backgrounds to connect and collaborate over an extended period of time. Hence, understanding how conservation and restoration goals are negotiated and achieved necessitates an understanding of the dynamics of the social fabric: the social networks and interactions that develop, underpin, and sustain collective action. This paper identifies patterns and factors that have contributed to constructive collaboration for biodiversity in the rural area of Ooijpolder-Groesbeek, which has been at the vanguard of nature and landscape development in the Netherlands. We conducted a historical analysis of the period between 1985 and 2022, based on a broad range of literature and interviews with key actors in the region. We provide a narrative account of the tipping points and the preceding processes that propelled the region to its current state. The emergence of these tipping points is analyzed through the lens of a conceptual framework on the dynamic interplay between practices, social interactions, events, and circumstances. Our findings reveal how an integrative landscape approach, the use of suitable boundary objects, and continuous network building and relation management across various levels have contributed to the success of the collective effort.

Tensions between farmers, government and society have recently been running high in the Netherlands. Dutch farmers are furious with the national government because of the ever-stricter nitrogen policy that is supposed to save nature in the Netherlands, in line with European directives. The current plan states that nitrogen emissions need to be reduced by 50% in 2030. The disagreement over how to tackle the nitrogen issue in the Netherlands is a deeply rooted conflict that goes back decades. In this political commentary, we analyse the conflict and argue that the solutions proposed in the public and political debate tend to ignore the systemic nature of the problem. We suggest that it is important to work towards innovation in the rules and arrangements that govern agricultural value chains to create a more conducive and enabling environment for the regional initiatives that have emerged in response to the current crisis, several of which challenge the currently dominant food system.