Advancing AKIS with Assemblage Thinking
Sutherland, Lee-Ann; Adamsone-Fiskovica, Anda; Koutsouris, Alexandros; Laurent, Catherine; Straete, Egil Petter; Labarthe, Pierre (2023), Advancing AKIS with Assemblage Thinking, Journal of Rural Studies, 97, 2, p. 57-69
Type
Article accepté pour publication ou publiéDate
2023Journal name
Journal of Rural StudiesVolume
97Number
2Publisher
Elsevier
Pages
57-69
Metadata
Show full item recordAuthor(s)
Sutherland, Lee-AnnAdamsone-Fiskovica, Anda

Koutsouris, Alexandros
Laurent, Catherine
Institut de Recherche Interdisciplinaire en Sciences Sociales [IRISSO]
Straete, Egil Petter
Labarthe, Pierre

AGroécologie, Innovations, teRritoires [AGIR]
Abstract (EN)
The establishment of effective national agricultural knowledge and innovation systems (AKIS) became a European policy imperative in the 2010s, lodged in a political ideology which emphasised the importance of innovation to economic growth. We argue that the recent deployment of the AKIS concept in EU policy presents important opportunities for the agricultural sector and associated academic research but has significant weaknesses in terms of the scale of analysis (over emphasis on national levels) and disconnection from academic thinking on innovation processes. In this paper we progress the AKIS approach by utilising assemblage theory. We argue that assemblage concepts – in line with other ‘more-than-human’ approaches - offer mechanisms for recognising and integrating the role of non-human actants in innovation processes. Inclusion of these actants highlight the co-constructed nature of farm knowledge and associated transition processes. Assemblage concepts of historicity and rupture demonstrate how the path dependencies of farming are embedded in the material conditions of production, and the learning processes which occur when path dependencies are interrupted. We illustrate these contentions with empirical case studies of the ‘microAKIS’ – self-assembled farmer knowledge networks and associated processes - characterising four innovations across Europe: the introduction of a new commodity (avocado) in Greece, mainstreaming of robotic milking in Norway, retro-innovation of direct marketing in Latvia, and outsourcing of (dehumanised) farm labour in France.Subjects / Keywords
Innovation; farming systems; knowledge systems; extension; advisory services; microAKISRelated items
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