Knowledges in action: an actor network analysis of a wetland agri-environment scheme

• Published in: Ecological economics 2000-10, Vol.35 (1), p.119-132
• Main Authors: Burgess, Jacquelin, Clark, Judy, Harrison, Carolyn M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Actor network theory; Agri-environment schemes; Agriculture; Conservation; Ecology; Ecosystems; Environmental economics; Environmental management; Farmers; Institutions; Knowledge; Landscape; Wetland conservation
• ISSN: 0921-8009; 1873-6106
• DOI: 10.1016/S0921-8009(00)00172-5

Agri-environment schemes have been developed by the member states of the European Union over the last 10 years. Under Regulation 2078/92, the UK has supported English Nature in the implementation of a nature conservation scheme for wet grazing land in southern England. This paper explores the different understandings of nature held by farmers and conservationists who are participating in the Wildlife Enhancement Scheme, by drawing on qualitative research completed between 1993 and 1995. Through the application of actor network theory, the analysis compares the role and identity ascribed to farmers by conservationists with the identity that farmers’ construct of themselves. The former construct farmers as technicians, ignorant of the workings of nature, whereas the farmers see themselves as ‘natural conservationists’. The paper explores how nature is translated differently in the worlds of conservation science and agriculture. In the final part of the paper, discussion focuses on the management of the wetland ditches where these sets of translations come together. It reveals that the rigid, scientific prescriptions for management of the conservation value of the ditches are considerably at odds with the more flexible and sensitive practices of farmers themselves.