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The Framing of Sustainability in Sustainability Assessment Frameworks for Agriculture[Note 1. This paper is part of a special issue of ...]
Author(s) -
Slätmo Elin,
Fischer Klara,
Röös Elin
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
sociologia ruralis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.005
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1467-9523
pISSN - 0038-0199
DOI - 10.1111/soru.12156
Subject(s) - sustainability , framing (construction) , agriculture , sustainability organizations , limiting , business , process (computing) , sustainable agriculture , environmental resource management , environmental planning , process management , computer science , economics , engineering , geography , ecology , mechanical engineering , structural engineering , operating system , archaeology , biology
Various frameworks for assessing sustainability in agriculture have emerged in recent years. We analysed how sustainability is framed as a governing concept for agriculture within three such frameworks. The results suggest that in all three frameworks sustainability is perceived as a fixed, definable end goal, rather than a process, and its assumed that if all stake holders understand each other and are informed about the negative impacts of agriculture, sustainability will be achieved. The characteristics of the assessment frameworks, which are primarily developed by and based on expert knowledge, provide limited possibilities for farmers to influence how sustainable agriculture is framed and acted upon, limiting the utility of the frameworks. A number of challenges that need to be solved for successful implementation were uncovered, including how assessment frameworks should be used in practice and identification of conflicts between different goals in relation to assessment results.