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Country life: agricultural technologies and the emergence of new rural subjectivities

Bear, Christopher; Holloway, Lewis

Authors

Christopher Bear

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Professor Lewis Holloway L.Holloway@hull.ac.uk
Professor of Human Geography. Associate Dean for Research and Enterprise, Faculty of Science and Engineering



Abstract

Rural areas have long been spaces of technological experimentation, development and resistance. In the UK, this is especially true in the post-second world war era of productivist food regimes, characterised by moves to intensification. The technologies that have developed have variously aimed to increase yields, automate previously manual tasks, and create new forms of life. This review focuses on the relationships between agricultural technologies and rural lives. While there has been considerable media emphasis on the material modification, and creation, of new rural lives through emerging genetic technologies, the review highlights the role of technologies in co-producing new rural subjectivities. It does this through exploring relationships between agricultural technologies and gender, changing approaches to understanding and intervening in animal lives, and how automation shifts responsibility for productive work on farms. In each of these instances, even ostensibly mundane technologies can significantly affect what it is to be a farmer, a farm advisor or a farm animal. However, the review cautions against technological determinism, drawing on recent work from Science and Technology Studies to show that technologies do not simply reconfigure lives but are themselves transformed by the actors and activities with which they are connected. The review ends by suggesting avenues for future research.

Citation

Bear, C., & Holloway, L. (2015). Country life: agricultural technologies and the emergence of new rural subjectivities. Geography compass, 9(6), 303-315. https://doi.org/10.1111/gec3.12217

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Apr 2, 2015
Online Publication Date Jun 8, 2015
Publication Date 2015-06
Deposit Date Jul 2, 2015
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Geography compass
Electronic ISSN 1749-8198
Publisher Wiley
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 9
Issue 6
Pages 303-315
DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/gec3.12217
Keywords Agricultural technologies; UK; Rural subjectivities
Public URL https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/375992
Publisher URL http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gec3.12217/abstract
Additional Information Authors' accepted manuscript of article published in: Geography compass, 2016, v.9, issue 6 at doi:10.1111/gec3.12217.

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