De maakbare boer: Streekverbetering als instrument van het Nederlandse landbouwbeleid 1953-1970

Foundational ontologies and multi-paradigm analysis, applied to the socio-technical transition from mixed farming to intensive pig husbandry (1930–1980)

“…The regional improvement projects increasingly used farm size as selection criterion for participation, thus contributing to the reduction of small farms (Karel 2005). The decline of small farms was further stimulated by another instrument: the Development andBuy Out Fund, created in 1963 (Van den Brink 1990).…”

“…This perception changed after the war, when economic and sociological researchers began to articulate new views of Dutch agriculture. Articles in the Monthly Journal for the Extension Service suggested that the economic problems had not just been related to the economic depression, but also to the presence of too many small farms (Karel 2005). A new problem definition thus appeared, the 'small farms problem': because agricultural incomes were spread over too many small farms, the average per capita income was low.…”

“…Since they were holding back modernisation, they should either disappear or abandon their 'traditional' agrarian ethic and adopt entrepreneurial attitudes. Extension services should therefore not only engage in knowledge transfer, but also try to influence traditions and attitudes (Karel 2005).…”

“…Extension services also addressed financial and economic attitudes. Advisers visited farmers at home or gave evening courses to teach bookkeeping skills and cost-benefit calculations, providing them with the mental tools to become rational agents (Karel 2005). Extension services increasingly took sociological research as their guiding principle and set out to change 'traditional' attitudes and routines (Zuurbier 1984).…”

“…To convince farmers, extension services organised trips to experimental model farms, which materialised the new vision of specialisation, rationalisation and mechanisation (Karel 2005). The Ministry also subsidised regional improvement projects, which stimulated collective and experiential learning (Figure 6).…”