Modernising to Remain Traditional: Farm Families Maintaining a Valued Lifestyle

Abstract

This article offers three conceptualisations (a typology, a conditional matrix, and six options for farm families remaining “traditional”) useful for researching and understanding farming families, especially as they undergo or resist transitions and modernisation. These theoretical constructs are informed by tentative findings from a study of “traditional” farm families in Western Europe. The basic question asked is: How are traditional farm families, within a context of increased internationalisation of policy and markets and related agribusiness commercialisation and industrialisation, able to manage transitions and stress so that a valued lifestyle can be maintained? Case studies and biographic research were used for developing a grounded theoretical model of the process of maintaining traditional farm-family stability. The six options presented are Living Museums, Traditional with Limited Adaptations, Hobby Farming, becoming Organic or “Green”, the Swiss Solution, and the British. Solution.