Researching the Culture in Agri-Culture

Researching the Culture in Agri-Culture

Social Research for International Agricultural Development

Michael M Cernea and Amir H. Kassam
Paperback
December 2005
9780851990262
More details
  • Publisher
    CABI
  • Published
    14th December 2005
  • ISBN 9780851990262
  • Language English
  • Pages 480 pp.
  • Size 6.75" x 9.25"
$102.90
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Hardback
December 2005
9780851990033
More details
  • Publisher
    CABI
  • Published
    14th December 2005
  • ISBN 9780851990033
  • Language English
  • Pages 480 pp.
  • Size 6.75" x 9.25"
$242.00
Add to Cart

This book analyzes the functions, content, methods, findings, and impacts of social and cultural research carried out by the worldwide network of 16 International Agricultural Research Centers of the CGIAR(Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research). Its two main parts - "insiders" and "outsiders" - bring together the perspectives of over 50 eminent scholars and social researchers from 30 countries, working within the Centers or within outside academic and development institutions.

The authors examine critically the priorities, strengths, and weaknesses of research on the socio-structural, behavioral, cultural, and institutional variables of developing agriculture, forestry, livestock, and fisheries. The studies focus on farmers' values, needs and knowledge, their patterns of social organization, issues of food security, natural resource management and poverty reduction. Alternative models of multidisciplinary research, reuniting biological, natural, economic and social sciences are scrutinized in the light of experience and results, with emphasis on the nature of social science research as a source of international public goods and a key contributor to induced development.

* In Memoriam: Tribute to Robert K Merton
* Foreword
* Stock Taking and New Challenges in Social Research. Editors' Preface
* Acknowledgements

PART 1: SOCIAL RESEARCH FOR AGRICULTURAL POLICIES
* Rites of Entrance and Rights of Citizenship: The Uphill Battle for Social Research in a Technological Environment
* Agricultural Institutions and Receptivity to Social Research: The Case of the CGIAR
* Who Are the Social Researchers of the CGIAR System?

PART 2: THE INSIDERS' VIEWS: SOCIAL RESEARCH IN THE CGIAR SYSTEM
* Rice for the Poor: The Call and Opportunity for Social Research
* Understanding Forests-People Links: The Voice of Social Scientists
* Humanizing Technology Development in the Green Revolution's Home
* Water to Thirsty Fields: How Social Research Can Contribute
* Rootcrops in Agricultural Societies: What Social Research has RevealedInitiative on Urban & Peri-urban Agriculture, Lima, Peru
* Why the 'Livestock Revolution' Requires Research on People
* Aquatic Resources: Collective Management Patterns and Governance for the World's Fish Wealth
* Tropical Agriculture and Social Research: An Analytical Perspective
* Dry Areas and the Changing Demands for Social Research
* Agricultural Biodiversity and How Human Culture is Shaping It
* Studying Property Rights and Collective Action: A System- Wide Program
* Crafting Food Policy with Social Science Knowledge

PART 3: THE OUTSIDERS' VIEW: ISSUES, EXPECTATIONS, AND AGENDAS
* Not Just One Best System: The Diversity of Institutions for Coping with the Commons
* Social Research and Researchers in the CGIAR: an Underused Potential
* The Rockefeller Foundation and Social Research in Agriculture
* A Donor Perspective on the Accomplishments, Limitations, and Opportunities for Social Research
* Seeking Half our Brains: Constraints and Incentives in the Social Context of Interdisciplinary Research
* Roots: Reflections of a 'Rocky Doc' on Social Science in CGIAR
* Social Science Knowledge as Public Good for Agriculture
* Contributors
* List of Abbreviations
* Index

Michael M Cernea

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Amir H. Kassam

Amir Kassam is: (i) Moderator of the FAO-hosted Global Platform for Conservation Agriculture Community of Practice (CA-CoP), (ii) Chairman of the International Conservation Agriculture Advisory Panel for Africa (ICAAP-Africa); (iii) Vice-Chairman of the Conservation Agriculture Association of the United Kingdom (CA-UK); (iv) a Member of the European Conservation Agriculture Federation (ECAF); (v) Visiting Professor in the School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, University of Reading, UK, where he teaches Conservation Agriculture; (vi) Convener of the Land Husbandry Group of the Tropical Agriculture Association (TAA), UK, Member of the Strategic Steering Group of the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative (ICCI), UNEP, and Board member of the Asian Center of Innovation for Sustainable Agriculture Intensification (ACISAI) at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Bangkok.

Kassam is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (UK), and a member of several international advisory committees, boards and panels. He is cited in several "Who is Who" in the UK and the USA. He has published widely. In 2005, Kassam was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Honours List for services to tropical agriculture and to rural development.