A - Papers appearing in refereed journals
Inman, A., Michael, M., Wheeler, R., Vrain, E., Lovett, A., Collins, A. L., Jones, I., Johnes, P. and Cleasby, W. 2018. An exploration of individual, social and material factors influencing water pollution mitigation behaviours within the farming community. Land Use Policy. 70, pp. 16-26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2017.09.042
Authors | Inman, A., Michael, M., Wheeler, R., Vrain, E., Lovett, A., Collins, A. L., Jones, I., Johnes, P. and Cleasby, W. |
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Abstract | Diffuse pollution of watercourses from agriculture represents a complex and persistent environmental problem in the UK. This paper provides insights into why UK policy interventions have had limited success to date, drawing on the disciplines of psychology, sociology and behavioural economics to more thoroughly understand farmer attitudes and behaviours towards pollution mitigation. Our analysis is based on eliciting the opinions of commercial farmers through a series of surveys and discussion groups in three catchments: the grassland dominated River Eden catchment; the arable dominated River Wensum catchment and the mixed farming area of the Hampshire River Avon catchment. Results strongly suggest that a fundamental shift in identities, normative behavioural beliefs and social norms is required within the farming community before mitigation behaviours become embedded. Simply offering financial incentives or imposing regulatory penalties is unlikely to achieve the desired results. Double loop learning has the potential to enable farmers to migrate from a productivist to a multifunctional outlook where pollution mitigation becomes internalised within a farm management system. |
Keywords | Diffuse water |
Year of Publication | 2018 |
Journal | Land Use Policy |
Journal citation | 70, pp. 16-26 |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2017.09.042 |
Open access | Published as non-open access |
Funder | Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs |
Funder project or code | Provision of Demonstration test Catchments: LM0304 |
Project: WQ02010 | |
Project: WQ0211 | |
Phase 2 of the Demonstration test catchment Project | |
Project: WQ0212 | |
Output status | Published |
Publication dates | |
16 Oct 2017 | |
Publication process dates | |
Accepted | 25 Sep 2017 |
Publisher | Elsevier |
Copyright license | CC BY |
ISSN | 0264-8377 |
Permalink - https://repository.rothamsted.ac.uk/item/84620/an-exploration-of-individual-social-and-material-factors-influencing-water-pollution-mitigation-behaviours-within-the-farming-community
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