TIME | 10 February 2010, 4pm onwards
LOCATION | CSAFE Seminar Room, , Dunedin
SPEAKER | Mads Madsen
Danish as well as New Zealand farmers are facing new demands for multifunctionality and environmental changes from the surrounding societies. This is about the only similarity between the two countries. Differences in organizational backing, administrative traditions and farming systems are considerable between the two countries. A comparative learning theoretical analysis of the milieu for initiating a process of change in farming practices can be fruitful for both countries to be able to point out the pivotal factors that create the setting for change. This presentation introduce a learning theoretical framework and gives the first results from the field work in New Zealand and Denmark to outline preconditions to be considered before developing concepts to change farm decision making and farming practices.
Mads Lægdsgaard Madsen is a visiting PhD student from the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Aarhus University, Denmark. He holds a MA in comparative religion and social science and worked 2 years as a high school teacher. Due to his rural background and interests he now does a PhD on integrative farm management and decision making in increased complexity. CSAFE is currently the base for a field work in New Zealand and this presentation will be based on preliminary findings from the fieldwork and from the PhD project.