Agroecological transition: understanding farmers' cultural identities and social practices to enable mixed farming futures

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Agroecology is an essential innovation pathway for sustainable land use, maximising the use of ecological processes in the functioning of agroecosystems (Poux and Aubert, 2018; Food, Farming and Countryside Commission, 2020). However, there is limited social science analysis of how this agro-ecological transition is understood, practised and imagined from a farmer perspective (van der Ploeg et al, 2019). This PhD aims to fill this gap through a socio-cultural analysis of perceptions and practices on livestock and arable farms. Advocating 'mixed farming' portfolios, it considers how ruminant livestock and all-arable systems can adopt agroecology. The student will be located within the Soil Association's Farming and Land Use Policy group and will be part of an exciting new socio-economic programme related to agroecology.