Social Networks and Decision-Making for Sustainable Agriculture: Cooperation or Innovation?

社会网络对创新和合作决策都有重要影响。但是，当一项决策需要同时评估与创新相关的个人利益和合作的社会利益时，会发生什么呢？本研究通过区分种植者的信息网络和合作网络，考察了社会网络在可持续农业中的作用，并分析了哪种网络结构对采用行为的影响更大。加州酿酒葡萄种植者的可持续农业决策提供了一个重要的研究场所，因为环境保护和区域声誉的合作问题特别强。此外，许多葡萄种植区建立了当地合作伙伴关系，旨在改变社会网络结构，鼓励采用可持续做法。研究人员将对加州三个地区（洛迪、中央海岸和纳帕）的酿酒葡萄种植者进行调查，以分析当地伙伴关系在重塑社会网络以促进可持续实践方面的有效性。这项研究为“可持续发展科学”做出了贡献，这是一种科学方法的应用，用于分析经常模糊和有争议的可持续发展概念。可持续农业承诺以提高经济、环境和社会福利的方式改变农业实践。然而，这一承诺往往无法实现，因为“可持续性”一词被用来为维持现状辩护。这项研究提供了关于社会和制度变量的经验证据，这些变量将促进农业实践的实际变化。

Social networks are an important influence on decision making for both innovation and cooperation. But what happens when a decision requires assessing both private benefits associated with innovation and the social benefits of cooperation? This research examines the role of social networks in sustainable agriculture by distinguishing between growers' information and cooperation networks, and analyzing which network structures have a more important influence on adoption behavior. The sustainable agriculture decisions of California winegrape growers provide a critical research site because the cooperation problems of environmental protection and regional reputation are particularly strong. Furthermore, many viticulture regions have local partnerships in place designed to change the structure of social networks and encourage the adoption of sustainable practices. The researchers will use a survey of winegrape growers in three regions of California (Lodi, Central Coast, and Napa) to analyze the effectiveness of local partnerships in reshaping social networks to facilitate sustainable practices. The research contributes to "sustainability science," which is the application of scientific methods to analyze the often vague and debated concept sustainability. Sustainable agriculture promises to change agricultural practices in ways that enhance economic, environmental, and social welfare. This promise often goes unfulfilled, however, as the term sustainability is used to justify maintaining the status quo. This research provides empirical evidence about the social and institutional variables that will facilitate real changes in agricultural practices.