Agricultural human dimensions research: The role of qualitative research methods

Abstract

A s alluded to above, the social sciences have been labeled “soft” science as opposed to “hard” science in many policy and scientific dialogues. Yet, if understanding people is not hard, why do the biggest challenges still exist on the “social side of the equation”? I believe that one of the reasons we know so little about human behavior in agriculture is that the field is often limited to using surveys as the primary means of answering questions. Subsequently, it is constrained in the types of questions that can be asked and answered. A review of human dimensions work in major agricultural journals reveals that the majority of published studies use a quantitative, survey approach. Yet, often these quantitative studies are unable to definitively and objectively answer many of the important questions facing agriculture today. For example, the Natural Resource Social Science Lab in the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources at Purdue University reviewed 25 years of survey-based agricultural Best Management Practices (BMP) adoption literature and found some general trends but no one factor or set of factors that consistently determined farmers' adoption of conservation practices (Prokopy et al. 2008). The reviewed studies often used similar types of questions without…