Place Matters: An Investigation of Farmers’ Attachment to Their Land

Abstract

Place attachment research can shed light on how farmers form relationships with their land and therefore have implications for landscape management and food systems. Unknown is how farmers develop place attachment. In this qualitative study, we examine psychological and physical experiences as antecedents to place attachment using attachment theory. Following 29 semi-structured interviews with 34 respondents in Upcountry South Carolina, we examined farmers’ security-seeking and exploration behaviors. Farmers receive security through feelings of peace and safety while on their farm and provide economic security to their families and environmental security to their land. Farmers’ exploring behaviors include trying to be more innovative in sustainable management of their land. This research helps elucidate how farmers develop attachment. It has implications for how farmers manage their resources as well as understanding the environmental, social, and economic impacts of these decisions and land conservation in the American south.