Rediscovering the Bucolic Tale: The Role of Place Embeddedness in Fostering Sustainable Practices

Abstract

Based on a mixed-methods study of agricultural producers, this article examines whether and how the embeddedness in the natural and social environment surrounding the organization (i.e. place embeddedness) affects the implementation of sustainable practices. Theoretically, the study draws on practice theory to understand how the different elements of practices (competence, meaning and material) are shaped by each the constituents of place embeddedness. In the empirical analysis, the article derives and tests a model that shows three trajectories through which these effects occur. First, through a higher knowledge and awareness deriving from cohabitation with the elements of the place, affecting the competence element of sustainable practices. Second, through an identification with the elements of place that leads to emotional attachment and higher care, shaping the meaning associated with sustainable practices. Finally, attachment to place influences the access to the natural elements and resources, ultimately affecting the material element of sustainable practices. What emerge from our analysis is that place embeddedness affects practices through shaping simultaneously each of the three elements that need to be present for practices to be enacted. The article concludes with the implications of our study for both the place-oriented and the practice-oriented literature in the sustainability field.