Abstract
Soil quality is in decline in many parts of the world, in part due to the intensification of agricultural practices. Whilst economic instruments and regulations can help incentivise uptake of more sustainable soil management practices, they rarely motivate long-term behavior change when used alone. There has been increasing attention towards the complex social factors that affect uptake of sustainable soil management practices. To understand why some communities try these practices whilst others do not, we undertook a narrative review to understand how social capital influences adoption in developed nations. We found that the four components of social capital – trust, norms, connectedness and power – can all influence the decision of farmers to change their soil management. Specifically, information flows more effectively across trusted, diverse networks where social norms exist to encourage innovation. Uptake is more limited in homogenous, close-knit farming communities that do not have many links with non-farmers and where there is a strong social norm to adhere to the status quo. Power can enhance or inhibit uptake depending on its characteristics. Future research, policy and practice should consider whether a lack of social capital could hinder uptake of new practices and, if so, which aspects of social capital could be developed to increase adoption of sustainable soil management practices. Enabling diverse, collaborative groups (including farmers, advisers and government officials) to work constructively together could help build social capital, where they can co-define, -develop and -enact measures to sustainably manage soils.
Highlights
In some cases, you draw on references from a non-farming sector (e.g. “too much bonding social capital within a network can have negative consequences if the group is very insular (Browning et al, 20001), which can inhibit knowledge transfer.”, or the link to “business productivity”)
We start with a broad overview of studies that have looked at sustainable land management practices and focus on studies that covered soil management
Given power is present in all forms of social interaction, we recommend power to be included in future social capital studies. This extensive narrative review has proven the difficulty of drawing general conclusions on how social capital can affect uptake of sustainable soil management
Summary
You draw on references from a non-farming sector (e.g. “too much bonding social capital within a network can have negative consequences if the group is very insular (Browning et al, 20001), which can inhibit knowledge transfer.”, or the link to “business productivity”). Please check the reference or amend the text: “For instance, in a study looking at how social factors affected uptake of soil conservation practices in the US, social norms were found to be as important as individual motivations to comply with the regulations, which together encouraged farmers to use these practices (Prager & Posthumus, 20102).”. Detail on the question answered ‘partly’ on the review form: “sufficient details of methods and analysis provided to allow replication by others”: The methods for sourcing the relevant literature for the review are appropriately described, replication by others will be limited because the review was complemented as follows “Additional papers were included where co-authors had knowledge of further relevant research not found within the above search.”
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
