Structural changes in agriculture, rural communities and cultural landscapes

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From case studies of three regions of Norway the multidisciplinary team of applicants aim to build new knowledge about structural change in agriculture. The proposed project emphasizes the classic topic of agricultural and rural research: agricultural str uctures, how they change ower time, and the causes and effect of these changes. With this knowledge, causal relations between past and present structural changes in agriculture will be identified and discussed for property structure, the agricultural and rural economy, rural communities and landscape change. The project will analyse documents, statistical information, visual data and qualitative semi-structured interviews with representatives of farmers, rural property owners, local government bodies and local organisations. Norway will be compared with systems in Switzerland, Germany and Scotland. Potential gains and losses will be discussed, from economic, environmental, social and cultural perspectives, when responding to climate change actions and an unstable global financial situation. The project addresses the Research Programmes Chapter 4 Industrial Policy call for relevant research competence at an international high level on; Effects of public regulations and use of instruments; How agriculture i s influencing on and influenced by the climate crisis and it's potential positive contributions to solve problems; The relationship between structural changes and the recent finance crisis and; Call for knowledge for policy development.