http://orgprints.org/8269/ Systems thinking, interdisciplinarity and farmer participation: essential ingredients in working for more sustainable organic farming systems Gibbon, David Research methodology and philosophy Systems research and participatory research This report was presented at the UK Organic Research 2002 Conference. This paper discusses the principles and values behind some of the innovative agricultural research methods which have evolved over the past 30 years in many countries and suggests that the lessons from this experience could have significant benefits in the development of organic research in the UK. The author argues that the key elements which need to be incorporated into a new approach to research on organic systems are:- systemic thinking (the need for a more holistic understanding of the context of farming and rural livelihoods), interdisciplinarity, (contributions from both social and natural science in the research process) and farmer-participation (the active participation and partnership of farmers and other key stakeholders in the process of design, planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating research). By incorporating these principles, both into the vision of what research can become within in the organic movement, and into the methodologies that are used in new research partnerships, it is suggested that we could learn our way towards more sustainable, organically-based rural livelihoods in the future. Organic Centre Wales, Institute of Rural Studies, University of Wales Aberystwyth Powell, Jane et al., 2002 Conference paper, poster, etc. NonPeerReviewed application/pdf http://orgprints.org/8269/1/gibbon_Systems_thinking_participation.pdf Gibbon, David (2002) Systems thinking, interdisciplinarity and farmer participation: essential ingredients in working for more sustainable organic farming systems. UK Organic Research 2002 Conference, Aberystwyth, 26-28 March 2002. In: Powell, Jane and et al., (Eds.) Proceedings of the UK Organic Research 2002 Conference, Organic Centre Wales, Institute of Rural Studies, University of Wales Aberystwyth, pp. 105-108. http://orgprints.org/8269/http://orgprints.org/8269/1/