creators_name: Gibbon, David
editors_name: Powell, Jane
editors_name: et al., 
type: conference_item
datestamp: 2006-10-23
lastmod: 2009-08-20 14:32:08
metadata_visibility: show
title: Systems thinking, interdisciplinarity and farmer participation: essential ingredients in working for more sustainable organic farming systems
ispublished: pub
subjects: 9research
subjects: 2systems
full_text_status: public
keywords: Colloquium of organic researchers; COR; agricultural research methods; systems; system thinking, interdisciplinarity, farmer research;participatory research; principles; methodologies

abstract: 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.
date: 2002
date_type: published
publication: Proceedings of the UK Organic Research 2002 Conference
publisher: Organic Centre Wales, Institute of Rural Studies, University of Wales Aberystwyth
pagerange: 105-108
refereed: never
referencetext: Bawden R (1995). On the systems dimension in FSR. Journal for Farming Systems Research- Extension. Vol 5. No. 2. 1995. 

Cerf M; Gibbon D; Hubert B; Ison R; Jiggins J; Paine M; Proost J; Röling N (2000). Cow up a Tree. Knowing and Learning for Change in Agriculture. Case Studies from Industrialised Countries. INRA. Paris. 492pp. 

Checkland PB (1981). Systems thinking: Systems Practice. John Wiley. Chichester. 

Checkland PB (1995). Model Validation in Soft Systems Practice. Systems Research. 12: 47-55 

Collinson, M. (2000). A History of Farming Systems Research. FAO/IFSA/CABI. 432pp. Hamilton NA (1995). Learning to Learn with Farmers. PhD Thesis, Univ. Wageningen. Netherlands 

Haverkort B; van der Kamp J; Waters-Bayer A (eds.) (1991). Joining farmers’ experiments. Intermediate Technology Publications. 268pp. 

Jiggins J; Gibbon D (1997). What does interdisciplinarity mean ? 13th European Seminar on Extension Education. Dublin 1-6th Sept. 1997. pp 13. 

Okali C; Sumberg J; Farrington J (1994). Farmer Participatory Research. ODI. 159pp. Petheram RJ; Clark RA (1998). Farming Systems Research: relevance to Australia. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture, 1998,38, 101- 115. 

Röling N; Wagermakers MAE (1998). Facilitating Sustainable Agriculture. 318pp. Cambridge University Press. 

Scoones I;Thompson J (1994). Beyond Farmer First. IT Publications. 301pp.


citation: 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.
document_url: http://orgprints.org/8269/1/gibbon_Systems_thinking_participation.pdf