Of organic farmers and ‘good farmers’: Changing habitus in rural England

In recent years, numerous studies have identified the importance of cultural constructions of ‘good farming’ to farming practice. In this paper, we develop the 'good farming' construct through an empirical study of organic and conventional farmers, focussing on how change occurs. Drawing on Bourdieu's concepts of cultural capital, habitus and fields, we argue that the dynamics of the ‘rules of the game’ in the agricultural field have simultaneously led to a broadening of the ‘good farming’ ideal, and to a fragmentation, whereby individual farmers prioritise a subset of this broad range. We demonstrate that gradual devaluation of existing ways to achieve cultural capital is essential to the development of new symbolic values. In line with this, we offer a critique of the implied static nature of cultural capital in the studies of farmer responses to agri-environmental schemes. We also point out that the alterations in perception and practices of farmers who converted to organic farming for 'pragmatic' reasons may be greater than sometimes implied.

► Erosion of existing cultural capital is key to the development of new symbols.
► Symbols of ‘good farming’ erode if they no longer reliably indicate a viable farm.
► Adopting new symbols requires active intent, reflexivity, viable options and time.
► Changes to ‘rules of the game’ lead to fragmented and diverse ‘good farming’ ideals.
► Diversified farmers act in, and thus can adopt symbols from multiple fields.