Soil as a key criteria in the construction of farmers' identities: The example of farming in the Austrian province of Burgenland

•Soil quality aspects are important factors for constructing farmers' identities.•The perception of soils among farmers always implies a whole range of moral values.•Farmers define themselves against other farmers or groups in relation to soil quality aspects.•Soils say something about farming skills to anyone who is able to decode farming symbols.•Soil quality aspects locate the social standing of farmers within the farming community.

Studies of farming symbols in modern agriculture indicate that soils and agricultural land are important factors when it comes to the construction of farmers' identities. This article uses Bourdieu's framework of habitus along with his theory of capital to discuss the importance of soils in this construction process of farmers' identities. A range of methods was used in this study involving qualitative and quantitative interviews with 124 farmers in the Austrian province of Burgenland. In the Burgenland, soil and landscapes are loaded with meaning and therefore never neutral: always implying a wide range of moral concepts of what is “good” or “bad” in the context of soil and land. Farmers “read” soils and related management practices as indication of farming skills and the farmers' interpretation always depends on farmers' aesthetic perception of the world and thus on the farmers' habitus and cultural capital. Farmers distinguish themselves from other farmers, groups or areas of work relating to soil quality aspects or soil management strategies of others. This reciprocal construction of boundaries locates the standing of individual farmers within a community. The importance of the relation between farmers and their soils for the construction of farming identity is especially important for organic farmers.