Interactions between Niche and Regime: An Analysis of Learning and Innovation Networks for Sustainable Agriculture across Europe

Abstract

Purpose: This paper aims to reveal, and contribute to an understanding of, the processes that connect learning and innovation networks in sustainable agriculture to elements of the mainstream agricultural regime. Drawing on the innovations and transition literature, the paper frames the analysis around niche-regime interaction using the notion of niche-regime compatibility.

Design/Methodology/Approach: 17 Learning and Innovation Networks for Sustainable Agriculture (LINSA) engaged in agricultural food production, non-food and rural development were analyzed. In line with the project's transdisciplinary approach data were collected in a series of participatory workshops.

Findings: Five modes of LINSA-regime interaction are distinguished based on compatibility. The level of LINSA-regime compatibility influences the extent of the diffusion of LINSA ideas and practices into the regime. However, interaction processes within these modes reveal multiple and diverse connections between LINSA and regime entities suggesting a more complex relationship exists.

Practical implications: A range of connecting processes and activities (for example, certification, exemption from regulation, facilitation of networking) can bring about effective LINSA-regime interaction and could be externally supported.

Originality/Value: Empirical evidence from 17 case studies provides valuable insights from a number of different contexts across Europe. By directing analysis of interaction at the level of LINSA (niche project), rather than at the macro level, the study offers an original perspective. It suggests that the transition to sustainable agriculture might be understood as a complex of interactive processes leading to a series of adaptive changes, rather than as regime change.     

“Home Is Where the Shaykh Is”: The Concept of Exile in the Hagiography of İbrahim-i Gülşeni

The hagiographical narrative of the Halveti shaykh ?brahim-i Gül?eni, spanning a critical period in Islamic history when the shaykhs of Sunni mystical orders were pushed out of Iran and Azerbaijan to take up residence elsewhere, initially seems to be an excellent source for understanding how medieval thinkers reacted to the concept of exile. However, upon closer examination of the hagiographer and his work, we realize that it was not just the existence of a physical exile from one's homeland that was critical to the work. This article takes a closer look at how Muhyi-yi Gül?eni, the author and compiler of the hagiography of ?brahim-i Gül?eni and his followers, constructs the concept of exile in both its physical and metaphorical senses. In the world of a vastly expanded Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of the reign of Sultan Süleyman that required its literate elites to take up posts far from home, Muhyi reconfigures the idea of exile to reflect a separation or estrangement from one's mystical guide. This narrative strategy both reinforced the audience's devotion to the order and offered a source of comfort to groups who were forced to travel to distant parts of the realm.     

Mexican American Student Resistance: From Spontaneity to Organization

Having challenged student resistance scholarship for glorifying forms of resistance that tend to be self-destructive to students, the field has shifted to supporting and advancing more transformational forms of resistance, such as organizing campaigns for social justice issues. While this is a welcome advance, the conception of transformative employed by researchers tends to be limited to reformist agendas. Situating student resistance in a historical context through a re-reading of Marx and Lenin offers a deeper framework for understanding and organizing student resistance. Making these points, I draw on the Mexican American historical and contemporary context for illustrations.     

The Origins of Football Debate: Comments on Adrian Harvey's Historiography

This article is intended as a reply to Adrian Harvey's recent historiography of football in which he continues to distort the story of the initial development of the game. It not only refutes the revisionist hypothesis of an influential football sub-culture based around public houses but also offers an alternative explanation of the game's past, largely based on the influence of ex-public schoolboys and former university undergraduates. It seeks to push the debate a step further by robustly re-asserting the meagre nature of the revisionist evidence in addition to Adrian Harvey's poor scholarship.