Books by Michael Carolan
Papers by Michael Carolan
William and Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review, 2021
Manchester University Press eBooks, Jan 31, 2023
PLOS ONE
Potatoes are the most consumed vegetable worldwide and play an important role in the U.S. economy... more Potatoes are the most consumed vegetable worldwide and play an important role in the U.S. economy. Growers make critical decisions each year in choosing which cultivar to grow, based on factors such as yield, resilience to the growing environment, and utility in the food industry. Current research supports the finding that less-common specialty cultivars (SCs) have benefits for human health. However, growers have been slow to adopt SCs into mainstream operations. Here, we identify major factors in the decision-making process that determine whether a population of growers in the San Luis Valley, Colorado, a major potato-growing region, adopt SC potatoes. We used a combination of ethnographic techniques and quantitative methods to examine drivers of adoption. The data demonstrate grower perceptions within potato farming and the complexity of interacting factors in decision-making. An integration of the Theory of Planned Behavior, Rational Expectation Hypothesis, and Diffusion of Innov...
Routledge Handbook of Sustainable and Regenerative Food Systems, 2020
Technology, 2009
... 6 Deeper Organic Agriculture: Arne Naess by David Orton 7 Conferences, Calls for Papers, Gr... more ... 6 Deeper Organic Agriculture: Arne Naess by David Orton 7 Conferences, Calls for Papers, Grant Applications, and Program Advertisements This edition: Information on 4 conferences, 2 journals with special editions on society and environment, 1 grant, 1 prize competition, 1 ...
Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems
Organic nutrient sources (ONS) are managed as a key resource by smallholder farmers to maintain t... more Organic nutrient sources (ONS) are managed as a key resource by smallholder farmers to maintain the productivity of soils. Recycling of ONS by applying them to soils is a globally dominant strategy of ecological nutrient management. Understanding how ONS produced on-farm are allocated and what drives farmer decision making around their use is critical for sustainable nutrient management in smallholder agroecosystems. Using focus group discussions and a survey of 184 farming households, we studied socio-economic, socio-cultural, and environmental drivers of ONS allocation and use at the farm scale in three contrasting agroecological zones of western Kenya. Farm typologies of ONS management were also developed using cluster analysis based on resource endowment and the connectedness of farmers, management norms, and interaction with extension. Our findings suggest that the more resource endowed a farmer is, the more ONS are allocated to the main plot within the farm. We also observed t...
Biological Economies, 2016
Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 2018
Environmental Values, 2006
The epistemologically distant nature of many of today's environmental risks greatly problemat... more The epistemologically distant nature of many of today's environmental risks greatly problematises conventional risk analyses that emphasise objectivity, materiality, factual specificity and certainty. Such analyses fail to problematise issues of ontology and epistemology, assuming a reality that is readily 'readable' and a corresponding knowledge of that reality that is asocial, objective and certain. Under the weight of modern, invisible, manufactured environmental risks, however, these assumptions begin to crack, revealing their tenuous nature. As this paper argues, statements of risk are ultimately social products that come to us by way of translation. They are statements not of what is (ontology) but of knowledge (epistemology) expressed in probabilistic terms, and are thus thoroughly social in nature, for it is we - through our actions and social networks - that imbue them with meaning. One way we do this is through our social relations of trust. And it is this rela...
The Sociological Quarterly, 2021
The Journal of Peasant Studies, 2019
Sustainability, 2019
Cities are increasingly turning to food policy plans to support goals related to food access, foo... more Cities are increasingly turning to food policy plans to support goals related to food access, food security, the environment, and economic development. This paper investigates ways that rural farmers, communities, and economies can both support and be supported by metropolitan food-focused initiatives. Specifically, our research question asked what opportunities and barriers exist to developing food policies that support urban food goals, particularly related to local procurement, as well as rural economic development. To address this question, we described and analyzed a meeting of urban stakeholders and larger-scale rural producers related to Colorado’s Denver Food Vision and Plan. We documented and explored “findings” gleaned from a supply chain diagraming and data compilation process that were then used to inform an event that brought together diverse supply chain partners. Three findings stand out. First, facilitating dialog between urban food policymakers and rural producers t...
Food Utopias, 2015
ABSTRACT Food is a contentious and emotive issue, subject to critiques from multiple perspectives... more ABSTRACT Food is a contentious and emotive issue, subject to critiques from multiple perspectives. Alternative food movements – including the different articulations of local, food miles, seasonality, food justice, food knowledge and food sovereignty – consistently invoke themes around autonomy, sufficiency, cooperation, mutual aid, freedom, and responsibility. In this stimulating and provocative book the authors link these issues to utopias and intentional communities. Using a food utopias framework presented in the introduction, they examine food stories in three interrelated and complementary ways: utopias as critique of existing systems; utopias as engagement with experimentation of the novel, the forgotten, and the hopeful in the future of the food system; and utopias as process that recognizes the time and difficulty inherent in changing the status quo. The chapters address theoretical aspects of food utopias and also present case studies from a range of contexts and regions, including Argentina, Italy, Switzerland and USA. These focus on key issues in contemporary food studies including equity, locality, the sacred, citizenship, community and food sovereignty. Food utopias offers ways forward to imagine a creative and convivial food system.
Building off of the path-breaking works of Roy Bhaskar —and in particular his philosophical posit... more Building off of the path-breaking works of Roy Bhaskar —and in particular his philosophical position of critical realism—this paper works toward a realignment of sociology with the life and ecological sciences. Sociology has been cautious of looking too far into the realm of the biophysical for causal potentials out of fear that such analyses might mark the beginning of a slippery slope toward biological reductionism. Yet, as this paper argues, such fears of reductionism are conceptually misguided. Critical realism argues that reality is stratified, rooted, and emergent. Consequently, to bracket social life from those levels “beneath” it—or, in some cases, to write out nature entirely (e.g., discursive theory and “strong” social constructionism)—is to approach the study of those phenomena with a degree of institutionalized blindness. Instead, this paper argues that sociology must open its doors to all causal potentials, regardless of where this search may lead.
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Books by Michael Carolan
Papers by Michael Carolan