Introduction du document :
"This thesis builds upon almost three decades of research engagement as a rural sociologist. During this period I studied agricultural and rural processes of change with a particular interest in family-farms’ responses to modernisation and globalisa- tion forces. This particular interest covered a wide variety of research issues such as agri-environmental concerns, new rural development activities, the socio-economic impact of these new activities at different scale levels, sustainable food production, new forms of farmer-led cooperation and rural policy design and delivery systems. Their interlinkages with on-going European policy and scientific debate about agri- culture’s multifunctionality may be perceived as the common denominator of these different research activities. This thesis builds upon this broad research experience in a national, as well as European, setting and differs as such from more convention- al approaches that start from a research question that subsequently is responded to. Instead, it consists of a presentation, interpretation and re-interpretation of earlier research work and hopes to contribute to a more profound theoretical un- derstanding of agriculture’s multifunctionality by underpinning its dynamic nature, recognizing its heterogeneity and acknowledging its significance for the future of family-based farming and rurality. Together these have been synthesized into the key argument of this thesis: agrarian pathways to multifunctionality are characterized, shaped and propelled by flows of resistance, redesign and resilience. The next sec- tions will briefly introduce the central notions of this key argument and the specific ways this will be further theorized and elaborated on in forthcoming chapters."

Content :
- Definitions, references and interpretations of the concept of multifunctionality in The Netherlands
- Understanding farm-level multifunctionality: multiple pathways and the resilience of family-based farming
- European governance of agri-environmental services: institutional voids, interfaces and self-regulation challenges
- The central role of nested markets in European rural development
- The role of agriculture in rural place-making: differentiating rural web dynamics
- Prospects for agrarian pathways to multifunctionality in the Netherlands