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Towards A Postmodern Agricultural Economics

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  • Peter Midmore

Abstract

Postmodernism has extended far beyond its origins in French literary criticism in the 1960s to provide a major challenge to orthodox intellectual ideas and ways of working. Its influence has so far been felt less in the social sciences than in the arts or humanities, and hardly at all in economics; yet because it is beginning to emerge within disciplines parallel to agricultural economics, such as human geography and rural sociology, it is prudent to attempt some anticipation of the impact of its trenchant critique on agricultural economics. Accordingly, a minimum set of the ideas, attitudes and implications of the phenomenon of postmodernism necessary to orient the unfamiliar are summarised, and related to contemporary concerns. The challenge which it might offer to mainstream economics is also considered, in terms of methodology and of understanding. In relation to rurality, postmodern emphases on the particular, the local and the diverse are examined as potential solutions to contemporary social, economic and environmental problems. Examples are drawn from model‐building, permacultural ethics, GIS and rural tourism to illustrate both the critique and the new approach that it involves. Postmodernism's ambivalence in relation to equality and social and economic justice is raised as a difficulty for a discipline which has traditionally had a focus on (and an ethical concern about) spatial inequality.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Midmore, 1996. "Towards A Postmodern Agricultural Economics," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1‐4), pages 1-17, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jageco:v:47:y:1996:i:1-4:p:1-17
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1477-9552.1996.tb00667.x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Donald N. McCloskey, 1990. "Agon and Ag Ec: Styles of Persuasion in Agricultural Economics," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 72(5), pages 1124-1130.
    2. McCloskey, Donald N., "undated". "Agon and Ag Ec: Styles of Persuasion in Agricultural Economics," 1990 Annual meeting, August 5-8, Vancouver, Canada 271005, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    3. Richard E. Just & Gordon C. Rausser, 1993. "The Governance Structure of Agricultural Science and Agricultural Economics: A Call to Arms," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 75(Special_I), pages 69-83.
    4. Leontief, Wassily, 1971. "Theoretical Assumptions and Nonobserved Facts," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 61(1), pages 1-7, March.
    5. Wassily Leontief, 1993. "Can Economics be Reconstructed as an Empirical Science?," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 75(Special_I), pages 2-5.
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    Cited by:

    1. Godden, David P., 2000. "Elegy, ode or panegyric: Australian agricultural economics in the last quarter of the twentieth century," 2000 Conference (44th), January 23-25, 2000, Sydney, Australia 123652, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    2. Tacconi, Luca, 1997. "An ecological economic approach to forest and biodiversity conservation: The case of vanuatu," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 25(12), pages 1995-2008, December.
    3. Tacconi, Luca, 1998. "Scientific methodology for ecological economics," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 91-105, October.
    4. Midmore, Peter & Whittaker, Julie, 2000. "Economics for sustainable rural systems," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 173-189, November.

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