Knowledge: The Site of Struggle between the Farmer and the Scholar

By Ethel Crowley
English

This paper analyses the Rural Environment Protection Scheme (reps) in Ireland. It addresses competing approaches to knowledge and the dominance of science in debates on agri-environmental policy. Science is used effectively as an officialising strategy, to justify this form of state intervention in farming. Any objections that farmers might raise are deemed old-fashioned and therefore illegitimate. They are engaging in symbolic or ideological struggles and cultural politics are being forged on the anvil of representations of the environment.

Keywords

  • reps
  • knowledge
  • environment
  • development
  • agri-environmental policy
  • Ireland
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