Ika Darnhofer is associate professor at the Institute of Agricultural and Forestry Economics at the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences in Vienna (Austria). Her research focuses on management and decision making on family farms, not least linked to resilience of farms. Taking a qualitative approach, she explores issues linked to farming values, autonomy and adaptability. The focus on resilience is strengthened by the recognition that we live in turbulent times. Family farms thus need a high level of adaptive capacity to cope with rapid and often unpredictable change as well as with the ambiguity and contradictions in consumer’s demands. She is member of the executive committee of the International Farming Systems Association (IFSA), and a member of the editorial board of the ‚Journal of Rural Studies’, of ‘Agricultural Systems’ and of ‚Agriculture and Human Values’.
The COVID-19 pandemic draws attention to many things, including our global connectedness, the role of ‘big government’, marginalisation, solidarity, and the ‘unsung heroes’ who keep essential systems running. For all of us, it tests our resilience… […]
How can farmers, researchers and administrators work together to really preserve mountain grasslands, which are threatened with scrub encroachment and land abandonment? Dr. Ika Darnhofer outlines some findings from a recent paper Darnhofer and colleagues published. […]
Agricultural and Rural Convention