Care in dairy farming with automatic milking systems, identified using an Activity Theory lens

The old, the new, or the old made new? Everyday counter-narratives of the so-called fourth agricultural revolution

“…We have illustrated the need to capture the local, everyday enactment of technology on farms and consider the microhistories of change, rather than arbitrarily demarcating headline moments of progress. As we have argued in this paper, the inclusion of grounded everyday encounters (Glover et al 2019 ) to show how farmers ‘live with’ technology (Lundström and Lindblom 2021 ) reveals the non-linearity of change. This challenges not only the myth of agriculture 4.0, but also associated policy and funding support that may fail to account for the different paces and directionality at which different farmers experience change.…”

“…In a farming context, a characterisation used by Lundström and Lindblom ( 2021 ) helps us to consider what happens when technology enters the farm. The authors argue that researchers should consider how farmers ‘live with’ technology, rather than simply how they ‘act on’ it.…”

“…Whilst studies of how farmers use technology have often been interested in the binary use or non-use of technology ( if farmers use technology), they rarely concern themselves with how farmers use and interact with it. Yet, as Lundström and Lindblom ( 2021 ) show, observations of how different farmers use the same piece of technology over time will produce varying results. The process of if, how, and why technologies are used by a farmer, how these interactions change the farm environment, and how the farm environment changes these interactions, cannot be captured by binary notions of use or non-use.…”

“…We build on the work of Zagata et al ( 2020 ) and Duncan et al ( 2021 ) through a mixed methods study of everyday encounters between farmers and technology. Drawing on the aforementioned research in rural sociology and rural history, we explore how farmers are engaging with technology in practice, how they ‘live with’ technology (Lundström and Lindblom 2021 ), and show how these interactions problematise a simple, linear notion of innovation adoption and use. In doing so, we reflect upon the contribution that the study of everyday encounters can make in setting more inclusionary, responsible pathways towards sustainable agriculture.…”

Automation, Climate Change, and the Future of Farm Work: Cross-Disciplinary Lessons for Studying Dynamic Changes in Agricultural Health and Safety

“…While some overlap exists with aspects of Theme 1, this body of literature highlights inputs (care, attention) and societal-level considerations (e.g., holistic wellbeing, work quality) in the context of climate change and automation. This research also primarily focuses in US and European contexts and considers holistic wellbeing, the physical impacts of farm labor, and the relationship between farmers and farm workers on dairy operations in the changing landscape of agriculture in the last ten years [ 5 , 6 , 53 , 65 , 82 , 83 ]. Notably, this research has, at times, adopted approaches from other disciplines described below—as is the case of Arcury and Holmes’ work with workers in labor-intensive plant agriculture [ 46 , 47 , 49 , 81 , 84 ].…”