Mapping Farmer Identity: why, how, and what does it tell us?

Examining the Social Properties of Oklahoma Agricultural Facebook Pages: A Quantitative Content Analysis

“…While online presence is important, researchers also need to understand what is being shared online. This research focuses on identity portrayal due to the influence identity can have on real-world actions, such as land management decisions and general agricultural practices (Groth & Curtis, 2017;Lequin et al, 2019). Studies show producers have deeply entrenched occupational identities, even more so than other occupations.…”

“…While rural areas are predominately agricultural lands, an assortment of management practices are used (Groth & Curtis, 2017;Mitchell, 2013). These practices range from conventional, large-scale operations to organic production or putting marginal land in conservation programs.…”

“…These practices range from conventional, large-scale operations to organic production or putting marginal land in conservation programs. While identity affects practices (Groth & Curtis, 2017;Lequin et al, 2019), the practices of agriculture also affect the identity of producers (Bell et al, 2004). Differing practices reflect producers' varying beliefs, values, knowledge, and resources (Mendham et al, 2012), as well as being tied to producers' families (Bell et al, 2004).…”

“…Because identity can affect practices and interfere with how producers interact with each other (Field & Hornsey, 2016;Groth & Curtis, 2017;Lequin et al, 2019), future research is needed to better understand how identity manifests with agricultural producers and how they portray themselves to others. This research should be repeated in other states to see if these results are unique to Oklahoma.…”

Ways forward for resilience thinking: lessons from the field for those exploring social-ecological systems in agriculture and natural resource management

“…Groth and Curtis (2017) have suggested that the extent that rural landholders hold farmer occupational identity is a critical variable that can be used to indicate changes in occupance modes (i.e., from productivist modes to those associated with other values) associated with the multifunctional rural transition (Holmes 2006). It is the view of Groth and Curtis (2017) that through studies in areas where such a transition has occurred, it will be possible to identify thresholds in the proportion of rural landholders who identify as farmers by occupation. This could then be used to estimate where and when similar transitions may occur in other rural locations.…”