The Dictionary of Human Geography

model of property on to situations involving
peoples who might collectively make sense
of the world in very different terms. What
they demonstrate is how important an under-
standing of the legal geographies of IPRs is
likely to be for the foreseeable future (see
law). nb

Suggested reading
Brown (2003); Coombe (1998); Dutfield
(2004); Parry (2004); Whatmore (2002).

intensive agriculture Intensive agriculture
is broadly characterized as repeated cultiva-
tion and/or grazing of the same area of land
using supplementary energy inputs to enhance
the fertility of the land: it is contrasted with
extensive agriculture, which involves seasonal
patterns of transitory land use over large
areas (Simmons, 1996). As a process, intensi-
fication refers to improving the yield on land
already in production, usually by efforts to
speed up, enhance or reduce the risks of bio-
logical processes in agrarian production;
whereas extensification refers to bringing
more land into production. Boyd, Prudham
and Schurman (2001) have drawn parallels
between these two ideas andmarxian econom-
icsconcepts regarding the subsumption of la-
bour. Food regime theorists such as Freidmann
and McMichael (1989) have used regulation
theory to posit a broad shift from extensive to
intensive agriculture in the postwar period, al-
though many have contested these assump-
tions and have noted a much more variegated
landscape of extensive and intensive production.
As a historical process, intensification has
been associated with the transition from feu-
dalism to capitalism (seeenclosure), and the
ensuing development of markets in land, la-
bour, credit and farm inputs. One theory of
intensification is through the penetration of
commodity relations intopeasanthouseholds.
What Bernstein (1995a) has called the ‘simple
reproduction squeeze’ is when inputs and re-
productive needs once produced by house-
holds need to be purchased at the same time
that household members are drawn into off-
farm employment, reducing the labour ap-
plied to farming and social reproduction. The
prospect of declining yields and income thus
forces agrarian producers to adopt more high-
yielding configurations of capital, labour and
technology. Blaikie’s (1985) theorization as to
how this squeeze can lead to soil erosion in
developing countries was seminal inpolitical
ecology. Since increased yield can be
achieved with more rotations (fewer fallows),

reduced crop loss or faster-growing varieties/

animal breeds, today intensive agriculture is

associated with high input use, includ-

ing chemical fertilizers and pesticides, animal

pharmaceuticals and growth hormones, mech-

anization and genetic engineering. Non-

technical innovations in labour control can

be considered intensification as well; for ex-

ample, the use of vulnerability to ensure a

timely, and compliant, labour force. Because

farmers are ‘price-takers’, agriculture is

plagued by systematic over-production, a prob-

lem that intensification only exacerbates. At the

introduction of a new technology, early innov-

ators enjoy surplus profits, based on improved

productivity. As others jump in, price com-

petition ensues, causing rates of profit to fall,

until marginal returns are very low. Inten-

sification has come to be associated with high

land values, since land tends to be capitalized

at the ‘highest and best use’ (see Guthman,

2004).

Intensive agriculture practices have become

closely associated with growing public con-

cerns about the environmental and food safety

problems of industrial systems of food produc-

tion. These problems range from water pollu-

tion caused by agricultural chemical runoff

and the loss of biodiversity associated with

monocultures, to the incubation of animal dis-

eases such as BSE. Sometimes, theindustri-

alization of agriculture, which can also

connote corporate control, largeness or

factory-like conditions, is more precisely

described as intensification. jgu

Suggested reading

Kimbrell (2002).

intensive research Research strategies

directed towards discovering the causal chains

that connect social structures, social practices

and individual agents in particular time–space

contexts. Sayer (1992 [1984]) argued that in-

tensive research is typically conducted under

the sign ofrealismand relies onqualitative

methods, includingethnography. As such, it

is concerned with substantial relations of con-

nection and privileges a logic of corroboration.

Sayer insisted that such studies are every bit as

‘objective’ asextensive researchand, indeed,

are more powerful, since their focus on causal

mechanisms means that they are likely to

produce ‘abstract knowledge [that is] more

generally applicable’. dg

internal relations Necessary relations be-

tween objects or practices that make them

Gregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_I Final Proof page 389 31.3.2009 7:05pm

INTERNAL RELATIONS