Sustainable Agriculture and Food: Four volume set (Earthscan Reference Collections)

404 Enabling Policies and Institutions for Sustainable Agricultural and Food Systems

The social content of the models

The results of analysing the models using this framework are summarized in
Table 20.2. Several points should be noted. For many of the categories, ‘not
addressed’ would be the most appropriate notation. If a diligent search of the text
revealed even some small mention of the topic, however, it was considered an indi-
cator of the authors’ attitude and incorporated into the matrix. As a result, we have
in some cases characterized a model on the basis of a brief passage. Mesarovic and
Pestel, for example, devote a brief space to their view of nature, waxing eloquent
about human survival depending on living in harmony with the web of life. We
have repeated these phrases in our characterization, for they express the explicit
views of the authors; however, the overall tenor of their report and the model itself
treats nature solely as a collection of resources. In other cases, where we found no
specific mention in the text but an obvious characterization could be extrapolated
from the overall tenor of the text, we have done so. None of the six models, for
example, overtly expresses a conception of time, yet all implicitly treat it as linear.
Organizing the attributes into the aforementioned loose categories – philo-
sophical assumptions, social organization and material arrangements (Table 20.1) –
permits some general observations. In the sphere of material arrangements, the
models are fairly forthcoming, offering moderately detailed visions of economic
and technological conditions and at least a general sense of spatial linkages. Philo-
sophical assumptions are, for the most part, not explicitly addressed at all, but
implied stances may in many cases be gleaned from the overal tenor of the text,

Table 20.1 Attributes of social visions

Philosophical assumptions

• view of nature


• view of human nature


• view of time


• valid modes of understanding
  Social organization


• view of society and social goals


• agent of change


• population


• equity


• relative rights and responsibilities of individuals and society


• political organization and authority


• institutions


• lifestyle


• security
  Material arrangements


• economic system and exchange


• technology


• spatial linkages