Marie Mahon

New opportunities and cautionary steps? Farmers, forestry and rural development in Ireland

New opportunities and cautionary steps? Farmers, forestry and rural development in Ireland It is argued that European agriculture is currently confronted with a multitude of critical challenges and developmental changes, in which the viability of farms based solely on traditional forms of production applies only to a minority who can compete at the level and scale of global markets. The challenge to the remaining majority of farmers and to wider agricultural communities is to remain viable through adoption of alternative farm activities and enterprises under what is described as a multifunctional model of agriculture. One activity that is emerging as a realistic economic option under this rural restructuring is forestry. From an increasing range of policy perspectives within agriculture, rural development, environment, tourism and industry, forestry is becoming redefined as much more than a resource for primary production. It is also an activity which offers enormous potential as a secondary resource, particularly when its significance as an ecological, amenity, recreational and environmental reserve is successfully realised. However, evidence would suggest that Irish farmers have been particularly slow to embrace forestry as a potential resource. In what is generally accepted as a time of economic crisis for the agricultural sector, this paper explores the perceptions, attitudes and apparent reluctance of Irish farmers to engage in forestry as a viable farm enterprise. We assess this evidence against the prevailing EU and national policy context for forestry, particularly the range of incentives and/or barriers to forestry, and seek to establish if, and to what extent, reasons lie within the policy context, or whether farmers contest the notion of forestry as an agricultural activity for other, more ideological or practical, reasons.

Governance Deficits in Residential Housing Estates in Ireland

The interpretation and operation of planning guidelines relating to private housing estates in Ireland, and the structures for involving residents in their management thereafter, are examined. Institutional and legislative weaknesses underlying the current approaches to estate management have created a range of governance deficits, with potentially longer-term adverse impacts for the development of a sense of local community and for the promotion of participatory democracy and civil society. Drawing on evidence from several recently constructed private housing estates, this paper explores these issues in terms of the institutional context in which planning policies are being administered and the relative position of the relevant stakeholders within this process. An open, participatory approach, that recognises residents as legitimate stakeholders in the process of managing their own estates, is strongly advocated.

Power, Discourse and Participation in Nature Conflicts: The Case of Turf Cutters in the Governance of Ireland's Raised Bog Designations

Abstract This paper explores how participatory processes and the politics of contestation and resistance converge to influence changes in discourses and institutional structures underpinning the implementation of the European Union Habitats Directive in Ireland. It highlights the potential of environmental partnership processes to disrupt the usual scalar hierarchy for regulation. The focus is specifically on the designation of raised bogs and the role of power relations and legitimacy discourses in participatory governance processes established by government. In particular, this paper critiques the participatory governance process and attempts to legitimize the enforcement of the Habitats Directive in the face of resistance by the Turf Cutters and Contractors Association (TCCA). Whilst the purpose of the designation is to protect unique habitats, another effect has been to prohibit the traditional right to cut turf on Special Areas of Conservation (SACs). The rationale behind the designation and the mechanisms by which this process has been mediated has been highly contested, with the TCCA claiming the scope inherent in the Directive to consider the de-classification of SACs to have been inadequately addressed by government. The paper concludes with a Foucauldian critique of regulatory authority, legitimacy discourses and agency in the application of participatory processes underpinning environmental regulation.

Creative industries and the creative economy of the West of Ireland: evidence of sustainable change?

ABSTRACT Our goal here is to consider how the rise of the creative economy in the west of Ireland can be situated in broader trends of industrial and economic change. This work is based on a number of EU funded projects (Creative Edge; Creative Momentum) that have sought to prove the nature and extent of the creative economy in Europes most peripheral regions. Here we consider the key traits of a burgeoning economy and question how it fits into (results from and indeed inspires) the wider context of global economic change. We explore patterns of consuming, making, creating, and sharing and consider how they reside in the creative economy. We situate the performance of creative industries in broader trends in cultural consumption and seek to highlight now their relationship of with their place and their unique approach to doing business could highlight a sustainable development path for peripheral regions in Europe.

FARM FAMILIES AND FUTURE OPTIONS – THE ROLE OF THE EXTENSION ADVISORY SERVICE IN SHAPING IRISH AGRICULTURE

Abstract Agriculture across Europe is very much driven by the reforms initiated by the European Union (EU) and World Trade Organisation negotiations. Reforms have mobilised a shift in agricultural practices from production to a somewhat contested post-production and, more recently, multifunctional agriculture regime. Accompanying such change has been the debate on the future of farming, the role of agriculture within the countryside, and the extent to which the sector will maintain support from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the EU. Central to these discussions, in terms of bringing about beneficial change on farms and in rural areas, is the advice and direction available to farmers. The agricultural extension advisory services are an integral component of this process. This paper explores the position of public extension advisory services in Ireland and determines the extent to which these services are impacting the trajectory of modern agricultural practices within a framework of more traditional views of farmers and farm families.