Sustainability Transitions in German Livestock Farming: The Role of Innovations, Incumbents, and Imagined Futures
by Jonathan Friedrich
Date of Examination:2023-07-21
Date of issue:2023-08-10
Advisor:Prof. Dr. Jana Zscheischler
Referee:Prof. Dr. Heiko Faust
Referee:Prof. Dr. Thomas Weith
Referee:Prof. Dr. Markus Keck
Referee:Dr. Sandra Uthes
Referee:Prof. Dr. Daniela Sauer
Persistent Address:
http://dx.doi.org/10.53846/goediss-10036
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Abstract
English
Environmental degradation, climate change, and issues of social justice highlight the need to develop and transition to more sustainable modes of production, consumption, and living. Livestock farming in Germany is a sector that is concerned to transition, being characterized by a multitude of socio-ecological issues and both discursive and legislative pressure to change. While this sector is marked by persistent mechanisms in culture and practices, bioeconomic innovation actors are developing innovations that may contribute to sustainability-oriented transitions in this sector. This context presents the possibility to observe transitions in the making. Against this backdrop, in this dissertation, I aim at understanding the mechanisms, actors, and processes of currently unfolding transitions in livestock farming by a focus on innovations, incumbents, and imagined futures. I operationalize this focus via four complementary qualitative case studies, focusing on (i) contesting imaginations of manure futures and how these shape trajectories of livestock farming, (ii) the role of bioeconomic innovations in contributing toward transitions in livestock farming, (iii) the role of bioeconomic actors as being shaped by technological fixes, and last, a focus on (iv) livestock farmers as incumbents being embedded in the existing regime and their in/ability to drive institutional changes. My empirical results show three different trajectories of livestock transitions, namely preservation, modernization, and transformation. These are characterized by contesting imaginations of manure futures. Bioeconomic innovations in the intensive livestock system are shaped by imaginaries of technological fixes, follow classical innovation paradigms, and have a rather low ability toward reconfiguring the existing regime beyond actor-technology configurations. On the contrary, as they are accompanied by expectations, these innovations attract capital investments, which pose the risk of “colonizing” the future through sunken costs and extra-semiotic inscription of imaginaries in material and physical infrastructures. Farmers as incumbents are embedded in very stable systems, externalize the locale to change, and experience low agency for change. Transitions in livestock farming are thus currently mainly visible in changes of the actor-technology configuration as a result of the adoption of bioeconomic innovations and are driven by exogenous actors such as NGOs and political-legislative changes (e.g., the EU’s nitrate directive and the German fertilizer ordinance) in the semiotic space. Farmers may currently lack the capacity to imagine real alternatives and navigate changes by themselves. In addition to these empirical results, my dissertation elucidates the important role of imagined futures in sustainability transitions. Imagined futures not only provide the semiotic spirit for change, but they are also at the same time a diagnosis of the present and of the problem(s) that individuals and collectives regard as important to change. Without the ability to imagine alternative futures, the ability to transition and reconfigure is limited. Actors with material-semiotic relationships to livestock farming often have reductionist problem frames on issues, while actors such as NGOs with semiotic relationships have more complex problem frames. In order to be able to act purposefully despite complexity and uncertainty, actors with material-semiotic relations rely on reductionist problem frames, established and inscribed forms of change through technological fixes, or on conceptions of no change. Relying on these reductionist conceptions of change may result in cognitive path dependencies and a colonization of the future. The underlying dissertation underscores that to avoid such phenomena appearing, it is of great importance to integrate different actors’ views of problems, e.g., by means of transdisciplinary research projects. Here, different actors can discuss their normative orientations, conflicting problem views, and develop meaningful imaginations of how to change the current system. This can not only support new forms of innovation design to be implemented, but could also help individuals in navigating transitions and experiencing agency in the moment of change. Based on a synthesis of the empirical and theoretical contributions of my research, this dissertation sketches four research avenues for an in-depth understanding of the complex mechanisms in livestock transitions and how to govern and drive these. I conclude that for persistent systems such as livestock farming, it is important to allow for exchange of knowledge and social contacts and to bring in new perspectives that can drive changes in the persistent culture of these systems. Without new actors, the capacity to imagine different futures for livestock farming and practices, how to achieve these, and how to drive genuine sustainability transitions in livestock farming is limited because, without new cultural and imaginative input, the regime of livestock farming will merely reproduce itself. In such processes, the future must be treated as a social arena characterized by different imaginations, ontologies, and perspectives to develop transformative imaginations. To avoid reproducing and reinforcing existing imaginations, the power relations and hegemonies that structure current deliberative processes must be challenged to develop both adaptive and plural conceptions of imagined futures that can accordingly drive genuine and just transformations in livestock farming and beyond.
Keywords: sustainability transitions; imagined futures; bioeconomic innovation; incumbents; geography
