Decision Making in Agriculture : Farmers' Lifeworld in Theory and Practice

The challenges facing the agriculture sector are immense and a wide range of factors and demands influence it on both local and global level. Making decisions under such circumstances is a complex and delicate task in which goal conflicts cannot easily be resolved. This puts farmers in a rather difficult position as it is impossible for a single individual to make informed and appropriate decisions, which strongly emphasizes the need for an increased collaboration between farmers and other actors in the agricultural sector. This paper aims to explore in more detail farmers' lifeworld which refers to their social environment and working life. Particular focus will be on the socially situated organization of collaborative activities in farmers' lifeworld and the ways in which technologies and artifacts can be present in practical action. For instance, agricultural advisory situations can be considered complex social systems where people with different backgrounds, experiences, and expectations collaborate by means of a wide range of artifacts to develop some common understanding and shared knowledge. We suggest that theories of distributed and situated cognition and the methodologies that come with them are well suited to capture farmers' lifeworld and their daily working practices. Material from an ongoing workplace study will be used for illustration purposes to provide concrete examples.