TOWARDS A POSTMODERN AGRICULTURAL-ECONOMICS

Postmodernism has extended far beyond its origins in French literary c riticism in the 1960s to provide a major challenge to orthodox intelle ctual ideas and ways of working. Its influence has so far been felt le ss in the social sciences than in the arts or humanities, and hardly a t all in economics; yet because it is beginning to emerge within disci plines parallel to agricultural economics, such as human geography and rural sociology, it is prudent to attempt some anticipation of the im pact of its trenchant critique on agricultural economics. Accordingly, a minimum set of the ideas, attitudes and implications of the phenome non of postmodernism necessary to orient the unfamiliar are summarised , and related to contemporary concerns. The challenge which it might o ffer to mainstream economics is also considered, in terms of methodolo gy and of understanding In relation to rurality, postmodern emphases o n the particular, the local and the diverse are examined as potential solutions to contemporary social, economic and environmental problems. Examples are drawn from model-building, permacultural ethics, GIS and rural tourism to illustrate both the critique and the new approach th at it involves. Postmodernism's ambivalence in relation to equality an d social and economic justice is raised as a difficulty for a discipli ne which has traditionally had a focus on (and an ethical concern abou t) spatial inequality.