Succession of Scottish family farms : socialisation processes and the construction of farmer identities

This study investigated socialisation processes on Scottish family farms. Although land and knowledge transfers within established succession systems are important to environmental, social, economic and cultural sustainability issues, the reasons behind changing succession patterns are not well understood. Past studies have tended to focus on how external factors are associated with particular occupational choices. However, this neglects the role of socialisation processes and identity in framing behaviour. Therefore, this study looked at how children’s identities are constructed and how these, in turn, frame particular occupational choices. The results suggest that children develop farmer identities according to four salient dimensions of established farmer ideal types: maleness, commitment, common sense and physical robustness. A key conclusion is that whether or not children develop farmer identities acts as a good predictor of their occupational choices. Also, farmer identities are established relatively early and are relatively non-reversible, indicating the importance of the ‘successful’ socialisation of children into their family farm context. Further, these socialisation processes are integrated within endogenous cycles, oscillating between socialisation processes, succession processes and farm trajectories. Moreover, while issues and processes that are external to the farm and family context have no objective relevance for individuals’ occupational choices, they may become subjectively relevant in the context of these endogenous cycles.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo