Advancing AKIS with assemblage thinking

• Published in: Journal of rural studies Vol. 97; pp. 57 - 69
• Main Authors: Sutherland, Lee-Ann, Adamsone-Fiskovica, Anda, Elzen, Boelie, Koutsouris, Alexandros, Laurent, Catherine, Stræte, Egil Petter, Labarthe, Pierre
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.01.2023; Elsevier
• Subjects: Advisory services; agricultural industry; avocados; economic development; Extension; farm labor; farmers; Farming systems; farms; France; Greece; Innovation; issues and policy; Knowledge systems; Latvia; Life Sciences; MicroAKIS; Norway; politics; robots; Greece; Latvia; France; Norway; Farming systems; Extension; Knowledge systems; Innovation; MicroAKIS; Advisory services
• ISSN: 0743-0167; 1873-1392
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2022.11.005

The establishment of effective national agricultural knowledge and innovation systems (AKIS) became a European policy imperative in the 2010s, lodged in a political ideology which emphasised the importance of innovation to economic growth. We argue that the recent deployment of the AKIS concept in EU policy presents important opportunities for the agricultural sector and associated academic research but has significant weaknesses in terms of the scale of analysis (over emphasis on national levels) and disconnection from academic thinking on innovation processes. In this paper we progress the AKIS approach by utilising assemblage theory. We argue that assemblage concepts – in line with other ‘more-than-human’ approaches - offer mechanisms for recognising and integrating the role of non-human actants in innovation processes. Inclusion of these actants highlight the co-constructed nature of farm knowledge and associated transition processes. Assemblage concepts of historicity and rupture demonstrate how the path dependencies of farming are embedded in the material conditions of production, and the learning processes which occur when path dependencies are interrupted. We illustrate these contentions with empirical case studies of the ‘microAKIS’ – self-assembled farmer knowledge networks and associated processes - characterising four innovations across Europe: the introduction of a new commodity (avocado) in Greece, mainstreaming of robotic milking in Norway, retro-innovation of direct marketing in Latvia, and outsourcing of (dehumanised) farm labour in France. •MicroAKIS are the processes and sources of knowledge brought together by farmers.•Assemblage theory integrates new kinds of actors and the knowledge they produce.•Assemblage theory emphasises the materialities of innovation processes.•Learning processes territorialise farm assemblages.•Contemporary AKIS policies focus too heavily on traditional AKIS actors.