Name

Gleirscher Norbert, Markus Schermer

Title

The Use of Actor Network Theory to analyze

the Impact of Organic Marketing Initiatives on
Regional Development

1. Introduction:
The aim of this paper is to give insight into the complexity of regional development
processes using the Actor Network Theory to explain the interdependency of organic
marketing initiatives (OMIs) and regional actors in development processes.
One of the key issues will be the improved knowledge of processes and dynamics for a
consolidated European regional development policy in the future. Furthermore
Sustainability has become one of the crucial terms in the public discussion on regional
development. Within the agricultural agenda organic farming is perceived as one major
paths for sustainable development. Therefore the paper focuses on the network relations
between organic marketing initiatives and rural development. Although there are
indications that there is a great potential for organic marketing initiatives to contribute to
sustainable regional development, little is known of the mechanisms encouraging or
hampering the convergence of the two concepts. The analysis aims to explain the
contribution to the long term competitiveness of regions by reducing the disadvantages of
rural areas and strengthening their potentials in a sustainable way. It depends to a large
extend on the functioning or the non-functioning of rural networks and their ability (both
in respect to concept and power of implementation) to involve the various stakeholders of
organic and rural initiatives into a common set of interests.
The paper explores, how applicable and useful the ANT appears by using it as an
instrument for analysing the impact of OMIs concerning regional development issues. The
analysis is based on two case studies (Lancashire/UK and Vorarlberg/AT) conducted
during autumn 2002. The assessment was part of the EU-funded research project
Organic marketing initiatives and rural development (OMIaRD; QLK5-2002-01124).
After a short introduction into the theoretical framework we present the case studies and
their analysis using ANT. A section on the relations and interactions between the OMIs
presented in the case studies and their regional environment follows. Finally some
methodological conclusions are drawn for the use of ANT to evaluate rural development
processes.

2.
The theoretical framework of the Actor
Network Theory
The ActorNetwork Theory (ANT) was developed by a group of sociologists around
Michel Callon and Bruno Latour at the Centre de Sociologie del Innovation in Paris in
the 80ies. The main process analysed by the ANT is the growth and extension of spheres
of influence and power. In the terms of ANT this happens through processes of
translation. ANT is therefore also called a sociology of translation or of enrolment.
According to Clegg (1989) ANT develops the Macchiavellian idea of strategic power
further. Recently it has been also used frequently for the analysis of rural change
processes.
Definitions:
Actors are defined as all entities that are able to connect texts, humans, money etc. to
build more or less effectively a world that is filled with other entities having their own
history, identity and relations (Callon, 1991).
According to Callon (1986) the translation process follows four stages:

Problematisation: an actor analyses a situation, defines the problem and proposes a

solution.
Interessement: other actors become interested in the solution proposed. They change
their affiliation to a certain group in favour of the new actor.
Enrolment: the solution is accepted as a new concept. A new network of interests is
generated.
Mobilisation: The new network starts to operate target oriented to implement the
solution proposed.
In order to achieve a stable relation and a target orientation the actor has to set an
obligatory passage point to channel all interests to one direction. This will create a
black box where translation processes run automatically and are not renegotiated
anymore case by case.
Applied to the context of organic marketing initiatives and rural development, we can use
the grid mentioned above to analyse, who is acting as a powerful (macro) actor, how is he
problematising the situation, how far he manages to raise the interest of others to enrol to
the suggested solution, their final mobilisation etc. As the ANT is following a dynamic
perspective we need to identify a starting point of our analysis. This can be the situation
that has led to the founding of the OMI in most cases. In some cases it could be also a
major incident resulting in a shift of problematisation.

3.

The Case Studies

In order to understand the conclusions drawn out of the different case studies first of all
the main features of the OMIs presented are described briefly.

3.1.

The UK Case Study: Growing with Nature (GwN):

Growing with Nature is a privately owned initiative situated in the county of Lancashire
in the North West of England, featuring locally produced organic vegetables and a home
delivery service. The box scheme is owned by Alan and Debra Schofield and is operated
from their farm outside the village of Pilling. The business was established about ten
years ago as a way to market the vegetables they produce directly. In order to meet
increased and changing consumer demands, the OMI now also sources organic vegetables
from four other growers in the area and also purchases and sells organic fruit. More than
600 bags of vegetables are delivered weekly to customers, the majority of which reside
within a 15-mile radius of the OMI, which is defined by the Preston-Lancaster-Blackpool
triangle.

3.2.

The Austrian Case Study: Biobauern Sulzberg

(BBS)

The Biogauern Sulzberg is a co-operative which has been founded in 1996 by 15 farmers
out of an already existing conventional dairy co-operative. Due to permanent quarrels in
the old conventional cooperative because of the sneaking conversion of some
members to organic associated with discussions on special treatment of organic farmers
(e.g. raised milk price because of higher production costs) the organic members split off
and established their own business by renting an abandoned dairy close by. The operation
consists of two separate business fields, a dairy with cheese marketing, and the delivery
service. Almost all members are part of both business fields, although their main interest
is often focussing only on one side. The comparably small sized dairy processes about
1.300.000 kg into mountain cheese very small quantities are used for producing butter and
cream. The delivery service is an independent business field, marketing the non-dairy
products of the members and of other organic farmers in the region. It is offering a
regional supply of organic products to retailers.

4. Analysing Networks- Following the Actor

Following the actor according to Latour (1987) is one of the basic principles of actor
network theory. As ANT is a qualitative instrument for evaluating translation processes
the main idea behind is to view on the actor open minded without any preconception and
above all to try to understand the actors ideas and their propagation in different networks.
Therefore the following section focuses on the different ways of translation which the
investigated OMIs show.

The first and most important step in the analysis is the examination of the different
approaches concerning the problematisation of the situation by the OMIs.

4.1.

Problematisation

In Britain Food scares and crises like BSE or FMD have recently re-concentrated the
public opinion on the situation of agriculture. The OMI (Growing with Nature) was only
peripherally tangled by recent food scares due to its focus on horticulture produce. Alan
Schofield however gave a clear picture of his view of the problem already earlier in his
leaflet: The deviation of the current situation of the organic sector compared to the
original principles, destruction of small scale farms and market gardens...replaced by
large agri businesses supplying the multiple retailers.... The constant price wars waged
by industry has crippled agriculture, and cost cutting by farmers and their suppliers ....
has led to mass problems like BSE and many outbreaks of food poisoning.
This problematisation of course is very general, but his main idea is to get back more
power to the producer by reallocating product marketing from the influence of
international acting supermarkets to a regional level. Additionally it means to improve
and foster consumer relations and to educate them. To come to the point, Alan Schofields
problematisation is more or less ideological based, drawing on the organic principles of
sustainability. Therefore his proposal for solving the current problems of agriculture is
leading to regional closed circuits of organically grown food with a focus on technical
support of growers and the improvement of consumers relations. Growing with Nature
presents the establishment of his box system as an alternative to establish close consumer
relations and regional cycles. His intention is to establish a franchising concept, out of his
successful business. This however has not yet resulted in tangible results so far.
Just the opposite way of problematisation can be seen in our second example, the
Biobauern Sulzberg (BBS) in Austria. In this case the initial problematisation was coming
out of the restructuring and liberalisation process of the dairy sector connected to the
preparation for accession to the EU from 1992 onwards. Although the region has a long
standing tradition in breeding and dairy farming, as well as a system of very small
structured co-operative dairies (at least one per municipality) at this time only a few
lateral thinkers in the board of the, at this time, still conventional co-operative realised
the need for change. They saw, that the opening up of formerly strongly protected
agricultural markets will inevitably result in falling producer prices. As economies of
scale, growth of farms and processing units, were not regarded a viable solution, the only
alternative would have been additional off farm employment. Full time farming ,however,
is more or less seen as a cornerstone for sustainable maintenance of the cultural
landscape, quality of life and tourism.
The managing director therefore proposed a different set of ations as the solution: (1)
converting to organic agriculture, (2) shifting from Emmentaler production to mountain
cheese, a traditional but long time neglected product and (3) supplying directly market
partners outside the conventional cheese marketing board. This strategy was identified as
a possibility to maintain profits and to stay in fulltime farming. Thus conversion to
organic was more motivated by economic than ecological or ideological aspects.

4.2.

Interessement:

According to Callon (1986) interessement means that other actors become interested
in the solution proposed. They change their affiliation to a certain group in favour of the
new actor.
In the case of the British OMI Growing with Nature the establishment of Alan Schofields
organic box scheme opened new perspectives to the resident organic growers, although
organic horticulture in the area was already well established. Alan Schofield raised the
interest of his organic growers by providing a new market channel. In addition the focus
was on creating a new convinced and trustful costumer base, which he tries to educate his
ideas of sustainability, thus establishing intense consumer relations through leaflets, open
house days and personal relationship. Therefore his main cruising radius is rather locally
based on the growers as well as on the consumers side. Because of his expertise, he is also
engaged in several institutions in the organic network (e.g. standard committee of Soil
Association) as well as on the regional scale (Wyre Rural Forum), where he acts as a
spokesman for small scale growers as well as for consumer interests and needs.
In the Austrian case (Biobauern Sulzberg) the proposed solution was (as traditional)
discussed mainly within the board of the dairy co-operative, which consisted of very well
educated and experienced farmers. Due to lack in communication the other members of
the co-operative did not understand the solution and opposed it, which polarized interests
between conventional and organic farmers. Additionally there was a rivalry with a second
dairy in the village, which was played on the issue of organic. When the two dairies had
to merge (because the other one came into economic problems), the new board was
representing a strong conventional view. They had the feeling that the dairy now, being
twice the size of the former, could compete also on the conventional market. Other dairies
in the region could not become interested in the organic way out of two specific reasons.
First, because of technical reasons, the conversion of these small dairies to organic cannot
be done only partial only. Secondly, the traditional conventional farmers have the general
perception that they work already almost organic as they never used silage (out of
technical reasons for production of mountain cheese) and in permanent grassland
agriculture the use of chemicals has always been low. The farmers also have a number of
preoccupations against total organic (regarded to be untidy, alternative and green),
which prevents further conversion, however, the situation seems to be vicious circle.

4.3.

Enrolment and Mobilisation:

After demonstrating the different approaches concerning problematisation and

interessment in the following section we look at the power of extension and adoption of
proposed solutions within the emerging network as depicted above.
In the example of Growing with nature Alan Schofield has involved organic growers,
organic consumers and institutional stakeholders into his network. For his organic
consumers he recently established a vegetable club, which has primarily the intention to
strengthen consumer relations and act as an instrument for further contact. Although
interest in the solution proposed is quite high, neither influencing power nor strong
public appearance of this club seems to contribute to the extension of the network. In
terms of ANT the translation process seems to remain too weak to effect further

mobilisation. Also the organic growers supplying the OMI are more focussed on business
(e.g. receiving higher producer prices) than on ideology. Moreover they want to keep
diversity in their marketing channels and avoid dependency. Alans personal involvement
on the institutional level appears to be more due to his technical expertise than his ideas
and proposed solutions.
For the Biobauern Sulzberg their internal crisis led to the establishment of their own
organic based business by renting an abandoned dairy close by. In 1996 the organic
farmers split off and formed a new co-operative, which formed an obligatory passage
point for the enrolment of the farmers. They became a closed group of likeminded
farmers with a strong internal cohesion. For refurbishing the dairy (adapting the
production facilities from Emmentaler to mountain cheese production) the farmers had to
pay a capital contribution according to their yearly milk delivery, which increased even
their affiliation to the common property. They also shared various duties and part time
employment possibilities, which cropped up in the dairy and in the delivery service. But
the initial group remained a closed community, only two new members joined since 1996.
This can be mainly attributed to the focus of the OMI on its own businesses. The delivery
service started to market also the products of other organic farmers in the region but the
percentage of converting farmers remained well below average. Although the OMI was
acting quite successful and the members were able to remain in full time farming, the
example was not followed by any other dairy in the region. The delivery service made
viable and useful connections to retailers especially public canteens. This is a growing
sector in organic trade. A new INTERREG project of the macro region around lake
Constance is currently started with involvement of the OMI. The OMI has also very close
personal and administrative ties with the regional organic farmers association and its
marketing board.

5. The Relation between the OMIs and Rural

Development
5.1.

The institutional environment for rural

development

The first part of our analysis showed very little tendencies of the OMIs to actively bring
their ideas and solutions into the rural development institutions. Therefore the following
part will try to explain the rural development side of the coin and investigate the reasons,
why networks failed or succeeded.
In the case of Growing with Nature it proved difficult to identify a single important
agency for rural development activities in Lancashire. The rural development agenda has
changed dramatically after devolution of government in 2000 and FMD crisis in 2001.
Therefore the structures are not yet properly settled and power constellations are quite
unstable still. Whereas in formers days the focus was on sectoral support policies, FMD
crises showed the necessity of inter-sectoral, territorial thinking. The Local Government
Act 2000 places a statutory duty on local authorities to produce a 'Community Strategy'
for promoting or improving the economic, social and environmental well being of their
areas and contributing to the achievement of sustainable development in the UK. The Act

requires that these strategies are prepared and implemented by a 'local strategic
partnership' (LSP), through which local authorities can work with other local bodies. To
this end, Wyre Borough Council (the region the OMI is situated) has set up the Wyre
Strategic Partnership. As part of this, the Wyre Rural Forum was established to address
issues facing the rural and farming sector in the borough and which includes
representatives from the National Farmers Union, the regional Agricultural College and
members of the farming community. The solution was seen in establishing a structure of
institutions operating at a level which enables strategic decisions to be taken and is close
enough to individual neighbourhoods to allow actions to be determined at community
level (LSP, 05/2003)
Surprisingly the organic agenda did not, at least not explicitly, become part of the
reconstruction process. Also the new structures did not offer any concrete proposals,
which seemed to be applicable to meet organic interests in any way. According to an
interviewee from the local government, the organic agenda remained a kind of a blank
area.
In the Austrian case a quite well established development agency called REGIO
Bregenzerwald dominates in the region. Founded in 1971 the REGIO, a voluntary
association of municipalities on a valley level, acts as a planning association to maintain
and increase the cultural, material and intellectual wealth of its inhabitants by a bottomup strategy. Therefore the REGIO supports not only economic development, but the
sustainable development of the whole region and not of single sectors. After Austrias
accession to the EU in 1995 the opportunity to take part in various programs (esp.
Objective 5b and LEADER) opened new possibilities for financial support. Therefore the
REGIO established a Regionalentwicklungs GesmbH (Regional Development Inc.) as
an instrument to implement various projects. For our analysis their lead project, the
Bregenzerwlder Ksestrasse, a thematic cheese route with the participation of farmers,
dairies, tourism and the regional supermarket chain, seems to be most important. Because
of the long standing tradition in cheese production the aim of the project is to profile the
region for its cheese making by establishing a common region wide label in addition to
the regional network of participants mentioned above. As the Region is traditionally based
on grassland agriculture the preservation of cultural landscape and tourism was identified
as one main goal regional development.
Therefore the solution for safeguarding the traditional agricultural structures is seen in
establishing a common marketing platform (thematic cheese route) for agricultural
products with the effect of profiling and strengthening the regional agriculture in
globalised markets. Due to the fact, that regional conventional agriculture was perceived
already more or less organic (because of the traditional systems of alpine agriculture
and silage free feeding practices) organic agriculture was not, or at least not explicitly,
taken into consideration.

5.2.

The impact of Organic Marketing Initiatives

Regarding the examples mentioned above the impact of Organic Marketing Initiatives on
rural development issues can be split into two parts: an active (intentional) and a passive
(unintentional) contribution to sustainable regional development. The active contribution
of both OMIs analysed remains until now restricted to a rather local level, which can be
traced back to their problematisation and consequential their solution proposed.

While Growing with Nature problematised more along ideological lines, the Biobauern
Sulzberg had a strong economic view on the situation. Therefore the British OMI attracted
more attention on the side of the consumers, while the solution proposed by the Austrian
OMI was more relevant for the producers. The direct marketing agenda of Growing with
Nature limited it to a very small scale, local level and prevented a more regional thinking
at all. The Biobauern Sulzberg wanted to secure a high product price and felt primarily
responsible to the interests of their members. As for every new established business, in the
beginning the focus is always more on running the own business than on engaging in rural
development issues. For both their sphere of influence was a priori restricted to a well
defined level. Both case studies can be regarded as successful in reaching their aims.
Their impact on regional development however in terms of increasing regional added
value, securing employment and raising consumer awareness for sensitive environmental
issues was limited.
Until now an expansion of their ideas into the regional environment failed for various
reasons:
First of all none of the OMIs approaches concerning problematisation initially had a
special focus on participation in regional development goals. They remained merely
responsive to the offers of the regional institutional environment. These offers remained
so far rather non applicable as they met an organic neutral to organic rival regional
institutional environment. Regarding rural development in both cases organic farming was
not seen as a solution for the regional problems by the main actors responsible.
Constitutional for integrating organic issues into rural development is, not implicitly, the
same view of problematisation, but above all the solutions offered have to be complying
with each other and they must be fully accepted by both sides. In the Austrian case study
the recognition of problems from both, the OMIs and the regional development agency
side, was exactly the same. Both aimed to find a sustainable way for maintaining
agricultural structures by full time farming, but, because the REGIO did not see organic
agriculture an adequate solution, the integration failed. The traditional agriculture was
able to create a near organic image, which was perceived as sustainable by most
stakeholders already. In the British situation the mainstream productivist paradigm was (at
least until the recent crisis of food and mouth) too strong to be questioned.
Following the ANT the core of each network relationship is a common agreement of
partners involved about the effectiveness of the solution concerning their sight of
problems and its acceptance. Without an acceptable solution (for both sides) the
establishment of a network relationship is prevented from the beginning, because a networks only by sharing common interests.
The effectiveness of the translation is also depending on the ability of the OMIs to
influence their target groups in a powerful way by setting an obligatory passage point,
so that the translation process ends in a so called black box. By the means of ANT the
powerful actor (in our case the OMIs) is able to completely transfer his ideas and
solutions to its target groups, so that they act as one macro-actor. While this happened
in the case of the Austrian OMI for the core group, Growing with Nature failed to form a
strong unified group of producers and consumers. So far both OMIs had a limited success
in increasing their sphere of interest over time.
Furthermore until recently the rural agenda was dominated by sectoral interests, therefore
the integration into the farming sector mattered primarily. Growing with Nature in this
respect is marginalized twofold, because organic farming is almost non-apparent in the

region and secondly because they are growers as opposed to the leading farmers (i.e.
red meat producers) culture. In the Austrian case the dominating breeders culture has
strong reservations against organic. Therefore in both cases the OMIs are not well
integrated in the traditional sectoral structures.
Currently a shift from sectoral to territorial development is experienced in all Europe.
Although the reasons and responses are different, the OMIs have the potential to become
models for sustainable regional and rural development. A government interviewee in
Austria saw the medium to long term future for farming in the region in a full conversion
to organic, as environmental regulations become always more restrictive and force already
the conventional farmers to come closer and closer to the organic standards. The
increasing importance of environmental payments for farmers income in mountainous
areas adds to this.

6.
The Use of ANT for a Qualitative
Evaluation of Rural Development Conclusion
The purpose of the paper is to show the use of the ANT for evaluation of rural
development processes. In general the evaluation of processes or projects is conducted on
three levels: effectiveness, efficiency and impact.
Effectiveness is intimately connected with the achievement of objectives, which in terms
of ANT can be judged by the way of problematisation, the proposed solution and its
realization. The objectives shown by the investigated OMIs can be divided into internal
and external purposes. Internal objectives are characterized by the economic success,
which in both cases was achieved, external objectives are based on the planned
contribution to the regional situation. In the Austrian case the main goal was to contribute
to the preservation of the cultural landscape with organic farming as a concept to remain
full time farmers. On a very local level (at least among the members) the initiative
succeeded, but on a regional level it failed. The analysis of Growing with Nature shows a
similar result. Although the OMI succeeded economically, the external objective, to effect
changes in the regional food chain management remained restricted to a local level.
Efficiency in general means the effective application of the available resources. In this
respect the ANT analysis the use of social capital for the extension of ideas. Concerning
our case studies the analysis of the black box created and its internal cohesion, gives a
clear insight on the translation process. Whereas in the Austrian case the sphere of
translation or black box was restricted more or less to the members, but there in a very
strong way, Growing with Nature showed a quite diverse range of involvement, but the
attachment on the growers side seems to remain more or less on the level of business
relations. The ANT is also an instrument to identify the direction of translation, which
shows that the efficiency of the translation in the case of Growing with Nature is more
directed to the consumers side, whereas the Biobauern Sulzberg are more producer
orientated.

Last but not least an important part of evaluation processes is the assessment of the
impact. The impact of the initiatives is rather that they represent a functioning model than
that they contribute to rural development in a quantifiable extend. If we assume, that
OMIs are a model for sustainable development, the impact on rural development depends
on the acceptance and interest of the surrounding institutional environment. Referring to
our case studies, although they are offering quite successful models to their environment,
the signal sent out was so far not adequately received. In terms of ANT the solution
proposed by the OMI was not accepted on a regional scale and the problematisation of
potential partners did not yet comply with each other.
The analysis shows that the ANT can be used to assess the influence of initiatives on rural
development in a qualitative way. On all three levels of evaluation the ANT as a
qualitative tool gives insight into processes, purposes and motivations behind. The
dynamic aspect allows regional stakeholders to see more clearly the driving forces and
barriers for extension of concepts. It can therefore give ideas how to device more
precisely targeted strategies, if the model-effect of OMIs is deemed useful for further
propagation.
References:
CALLON, M. (1986) Some Elements of a Sociology of Translation: Domestication of the
Scallops and the Fishermen of St. Brieuc Bay. In: J.Law (ed) Power, Action and Belief: A
New Sociology of Knowledge? Sociological Review Monograph 32 London Ruthledge
and Kegan Paul
CALLON, M. (1991) Techno-economic Networks and Irreversibility. In: Law, J. (Ed.) A
Sociology of Monsters Routledge, London pp 132-161
CLEGG, S. (1989) Frameworks of Power Sage, London
LATOUR, B. (1986) Science in action: How to follow Scientists and Engineers Through
Society. Open University Press , Milton Keynes
Internet Sources:
http://www.wyrepct.org.uk/meetings/april2002/14.pdf, 05/2003

Name:

DI Gleirscher Norbert, DI Markus Schermer

Institution:

Centre for Mountain Agriculture, University of Innsbruck

Contact Address:

Technikerstrasse 13
6020 Innsbruck
Tel: 0043-512/507-5694 or 5690
Fax: 0043-512/507-2817
Mail: Norbert.Gleirscher@uibk.ac.at, Markus.Schermer@uibk.ac.at
Homepage : www.uibk.ac.at/berglandwirtschaft