Kuipers, Sten (2024) The social acceptance of a food forest in a rural area. Bachelor thesis.
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Abstract
There is a need for society to become more sustainable and achieve long-term viability. There are diverse initiatives who want to contribute to this, such as food forests. The change towards a more sustainable living environment can be problematic in rural areas due to defensive localism. Thus it can be harder to get social acceptance in a rural area as a food forest. Social acceptance can be important for the success of new development, and food forests need human interaction to help build, take care and make use of the food forest. To research this problem a sustainable initiative, a food forest, in a rural area has been used as a case-study. The following research question has been proposed; “How does a food forest try to ensure social acceptance in a rural community, and how does this community respond?” A qualitative approach was used to answer this question to get an argumentative reasoning behind the communities' response. Ten interviews were conducted, interviewing three stakeholders from the food forest and eight inhabitants of the rural community. The results show that the food forest their best integration techniques were openness and distributing information. In addition to this they used different measures. While social integration has never been their main focus, having an open posture gave them the most positive reactions. The community responded hesitant and suspicious at first, but some have become more interested and positive due to the initiative, their openness, and visual displays of both their effort, persistence of the stakeholders and physical characteristics of the area changing. The rapid change in scenery, and expected changes, is the main focus of a troubled start. Most interviewees are interested in sustainability and sustainable concepts although NIMBY is present. They are afraid of change and sceptical if it will actually be beneficial. One limitation of this study is that it is a case-study. For future research it would be recommended to research multiple initiatives and communities and research if there is a pattern.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Bachelor) |
|---|---|
| Degree programme: | Human Geography and Planning |
| Supervisor: | Salemink, K. and Haartsen, T. |
| Date Deposited: | 13 Dec 2024 09:27 |
| Last Modified: | 13 Dec 2024 09:27 |
| URI: | https://frw.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/4809 |
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