Farming Inside Invisible Worlds: Modernist Agriculture and Its Consequences

About the Author

Hugh Campbell was appointed Chair in Sociology at the University of Otago, New Zealand in 2010. For the ten years prior to that he was the Director of the Centre for the Study of Agriculture, Food and Environment (CSAFE) at the University of Otago and programme leader of four major research programmes into the elaboration of alternative farming practices and food systems.

Product Description

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by the University of Otago, New Zealand.

Farming Inside Invisible Worlds argues that the farm is a key player in the creation and stabilisation of political, economic and ecological power-particularly in colonised landscapes like New Zealand, America and Australia.

The book reviews and rejects the way that farms are characterised in orthodox economics and agricultural science and then shows how re-centring the farm using the theoretical idea of political ontology can transform the way we understand the power of farming. Starting with the colonial history of farms in New Zealand, Hugh Campbell goes on to describe the rise of modernist farming and its often hidden political, racial and ecological effects. He concludes with an examination of alternative ways to farm in New Zealand, showing how the prior histories of colonisation and modernisation reveal important ways to farm differently in post-colonial worlds.
Hugh Campbell's book has-ranging implications for understanding the role farms play in both our food systems and landscapes, and is an exciting new addition to food studies.

Review

“There is much to love about Farming Inside Invisible Worlds. A key strength is its attentiveness to geographical and historical specificity in narrating the solidification and crises of modern agriculture ... Campbell adeptly draws on comparative material from the United States and elsewhere, making the book of interest to those studying agrarian transitions and environmental histories elsewhere in the world ... Yet it is the personal touches, such as his thick description of a fishing camp, both heavily denuded of modernist farming possibility and yet full of vitality, that render the book a true tour de grace.” ―AAG Review of Books

“Campbell is an academic at the top of his game. He covers the history of agriculture in his country with breadth, clarity, and succinctness, as well as a dose of dry humour ... An important contribution from Aotearoa/New Zealand to a growing literature on settler colonial food systems across states of the former British Empire by Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars.” ―Agriculture and Human Values

“'Drawing upon his farming experiences, and applying extensive knowledge from the social sciences, Hugh Campbell delivers an original and provocative account of agricultural development in Aotearoa New Zealand. It will appeal to a wide public audience, especially readers in nations such as Australia, New Zealand, the US and Canada – where indigenous peoples were forcibly removed from their lands. Thoroughly researched and eloquently written, the book is set to become a classic in agrarian studies.'” ―Geoffrey Lawrence, The University of Queensland, Australia

“'Hugh Campbell impressively 'decolonises' modern farming, disclosing its explicit and implicit powers, as embodied in material and ontological agency. Through the lens of colonisation of Mãori farming cultures, he foregrounds settler farming history as exemplary in forming capitalist value relations and modernist erasure of Indigenous socio-ecological practices. His unique reflexive narrative is a powerful account of modern farming's bio-cultural override, challenging boundaries of industrial agriculture and critical scholarship alike.'” ―Philip McMichael, Cornell University, USA

“'This book changes the way we must understand and engage with the transformative powers and potentialities of farms and farmi