Constrained spatial imaginaries of smallholder farmers: perspectives from South Punjab, Pakistan
Research on spatial imaginaries, or collective sense-making processes relating to spaces and the material practices these frame, has shed light on smallholder farmers’ transformative power to facilitate sustainability transitions. Based on insights from participatory workshops to encourage transdisc...
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| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Taylor & Francis Group
2025-12-01
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| Series: | Journal of Integrative Environmental Sciences |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/1943815X.2025.2536263 |
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| Summary: | Research on spatial imaginaries, or collective sense-making processes relating to spaces and the material practices these frame, has shed light on smallholder farmers’ transformative power to facilitate sustainability transitions. Based on insights from participatory workshops to encourage transdisciplinary knowledge co-creation with smallholders in South Punjab, Pakistan, this study addresses farmers’ spatial imaginaries, their determinants and the challenges inherent in proposing alternative strategies for agrarian transformation. Despite taking a critical stance on existing technocratic and modernist agricultural policies, the farmers proposed alternative visions and strategies that did not encapsulate radical change but, paradoxically, aligned with the existing paradigms of industrial agriculture they criticized in the first place. Based on our findings, we reveal how this paradox can best be understood using the lens of “constrained spatial imaginaries”. Our results reveal how historical legacies of the Green Revolution, structural constraints of an increasingly neoliberal political economy of agriculture and pressing livelihood vulnerabilities come together to constrain farmers’ imaginaries, leading to pragmatic strategies within existing systems rather than challenging them. Constrained spatial imaginaries refer thus to visions of spatial restructuring held by farmers that are aligned with the principles of industrial agriculture. We emphasize herein that transdisciplinary researchers should bring to the forefront the spatial imaginaries of smallholders, and the constraints these represent. Decision-makers in the field of agricultural policy and practices should take these constrained imaginaries seriously in order to foster agricultural innovation and sustainability in smallholder farming communities. |
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| ISSN: | 1943-815X 1943-8168 |