Testing the Affect of Modified Sense of Place, Conservation Ethic, and Good Farmer Identity Measures on Predicting the Adoption of Cover Crops in Working Landscapes in Iowa

Elizabeth A. Bennett, Morey Burnham, Jessica D. Ulrich-Schad, J. Gordon Arbuckle, Weston M. Eaton, Sarah P. Church, Francis R. Eanes, Jennifer Eileen Cross, Matthew A. Williamson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

While sense of place (SOP) has been used in amenity landscapes to understand pro-environmental behavior, in working landscapes, SOP has not been a valid or reliable predictor for explaining conservation behavior. In this paper, we advance theory on SOP in working landscapes by assessing the relationship between several new and modified sense of place measures and farmer adoption of cover crops in Iowa. We used data from a 2018 survey of Iowa farmers and a Bayesian logistic regression, finding that physical dependence and economic dependence are distinct dimensions of SOP in working landscapes and the addition of a measure beyond SOP of who farmers feel responsible to when making land management decisions provides insights on how social groups are influential in farmers’ decision-making. Our results suggest the SOP conceptual framework has the potential to help explain conservation behavior in working landscapes, and identifies opportunities for further reconceptualization and testing.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)513-533
Number of pages21
JournalSociety and Natural Resources
Volume36
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 2023

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Development
  • Environmental Science (miscellaneous)
  • Sociology and Political Science

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