Ecological Aspects of Agricultural Sustainability, c.1576-1946; The Archives

The aim of the project was to extract data from appropriate farm records and other sources in England for the period 1500-2000 to address the questions of whether and how English agriculture was 'sustainable' in the period. The objective was to reconfigure English agriculture for the period within a framework defined by the modern concept of 'sustainable development'.<br> <br> The project had five aims and objectives:<br> <br> i) To recontextualise English agricultural history in the framework and language of modern concepts of sustainable development<br> ii) To view the agricultural history of England since 1500 in a manner which is methodologically different from the traditional line of argument which concentrates on economic and technological issues<br> iii) To raise questions about the shift from sustainable to non- sustainable agriculture at different periods, and to ask why it occurred<br> iv) To ask whether the historical experience offers valuable insights for an understanding of modern agricultural issues, within the context of sustainable development<br> v) To prepare a dataset on agriculture in England c.1500-2000 in the context of sustainable agricultural development<br> <br> The impact of this research is to complement the more traditional approaches to English agricultural history in the period. On the one hand this has been mainly a descriptive characterisation of agricultural change, usually without a theoretical framework, and on the other it has concentrated on the measured outputs of agriculture. This project employed the modern concept of sustainability to give the processes of change a much needed framework, and within that framework it looks at the implications of the inputs and their relationship with maintaining the quality of the soil. Sustainability has become one of the most fashionable social science concepts, and although it developed on a global basis, and within that mainly on a third world basis, it nevertheless offers significant opportunities for adaptation to English agricultural history.