to temperature changes has generated a prevailing management pattern of saturation.
For the farmer this means applying nitrogen in large amounts to avoid anticipated
losses. A diverse set of cultural, economic, institutional and technological condi-
tions “ drive ” this kind of management, resulting in a very effective, but inefficient
crop production system. Indeed, it is effective in the sense that the farmer achieves
higher yields; it is inefficient, however, considering the amount of inputs required to
compensate for anticipated losses per unit of output during this production process.
If there was uniformity in the behavioral patterns and rationale for pursuing this
“ saturation ” management style, as well as uniformity in the biophysical vulnerability
to these management styles, then our task as scientists would be easy. Unfortunately
(or fortunately in terms of providing continuing intellectual challenge), this is not the
case. There is as much diversity and variation in the social dimensions of farmers as
there are in the biophysical resources they manage. Suggesting an approach to under-
standing the interaction between the two is the objective for this chapter.
It is these “ drivers ” of nitrogen mis-management, and in particular those
that may be characterized as social in nature, that will receive our attention. We
acknowledge that many of these social drivers co-exist and interact with more tradi-
tional economic processes, structures and constraints. A credible examination of the
economic factors associated with nitrogen management is beyond the expertise of
the authors and the logistical limitations of this chapter, but there are other sources
that discuss them in detail ( Bosch et al., 1995 ; Hopkins, 1996 ; Shankar et al., 2000 ).
In this chapter we discuss the social factors of nitrogen management with the
farmer as the focal point as a means to inform future research. We focus on two
critical questions associated with researching nitrogen management from the per-
spective of agricultural producers. Social factors have been linked to the farmer ’ s
psychological state ( Lynne et al., 1988 ), field management decisions ( Hayman and
Alston, 1999 ), how farm firms are managed ( Meyer et al., 1997 ), national policies
and programs ( Brouwer, 1998 ), and even the alteration of global cycles ( Vitousek
et al., 1997 ). In short, social factors arise at multiple and overlapping scales in an
agro-environmental hierarchy.
For clarity, we define scale as “ the spatial, temporal, quantitative or analytical
dimensions used by scientists to measure and study objects and processes ( Gibson
et al., 2000, p. 19 ). ” The social factors influencing farmers ’ also have a scale effect.
Consequently, our first question is how does the concept of scale help direct a study
of the social factors in farmers ’ nitrogen management decisions?
The first question relates to the spatial and temporal dimensions that under-
lie farming systems in general, and nitrogen management in particular. Past social
research on decision-making has tested a long list of decision-making variables such
as age, education, attitudes, and perceptions of risk with limited success ( Lockeretz,
1990 ). Our contention is that a scale-based analysis provides a framework that will
limit which social factors need to be deemed important for future analysis. Thus,
our second question is how does one analyze these salient social dimensions of
nitrogen management? Recent innovations in both techniques and analysis methods
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