WS5.4 – Education in landscape and territory agronomy 9 th European IFSA Symposium, 4‐7 July 2010, Vienna (Austria) 2222 Analyzing transition processes in rural landscapes: The farm systems approach Teresa Pinto‐Correia a , Yves Michelin b and Isabel A. J. Ramos c a Research Group on Mediterranean Ecosystems and Landscapes (MEL)/Institute for Agrarian and Environmental Sciences (ICAAM), University of Évora, Portugal, mtpc@uevora.pt b ENITA, Clermont‐Ferrand, France, michelin@enitac.fr c Department of Landscape, Environment and Planning/University of Évora, Portugal, iar@uevora.pt Abstract: Rural landscapes are undergoing different processes of transition, affecting as well the land cover, the activities and the actors involved. These changes are related to new paradigms within the agricultural sector, and also to those new demands from society. From a production oriented demand, society has now evolved into a consumption and protection demand of the rural landscape. These landscapes are now expected to support a diversity of non‐commodity functions, as nature conservation, environmental quality, recreation and leisure, hunting, quality of life, identity, etc. These trends are important to identify, as production as the main driver of land use is much threatened by the processes of globalization, and also as the rural landscapes still present a high level of diversity and cultural richness, making them much attractive for the non‐commodity functions. Questions above are discussed in the frame of an intensive Advanced Course (two weeks course), with students from the Universities of ENITA Clermont‐Ferrand (France) and Évora (Portugal). A transdisciplinary and hands‐ on approach is applied, where mostly agronomy and geography traditions are combined, for the analysis of farmers’ practices at a farm scale and the technico‐economical or socio‐cultural drivers of their decisions, as well as other actors’ expectations and practices, at different scales of space and time. This approach aims to identify management mechanisms at the farm level, that make it possible, or not, to proceed in the sense of multifunctionality, and to assess how different management strategies correspond to changes in the landscape that supports these other functions. Keywords: farm systems, transition, multifunctionality, hands‐on approach Introduction Currently in Europe, rural landscapes are undergoing different processes of transition, affecting as well the land cover, the activities and the actors involved. These changes are related to new paradigms within the agricultural sector, and also to new demands from society. From a production oriented demand, society has now evolved into a consumption and protection demand of the rural landscape. These landscapes are now expected to support a diversity of non‐commodity functions, as nature conservation, environmental quality, recreation and leisure, hunting, quality of life, identity, etc. This leads to new challenges for the farmers, as commodity and non‐commodity functions are managed at the farm level, and depend both on existing market mechanisms, new markets to create, and on public policies. From a productivist paradigm, there are processes of change in the direction of post‐productivism, even if the different orientations may co‐exist both spatially, temporally and structurally (Ilberry, 1999; Wilson, 2007). In Mediterranean regions of Europe, as well as in other marginal areas in relation to production, these trends are particularly important to identify (Oliveira Baptista, 1993). Here, production as the main driver of land use is much threatened by the processes of globalization, and in many areas it is decaying. The paths of the rural space and of the agricultural sector are progressively separated. But, on another side, and due to the maintenance until recently of traditional and specific farm systems, the rural landscapes in place still present a high level of diversity and cultural richness, making them much attractive for the non‐commodity functions. There is thus a new demand in place, from different new users, that put new pressures on these areas, but also new opportunities for their preservation as valued places.