“The Farm is me. That’s how one looks at it” : Exploring political-economic influences on practice, care and identity in contemporary English agriculture

Bridgewater, Grace and Cardwell, Emma and Tyfield, David (2026) “The Farm is me. That’s how one looks at it” : Exploring political-economic influences on practice, care and identity in contemporary English agriculture. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.

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Abstract

English farming currently operates in a context characterised by climate instability, post-Brexit policy reform, economic pressures, and uneven power dynamics within supply chains. This thesis examines how English farmers experience and respond to this reality, taking a relational approach that centres lived experience. Whilst experiential knowledge and lived experience perspectives are increasingly valued in some academic literature, they are often overlooked, particularly in relation to more ‘abstract’ topics such as policy, governance, and economics. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with farmers conducted in 2023, this thesis analyses farmer perspectives on how structural dynamics impact practice and identity. This paper-based thesis employs literature on productivism/post-productivism, the political economy of retailer influence, agricultural care ethics, and the ‘good farmer’ identity (using Bourdieu’s social theory). Three key findings emerge. First, the significance of economic contexts, particularly the influence of corporate actors – specifically supermarkets – that is underexplored within productivism/post-productivism literature. This influence shapes farm practice through pricing, standards, and contracts, and is experienced as a constraint on farmer autonomy, despite adjudicator legislation. Second, the centrality of care within farming and research practice, and how it is renegotiated within financially-induced farm business expansion and diversification. Aspects of care – attentiveness, embodied practice, responsibility, experiential knowledge – are found to be at risk under these changes. Third, these pressures contribute to a reconfiguration of the ‘good farmer’ identity. Cultural value is increasingly placed on market-oriented skills, reflecting a growing emphasis on economic independence. This shift contributes to fragmentation within the ‘good farmer’ identity and shapes market and policy engagement. By examining the interplay between political-economic dynamics and daily farming life, this thesis offers an empirically grounded account of farmer experiences, while calling for a more care-full approach to academic inquiry.