Stefan Mann Books

Mountain agriculture is a socially and culturally unique system, but also a regionally important economic sector. In a globalising world, it is clear that fertile areas on all continents will always be used to produce large quantities of agricultural products in order to feed the world and, increasingly, provide biomass as a source of energy. It is far less clear, however, how land use in steep and more peripheral regions will evolve. By definition, farmland in mountain areas is more difficult to work because of steep slopes and missing accessibility. Climate conditions and poor soil quality often add to these adverse conditions. Through overcoming limited views from one region only or from one discipline, this book intends to draw a first truly international perspective on the issue of mountain farming.

Although all economic activities take place in sectors, economists often devote little attention to differences between and characteristics of sectors. This book tries to show that mesoeconomics, the economic exploration of sectors and groups, is a useful instrument of analysis between microeconomics (the analysis of markets) and macroeconomics (the analysis of economies). In order to do so, economists and social scientists from related disciplines and coming from Europe, Australia and Asia, demonstrate that sectors matter for economic development and the formation of societies. The book includes chapters with rigorous economic analysis, outlooks on economic history, and case studies in order to show the relevance of sectoral issues, this broad range of content making it likely the most comprehensive book on mesoeconomics to date.

This open access book applies for the first time emerging concepts of socioeconomics to analyse an economic sector, namely agriculture. It considers the rational choices of all actors in the system (just as agricultural economists do) and their cultural preferences and constraints (just as rural sociologists do). Socioeconomic concepts are subsequently used to structure agricultural issues with regard to the three governance mechanisms (hierarchy, markets, and cooperation), and different agricultural systems are presented and compared. The book will be of interest to social scientists with various backgrounds, and seeks to break down the barriers of single-disciplinary thinking.