X AGRARIAN HISTORY CONGRESS. Sitges-Barcelona-Cataluña, February 2002 1st SESSION: INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE IN AGRICULTURE

Moderator: L. Fernández Prieto (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela)
Discussants: Salvador Calatayud (Universitat de Valencia)
Josep Pujol (Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona)

Development and contents of the Main Sesion:

1.-Routes of technical change: identification of chains of innovation and their patterns of geographical and temporal spread, in search of their enviromental determining factors, characteristics and regularities in each sector and, at the same time, of general long-term models. Analysis of the aspects embraced by technical change, the commoner ones (fertilization and mechanization) as well as other less tackled such as biological innovations, rotations or preservation and handling. Measuring of the incidence of technical change in terms of productivity but also in terms of enviromental impact.

2.-The protagonists of innovation, dealing with them as receivers as well as direct agents in their aplication, from the perspective of collective or class action, paying attention not only to their capacity of promotion but also of resistance. In addition, if appropiate, the relation among them will also be taken into account. Three main subjects could be included within this scope:

a) The role played by big landowners and leaseholders and peasants in the acceptance and diffusion of innovations.
b) Analysis of collective forms (syndicates, cooperative societies...) of introduction of innovations.
c) Innovation with regard to agricultural workforce, its wage standars, its qualification and its skill to adapt and accept technical change.

3.-The channels of innovation: analysis of the creation, adaptation, financing and diffusion of innovations from outside the agrarian sector. A process whose protagonists as follows:

a) Political powers: establishment of institutions and permanent infrastructures (agricultural stations, agricultural training schools, experimental stations, oenological stations...); impact of agrarian polities on production transformations; impact of choices in the field of tariffs and taxes on technical change.
b) Trading channels: role of traders and their networks in technical change; market conditions which promote technical change...
c) Industrial sector and its strategies of transformation of the agrarian production, particularly by the agrobusiness and by the producers of agrarian inputs.

October 31th: deadline for summary for papers.