Although succession planning has been a fertile topic of investigation among rural sociologists, its temporal elements have been neglected. This has resulted in static analyses, with little attention paid to the influences of the past and future on present decision-making. This article introduces a consideration of temporality, examining the influences of past and future on the development and expression of farming identities. I argue that temporality plays a critical role as farmers struggle with conflicting senses of time and responsibilities to different generations.
BuschL (1989) Irony, Tragedy, and Temporality in Agricultural Systems, or, How Values and Systems are Related. Agriculture and human Values, Fall: 4–11.
2.
CroweGPAllanG (1995) Community Types, Community Typologies and Community Time. Time & Society, 42(2): 147–166.
3.
DibdenJCocklinC(2005) Sustainability amd agri-environmental governance. In: VaughanHigginsGeoffreyLawrence (eds) Agricultural Governance: Globalization and the new politics of regulation, London: Routledge, pp. 135–152.
4.
FoskeyR (2005) Older Farmers and Retirement: A Report for the Rural Industries and Development Corporation, Kingston: RIRDC.
5.
GeertzC(1973) Person, Time, and Conduct in Bali. In: Clifford Geertz (ed.) The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays by Clifford Geertz, 2000 edn. New York: Basic Books, pp. 360–411.
6.
GrayILawrenceG (2001) A Future for Regional Australia: Escaping Global Misfortune, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
7.
HigginsV (2001) Calculating climate: ‘advanced liberalism' and the governing of risk in Australia drought policy. Journal of Sociology, 37(3): 299–316.
LabandDNLentzBF (1983) Occupational Inheritance in Agriculture. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 36: 311–314.
10.
Latour B (1993) We Have Never Been Modern, trans. Catherine Porter. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
11.
LockieS (2006) Networks and Agri-Environmental Action: Temporality, Spatiality and Identity in Agricultural Environments. Sociologia Ruralis, 46(1): 22–39.
12.
MainesDRSugrueNMKatovichMA (1983) The Sociological Import of G.H. Mead's Theory of the Past. American Sociological Review, 48(2): 161–173.
13.
McAllisterJGenoB (2004) Australian Farm Inheritance—New Patterns of Legal Structure in Property Rights and Landholding. Rural Society, 12(2): 178–192.
14.
MorrisCEvansN (2004) Agricultural turns, geographical turns: retrospect and prospect. Journal of Rural Studies, 20(1): 95–111.
15.
PersoonGAEst DMEvan (2000) The study of the future in anthropology in relation to the sustainability debate. Focaal, 35: 7–28.
16.
PriceLEvansN (2006) From ‘As Good as Gold' to 'Gold Diggers': Farming Women and the Survival of British Family Farming. Sociologia Ruralis, 46(4): 280–298.
17.
StraussA (1991) Mead's Multiple Conceptions of Time and Evolution: The Contexts and Their Consequences for Theory. International Sociology, 6(4): 411–426.
