Off-gridding and state subsidies. Science-based livestock production in rural–urban Denmark
TRANSITION Dialogue with Frida Hastrup.
How is sustainable livestock production imagined in Denmark where rural expertise, scientific authority, calls for green transition, and state bureaucracy intersect—and clash? What are the lines separating and connecting rural Denmark from centralized governance?
These are some of the questions raised in this TRANSITION Dialogue with Frida Hastrup, who presents new ethnographic material on the Danish livestock sector as it struggles to reduce its environmental and climate impact.
Hastrup explores the tensions and expectations shaping this sector: calls for autonomy and deregulation coexist with a strong reliance on state funding and scientific knowledge. Embedded in this mix are ideas about rural common sense, skilled farmers, alienated urban elites, and the role of bureaucracy in driving—or obstructing—the green transition.
Frida Hastrup is Associate Professor in Ethnology at the Saxo Institute. She directs the Centre for Sustainable Futures and leads the research project Cattle Crossroads. Researching Danish Livestock Production for the Future.
TRANSITION Dialogues invite thinkers and practitioners from all fields to explore current issues in rural–urban relations. Dialogue-based and open, these sessions aim to create spaces for critical reflection and to nuance our understanding of changing urban and rural lives.
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