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SUMMARY:The View from the Land\, 1947-1981: ‘Modernity’ in British Agr
 iculture\, Farm\, Nation and Community - Karen Sayer [gloknos lecture] - K
 aren Sayer (Leeds Trinity University)
DTSTART:20210513T160000Z
DTEND:20210513T173000Z
UID:TALK159190@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Samantha Peel
DESCRIPTION:*gloknos Annual Lecture Series – Karen Sayer (Leeds Trinity 
 University) – 13 May 2021 | 17:00-18:30*\n\n*Abstract:*\nThe rural lands
 cape was perceived to be an important part of the nation’s cultural heri
 tage after the Second World War. Studies within environmental history\, so
 cial and cultural geography\, landscape studies\, literary and cultural st
 udies are beginning to address the ways in which that landscape was/was no
 t fitted for modern life during the period of post Second World War Recons
 truction\, and its potential value as an amenity preserved within the new 
 National Parks and through wildlife conservation. But\, less attention has
  been paid to date to the agricultural land sitting between the reservoirs
  and power stations\, and over which motorways travelled and pylons passed
  in order to secure the new National Grid\, as an equal and present part o
 f rural modernity.\n\nThis paper will focus on ‘the well farmed function
 al landscape’ of arable acres (ADAS leaflet\, Winter 1979)\, that were t
 asked after the Agriculture Act of 1947 with the project of increasing foo
 d production. Looking at publications from MAFF and ADAS\, and the special
 ist farming press of the period (e.g. Farmer’s Weekly) – an archival h
 oldings\, if feasible – it will be argued that reconciliation between co
 nservation and production was sought via what was represented as “modern
 ” framing shaped by the same modern national identity seen in urban and 
 commercial life\, and celebrated at events such as the Festival of Britain
 . With a shortage of landscape architects\, or provision of a standardised
  landscape evaluation map\, ADAS field staff\, for example\, were required
  to evaluate local agricultural proposals through their own individual ‘
 simple human responses’ to the landscape\, emotional\, sensory\, multifa
 ceted and subjective. Yet\, they were directed to see the functional aspec
 ts of farming expressed within new farm buildings – the health and welfa
 re of livestock\, efficiency of labour and ease of management – as expre
 ssions of ‘applied discipline’ of a type ‘the eye detects and apprec
 iates’. This\, with occasional briefs to recognise the modernity of the 
 demands of farming for sites and buildings suited to contemporary agricult
 ural techniques and machinery as an aesthetic in its own right\, and attem
 pts to propose preferred Colour Finishes with visual appeal for farm build
 ings\, led the agricultural advisory literature to find visual satisfactio
 n in the modern as expressed through function. By the time of the Wildlife
  and Countryside Act 1981\, we see this aesthetic expressed via policy and
  practice\, and attempts to harmonise vernacular structures\, modern farmi
 ng\, wild life and the amenities of a countryside celebrated as the epitom
 e of natural ’England’. Yet\, it will be argued\, the conceptualisatio
 n of ‘the well farmed functional landscape’ as inherently 'modern' als
 o belonged to a much older aesthetic tradition and established appreciatio
 n of an agri-cultural landscape well-managed and well-farmed dating back t
 o the period of the Agricultural Revolution grounded in arable practice\, 
 an expression of harmony through perfected planning and management of the 
 Land and control of Nature.\n\n*Speaker:*\nProfessor of Social & Cultural 
 History at Leeds Trinity University\, UK\, Karen Sayer is currently part o
 f the Wellcome-Trust funded ‘FIELD’ Project\, a national collaborative
  award About | FIELD (field-wt.co.uk)\n\nKaren Sayer specialises in the st
 udy of British agriculture\, landscape and environment in the 19th and 20t
 h centuries. Her first monograph\, Women of the Fields: Representations of
  Femininity in Nineteenth Century Rural Society (MUP 1995) used a discursi
 ve and interdisciplinary approach to assess the representation of women’
 s work in agriculture in Parliamentary Reports alongside art\, literature 
 and the press\, to explain legislative intervention and control of their e
 mployment. She built on this work with her second monograph Country Cottag
 es: A Cultural History (MUP\, 2000). Drawing on the work of the social sci
 ences\, architecture and geography to scrutinise the values attached histo
 rically to the idea and material culture of the cottage\, and the experien
 ces of those who inhabited it\, the book encompassed a spatial reading of 
 the political and material effects of the rural idyll that impact at the l
 evel of national identity and ‘race’\, class and sex. She has continue
 d to address the shape of\, values attaching to and understandings of the 
 British landscape and environment\, and experiences of those living in the
  countryside. Today she works on energy landscapes – e.g. with P. Brassl
 ey & J. Burchardt Transforming the countryside? The Electrification of Rur
 al England 1890-1970 (Routledge\, 2017) – the managed spaces of the farm
 \, history of livestock agriculture and animal history.\n\nWithin the FIEL
 D project\, she addresses the tensions that beset the ‘modernisation’ 
 of UK livestock farming after 1947 and the different\, competing messages 
 attaching to animal welfare and consumption\, as seen in the use of the Br
 itish countryside as site of amenity and site of production. This work inc
 orporates ideas of animals as active agents of history\, and is framed by 
 notions of interconnectivity of farm\, the farm animal\, disease organisms
 \, farmers\, labourers\, marketeers\, sales reps\, government officials\, 
 journalists and the non-farming public over time.\n\nAttendance is free bu
 t spaces may be limited\, so please "email":mailto:sjp229@cam.ac.uk to res
 erve a space in the Zoom audience. Please be aware that we will take a rec
 ording of this event\, which may include any questions and responses deliv
 ered by the audience.\n\n\n*See the full 2021 lecture series online "here"
 :http://gloknos.ac.uk/research/activities/the-gloknos-annual-lecture-serie
 s*\n\n*gloknos is initially funded for 5 years by the European Research Co
 uncil through a Consolidator Grant awarded to Dr Inanna Hamati-Ataya for h
 er project ARTEFACT (2017-2022) ERC grant no. 724451.*
LOCATION:Zoom
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