| Chapter : | Introduction: Putting Ecological Economics into Sustainable Agricultural Practices |
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purpose of these two chapters is to provide a coherent conceptual framework within which agricultural sustainability can be analysed and better understood. Chapter 3 places the evolution of ecological economics within a wider ecological, economic, sociopolitical, and cultural context, and it emphasises the important role that traditional culture can play in promoting ecologically and socially sound development. In particular, ecological economics is articulated as a policy science (i.e., it deals with, and is related to, policy generation). To guarantee transparency and fairness in the process of decision making, a continuous dialogue between researchers, practitioners, and policy makers is promoted. Based on the research described earlier, a summary of the essence of ecological economics in the context of this study is provided in chapter 4. Chapter 5 examines the rise of Chinese ecological agriculture as a response to the trend of the international sustainable agricultural movement. Next, chapter 6 provides a commentary on Chinese ecological agriculture. It emphasises the need for moving the ideology of ecological agriculture into the political realm and suggests that local governments have a significant role to play in establishing appropriate institutional arrangements and policy settings (e.g., bottom-up policy initiatives) for sustainable ecological agricultural development. Chapter 7 elaborates the methodological synthesis of ecological economics and system dynamics modelling as a holistic approach to facilitate an improved policy-making process for agricultural sustainability. The effectiveness of this alternative approach for improved policy formulation is illustrated by a Jingshan County case study explored in chapter 8. Finally, chapter 9 contains a discussion of the conclusions of this research as well as the implications for further research.
This book advocates the development of a holistic approach to policy making for sustainable ecological agricultural development. The need for the proposed methodological synthesis of a comprehensive analytical framework involving system dynamics modelling for effective policy making is maintained by drawing together several areas of learning. A specific methodological framework, relevant to the research objectives previously articulated, will be developed. The particular treatment