Paper Short Abstract:

Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork among Polish farmers, I explore how farmers engage with knowledge from official sources and how for them knowledge only makes sense when applied in and coming from practice. My analysis focuses on both the political and cultural dimensions, highlighting how local agricultural knowledge is constructed.

Paper Abstract:

In this paper, I draw on my long-term ethnographic fieldwork among Polish farmers to explore how they engage with knowledge from 'outside' sources—more formal, often written ones such as books, schools, authorities, and experts. For farmers, knowledge only makes sense and holds value when applied in practice. It is considered unnecessary for those who do not make decisions, do not work, and therefore do not use it in their daily activities. In this context, farmers often speak about the impracticality of 'theoretical' knowledge—that is, knowledge that cannot be translated into concrete actions.

I will demonstrate how agricultural knowledge among farmers is typically multisourced, blending into a cohesive (or seemingly cohesive) and practical set, with social consulting playing a key role in this process. Additionally, I will elaborate on the 'ethos of self-learning,' which I observed frequently among farmers. In this ethos, a farmer tends to credit themselves for the knowledge they have accumulated over the years. Acknowledging external sources of knowledge is not regarded as prestigious; on the contrary, it may be seen as a sign of weakness or a lack of preparation to fulfill the role of a farmer.

In this context, the recent farmers’ protests across European countries present a fascinating phenomenon, where farmers’ attitudes toward 'practical' knowledge and their everyday innovative practices clash with the logic of European Union bureaucracy and its attempts to change agricultural practices.