摘要：In many rural landscapes of Europe, there is a transition taking place from the predominance ofagriculture towards a much more diverse combination of different activities and consumptioninterests. In Mediterranean Europe, new combinations in management strategies are emerging,as the case study in Southern Portugal shows. Transition theory has been used to analyse hownew smallholders’ profiles lead to the emergence of a niche. This niche is characterised by theemergence of new management arrangements in small-scale farms that are in danger of beingdriven out of production. Due to these new processes of transition, the pattern and character ofthe Mediterranean small farms mosaic landscape is maintained. This paper shows that for thenew smallholders, farming is an important part of their activities. The paper also shows that byfailing to recognise new types of farmers and their potential for innovation, the agriculturalregime is missing an opportunity to reactivate the linkage between agriculture and socialrepresentations of the rural in a way that would suit the rural development paradigms of today.
