Objectives |
The objectives of WP 2 are:
to assess whether and under which conditions automatic milking is a production technology that will be accepted by society at large.
to identify the role of communication between industry and society in the process of acceptance.
Recommendations will be formulated both for relevant policy-makers and decision-makers in the dairy food industry.
In a first phase (subpackage 1), an international multidisciplinary literature search will be conducted in order to bring together in one data base the findings of previous studies with respect to factors and conditions which stimulate societal acceptance of, or resistance to, new technology, in general, and developments in agricultural production, in particular. This information will be complemented by: |
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case studies, by means of content analysis, of the ways in which the press dealt with other introductions of new technologies in the food industry or related fields.
in-depth interviews with newspaper and television
journalists in each country to identify:
a) the sources of news about food and dairy related technology
b) the elements, which turn such technological developments into
news
c) which stories journalists tend to select and why.
by in-depth interviews with experts in public
relations and advertising with the aim of identifying in each country:
a) which institutional actors, opinion leaders, and agenda setters are
considered to be the most important with regard to public acceptance
of food production methods
b) to make a first general assessment of the current state of public
opinion with regard to food production and the imago of the dairy
industry
c) to identify specific national issues and concerns. Members of the
research team will conduct these interviews. During these national
visits contact will also be made with sub-contractors in order to make
the first plans and preparations with respect to phase 2.
The second phase (subpackage 2) will build on the findings of phase 1
by means of a study to be conducted in six countries (The United Kingdom,
The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Denmark and Sweden). The aim of this
study is, among opinion leaders and other interested parties, to identify
and assess:
a) the overall imago of the dairy food chain,
b) general attitudes towards automation and changing practices within that
chain,
c) specific attitudes with regard to automatic milking,
d) which elements of automatic milking are regarded as positive and which
as negative, and
e) which social groups are likely to manifest opposition to this
development, and why.
The method will be in-depth individual and focus group interviews with
representatives from the key groups identified in phase 1, and
representative focus group interviews with members of the general public.
In this phase subcontractors will be employed in each country to assist in
the interviews. They will be drawn from University or private sector teams
with a recognised record in opinion research. Under the supervision of the
work package leader they will be responsible for organising, conducting
and reporting the interviews in their country.
In the third phase (subpackage 3) the interviews will be analysed in order to portray the general current state of informed opinion in the six countries with regard to food production technology and, specifically, to identify the determinants of, and necessary conditions for, societal acceptance of automatic milking. Possible problematic issues or 'areas of public sensitivity' with respect to this development will be identified and specific recommendations for how these can be met will be made. Dissemination of results will be the main priority towards the end of this phase.
Deliverables |
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© Animal Sciences Group -
Wageningen UR. Last update:
20-02-2008 10:03. |
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