‘A gentleman's handshake’: The role of social capital and trust in transforming information into usable knowledge

Abstract

This paper explores the role of various social ties in building trust and providing opportunities for information acquisition and knowledge exchange (IAKE). Social capital is used as a vehicle to explore the relationships between farmers and their advisors using bovine tuberculosis (bTB), a major disease facing the English cattle industry, as a case study. Much research on social capital and IAKE has been conducted within the field of rural sociology, but very little relates specifically to bTB. Exploratory findings suggest that trust provides an essential catalyst enabling passive information to be transformed into usable knowledge. Levels of ‘linking’ social capital between farmers and the government were found to be low, engendered by high levels of distrust and a lack of confidence in the information provided. In comparison, high levels of ‘bridging’ social capital between farmers and vets were found, brought about by long-term, regular and consistent contact, associated with high levels of trust and knowledge transfer. ‘Bonding’ social capital was also important in encouraging knowledge exchange among farmers, although overly close ties were shown to potentially lead to the emergence of exclusive networks and, consequently, the development of distrust. The implications for bTB policy and further research are discussed.

Introduction

Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is a bacterial disease (Mycobacterium bovis) found in cattle and other wildlife throughout much of the world (Filliol et al., 2003; Humblet et al., 2009). The disease, once almost eradicated in the United Kingdom (UK), is now costing the country over £80 million a year (Defra, 2011a) and tens of thousands of cattle are being slaughtered (Bennett and Willis, 2007). The increased prevalence of bTB in the UK is well documented (Independent Scientific Group (ISG), 2006; Ramírez-Villaescusa et al., 2009; White and Benhin, 2004). Between 1986 and 1996, the number of cattle testing positive for bTB increased more than tenfold and by 2010, the number had reached over 28,000 (Defra, 2011b). The government has established a number of disease control measures, including strict pre-movement testing and cattle movement restrictions, periodic testing and slaughter of infected cattle, and on-farm biosecurity measures. However, these measures have failed to improve the current disease situation.

The essence of the bTB problem is that it necessitates industry buy-in in order to implement disease control measures and is therefore not simply an issue of regulation. In 2011, the government published its new bTB eradication programme which promotes industry-wide cooperation, responsibility sharing and partnership working (Defra, 2011a). Consequently, within the context of current policy discourses, bTB control is likely to be at least partly dependent on farmers' attitudes towards the disease and the government. However, the spread of bTB, coupled with other crises in the farming industry such as the 2001 Foot and Mouth disease outbreak, BSE and other food scares, has contributed to difficult relations and a lack of trust between the industry and the government (Enticott, 2008a,b; Enticott and Vanclay, 2011; Wilkinson, 2010). With little indication as to how this trust will be built and relationships developed, there appears to be a substantial ‘rhetoric: reality’ gap. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to explore current levels of trust, with a particular focus on information acquisition and knowledge exchange (IAKE) to farmers, in order to assess the future potential for the government's proposals. While the relationships between farmers and the government are a key focus, other relationships are also explored in order to draw some informative comparisons.

In order to do this, the social dimensions of bTB are explored through the framework of social capital, which can provide novel insights into the relationships through which information is communicated. The concept makes visible the networks, norms of behaviour and trust which, as this paper will show, are critical for understanding farmers' uptake of, and response to, information provided to them. Social capital, defined by Putnam (1995, 2000) as the stocks of social trust, networks and values that people can draw upon in order to improve their livelihoods, has been shown to provide a variety of positive outcomes. This paper attempts to assess whether one such outcome may be improved access to knowledge relating to bTB. The importance of trust in particular is explored to establish its role in providing opportunities for information acquisition and translating this information into knowledge which can be used and acted upon by farmers. Within this context, the interrelationships between different forms of social capital are explored to further understand the interactions between farmers and their advisors. The paper first provides a summary of the development of current bTB policy in the UK, followed by a review of literature on social capital among farmers and the role of trust. A conceptual framework based on trust and social capital is then advocated. Next, the methodology is introduced, followed by the main results. A discussion and concluding remarks are presented in the final section.