| This dissertation examines how negotiation, communication, and coordination across multiple social worlds, agricultural knowledge domains, and geographic scales has resulted in the diffusion and adoption of informal (non-certified) organic agriculture practices among Kenyan farmers. Ten months of qualitative fieldwork---participant observation; semi-structured interviews with farmers, self-help groups, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), government agricultural extensionists, agricultural researchers, and organic farming trainers; and secondary data collection---were conducted in Kibwezi Division, Makueni District, Eastern Province. The sociology of science literature on boundaries---specifically, boundary-work, boundary organizations, and boundary objects---provides the conceptual framework for this study.; This research found that national and local NGOs dedicated to organic agriculture promotion, training, research, and outreach continually negotiate the boundaries between multiple social worlds (e.g., foreign donors, farmers, agricultural researchers, and the Kenyan state) and knowledge domains (e.g., formal agricultural science and local knowledge). As boundary organizations, organic agriculture NGOs engage in "strategic bridge building" by creating and using boundary objects and hybrid forms to unite multiple social actors around common objectives, such as challenging the Green Revolution regime and promoting agricultural sustainability. They also engage in "strategic boundary-work" by expanding the boundaries of formal agricultural science to include indigenous farming knowledge/practice that had been previously decried by Green Revolution pioneers as "traditional" and thus not scientific. Because of its "scientization" by NGOs, non-certified organic agriculture in Kenya has achieved a degree of legitimacy and authority in the eyes of donors, agroscientific institutions, the Kenyan state, and farmers themselves.; The success of Kenyan organic agriculture NGOs rests ultimately with the sustained adoption of organic agriculture practices by farmers. Analysis of organic agriculture adoption and NGO-farmer linkages in Kibwezi Division, however, revealed a "disconnect" between NGO knowledge and farmer action. Possible explanations for this disconnect include the limitations of NGO-sponsored organic farming workshops, lack of post-training follow-up by NGOs, and competition between organic and conventional agricultural messages in the region's complex agricultural development environment. |
