Ika Darnhofer
Assoc. Prof. Priv.Doz.DI Dr.nat.techn. Ika Darnhofer Ph.D.
Institute of Agricultural and Forestry Economics
Location Feistmantelstraße 4, 1180 Wien
Email ika.darnhofer@boku.ac.at
ORCID: 0000-0002-0809-9602, opens in new window.
AuthorId : 6508282085, opens in new window.
ResearcherId : AAE-2559-2020
Research Focus
My research focus is on decision making on family farms.
Although I appreciate the value of the various tools of neoclassical economics for informing farm management on the short-term and for commercial farms, I find they are limited in their ability to capture the complexity family farmers face, when making decisions over the medium to long term. I am also convinced that limiting ourselves to quantitative data and mathematical analysis curtails our ability to capture important aspects of events.
My research focuses on resilience as a primary management goal of family farmers. Although resilience thinking has primarily been applied at the spatial level of whole social-ecological systems, I believe that many principles can be applied at the farm level, and that these will help us understand how farmers manage their farm under real-life conditions.
While I appreciate the insights that can be gained by various approaches that try to 'measure' the resilience of farms, I think that they often miss the processual aspect of resilience, i.e. the ability to engage with the on-going (and often unexpected) changes on- and off-farm. I am therefore exploring a processual and relational approach to understanding resilience. To do so, I explore insights that can be gained from processual sociology as well as new materialism. And given that farms are not just about the farmer, but also about building, machinery, soil, plants, animals, I also integrate insights from research on non-human.
Career
- 2018 - 2022 PhD in Sociology at the University of Innsbruck
- 2015 - 2015 Visiting Assoc.Prof., University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada)
- 2013 - 2015 Deputy head of department
- 2010 Associate Professor
- 2008 - 2008 Visiting scientist - Lincoln University (New Zealand)
- 2006 Habilitation
- 2002 - 2010 Assistant Professor at the Institute of Agricultural and Forestry Economics
- 2000 - 2002 Research Fellow at the Institut of Agricultural Economics
- 1999 - 2000 Systems Operations Manager at Romer Labs, Inc. in Union, MO (USA)
- 1997 - 1998 Consultant for the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs (short term appointments)
- 1996 - 1999 Consultant at Focus Management Consulting in Venna
- 1994 - 1996 Graduate Associate, ILRI in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia
- 1994 - 1997 Doctoral study at the Univ. of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (Dr.rer.nat.techn.)
- 1993 Graduation, Dipl.-Ing.
- 1991 - 1992 Research Intern, ICRAF in Nairobi, Kenya
Awards
- Year: 2011 Awards: BOKU Teaching Award
- Year: 2010 Awards: BOKU Teaching Award
- Year: 2003 Awards: Preis der Österreichischen Gesellschaft für Agrarökonomie 2002
Projects
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0 Projects found.
Publications
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Knowledge Transfer to Society
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Media
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Presentations
48 lecures found.
Year: 2024 - Lebenswerte Hofkonzepte... damit das Leben und Arbeiten auf den Biohöfen in der Zukunft Sinn und Freude macht
Art: Talk - Selected presentation
Autoren: Darnhofer, I
Event: Bio Austria Bauerntage 2024
Period: 25.01.2024 | Location: Wels
Year: 2024 - Innovationen für bestehende Aufzucht- und Mastställe - Welche Rolle spielen die Menschen?
Art: Talk - Selected presentation
Autoren: Darnhofer, I
Event: Wir leben Innovation aus Tradition! Die Bäuerinnen und Bauern zwischen Versorgungssicherung, Preisdruck und Klimazielen
Period: 23.01.2024 - 01.02.2024 | Location: Wien, Österreich | Location: 4490 Sankt Florian, Österreich | Organizer: Eco-Social Forum
Year: 2022 - Challenges for Farming Systems Research: learning from experience and looking ahead
Art: Talk - Keynote Speaker (Invited Speaker)
Autoren: Darnhofer, I
Event: Farming systems facing climate change and resource challenges. 14th IFSA conference
Period: 10.04.2022 - 14.04.2022 | Location: Evora, Portugal
Year: 2021 - Krisen aus Resilienz-Perspektive
Art: Talk - Keynote Speaker (Invited Speaker)
Autoren: Darnhofer, I.
Event: 31. Jahrestagung der ÖGA
Period: 16.09.2021 - 17.09.2021 | Location: Vienna, Austria
Year: 2021 - Diversität als Basis für das Gelingen einer systemorientierten Agrarforschung
Art: Talk - Keynote Speaker (Invited Speaker)
Autoren: Darnhofer, I
Event: Wege zu kooperativer und systemorientierter Agrarforschung an der Bayerischen Landesanstalt für Landwirtschaft (LfL)
Period: 04.05.2021 | Location: Ruhstorf a.d. Rott, Germany
Year: 2021 - The 'transformability' aspect of resilience
Art: Talk - Keynote Speaker (Invited Speaker)
Autoren: Darnhofer, I.
Event: Principles for resetting a post-corona world. 6th Viennese Talks on Resilience and Networks
Period: 07.04.2021 | Location: Vienna, Austria
Year: 2021 - How I use process-relational thinking to reconceptualize farming resilience.
Art: Talk - Keynote Speaker (Invited Speaker)
Autoren: Darnhofer, I
Event: Seminar on Relationality in Resilience & Development, Stockholm Resilience Centre.
Period: 07.06.2021 | Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Year: 2021 - Openings enabled by a process-relational understanding of farming resilience
Art: Talk - Selected presentation
Autoren: Darnhofer, I
Event: Conference of the Canadian Sociological Association
Period: 31.05.2021 - 04.06.2021 | Location: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Year: 2019 - A relational perspective on the trajectory of the organic sector in Austria
Art: Talk - Selected presentation
Autoren: Darnhofer, I.
Event: XXVIII Congress of the European Society for Rural Sociology (ESRS)
Period: 25.06.2019 - 28.06.2019 | Location: Trondheim, Norway
Year: 2019 - On the theoretical challenges to assess the resilience of farms
Art: Talk - Keynote Speaker (Invited Speaker)
Autoren: Darnhofer, I.
Event: 173th EAAE Seminar ‘Sustainable and resilient farming systems in the European Union’
Period: 26.09.2019 - 27.09.2019 | Location: Bucharest, Romania
Year: 2019 - Zukunftsfähigkeit sichern: hilft ein Perspektivenwechsel von einengenden Strukturen zu ermöglichenden Prozessen?
Art: Talk - Keynote Speaker (Invited Speaker)
Autoren: Darnhofer, I.
Event: Jahrestagung 2019 der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft für Agrarwirtschaft und Agrarsoziologie (SGA-SSE)
Period: 04.04.2019 - 05.04.2019 | Location: Wädenswil, Switzerland
Year: 2017 - Managing a farm for resilience. An approach to cope with change
Art: Talk - Keynote Speaker (Invited Speaker)
Autoren: Darnhofer, I.
Event: Coping with change: resilient and sustainable food systems, from theory to practice
Period: 12.04.2017 | Location: Wageningen, Netherlands
Year: 2017 - Insights from the trajectories of organic farming in Austria, Italy, and France
Art: Talk - Selected presentation
Autoren: Darnhofer, I., D'Amico, S., Fouilleux, E.
Event: XXVII Congress of the European Society for Rural Sociology
Period: 24.08.2017 - 27.08.2017 | Location: Krakow, Poland
Year: 2017 - Resilience of rural communities
Art: Talk - Selected presentation
Autoren: Darnhofer, I.
Event: Workshop on socioeconomic issues, DG Agri
Period: 09.06.2017 | Location: Brussels, Belgium
Year: 2017 - Food as a bridge over the urban-rural divide
Art: Talk - Keynote Speaker (Invited Speaker)
Autoren: Darnhofer, I.
Event: Resilience of place: Networking in an age of division. 5th Viennese Talks on Resilience and Networks
Period: 22.05.2017 | Location: Vienna, Austria
Year: 2016 - Land managers in silvo-pastoral systems: Tackling complexity and uncertainty for resilience
Art: Talk - Keynote Speaker (Invited Speaker)
Autoren: Darnhofer, I.
Event: World Congress Silvo-pastoral systems in a changing world: function, management and people
Period: 27.09.2016 - 30.09.2016 | Location: Evora, Portugal
Year: 2015 - Enabling diversity: the ‘Organic Hay Region’
Art: Talk - Selected presentation
Autoren: Strauss, A; Darnhofer, I;
Event: 26th ESRS European Society for Rural Sociology Congress 2015 - Places of Possibility? Rural Societies in a Neoliberal World
Period: 18.08.2015 - 21.08.2015 | Location: Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
Year: 2015 - Zur Ökonomie der Agrarökologie - Ökonomisches Denken im interdisziplinären Kontext
Art: Talk - Keynote Speaker (Invited Speaker)
Autoren: Darnhofer, I.
Event: 7. Wintertagung des ICAE - Universität Linz
Period: 04.12.2015 - 05.12.2015 | Location: Linz, Austria
Year: 2015 - Does a high share of organic farms contribute to alternative rural development pathways?
Art: Talk - Selected presentation
Autoren: Strauss, A; Darnhofer, I;
Event: 24th Agrarian Perspectives and 25th Annual Conference of the Austrian Society of Agricultural Economics, Joint International Scientific Conference 2015 - Global Agribusiness and the Rural Economy
Period: 16.09.2015 - 18.09.2015 | Location: Prague, Czech Republic | Organizer: Czech University of Life Sciences Prague & Austrian Society of Agricultural Economics
Year: 2014 - Resilienz und der Umgang mit Veränderungen. Die Rolle von Bildung und sozialem Lernen
Art: Talk - Keynote Speaker (Invited Speaker)
Autoren: Darnhofer, I.
Event: Change in Schule und Unterricht. 10. Studientag an der Hochschule für Agrar- und Umweltpädagogik Wien
Period: 04.12.2014 | Location: Vienna, Austria
Year: 2014 - Does resilience-based management of communal grazing land address gender inequity? A case study in the highlands of Ethiopia
Art: Talk - Selected presentation
Autoren: Aregu, L., Darnhofer, I., Wurzinger, M.
Event: Resilience 2014 - Third international science and policy conference on the resilience of social and ecological systems
Period: 04.05.2014 - 08.05.2014 | Location: Montpellier, France
Year: 2014 - Blogging for interactive critical thinking
Art: Talk - Selected presentation
Autoren: Darnhofer, I.
Event: Alpacher Higher Education Symposium. <a href="https://www.alpbach.org/vortrag/breakout-session-05-bloggen-fuer-interaktives-kritisches-denken/">Weblink</a>
Period: 19.08.2014 - 21.08.2014 | Location: Alpbach, Austria
Year: 2014 - Bewusst gestalten: Eine akteurorientierte Sicht auf die Wahl der Betriebsstrategie
Art: Talk - Selected presentation
Autoren: Strauss, A., Darnhofer, I.
Event: 24. Jahrestagung der Österreichischen Gesellschaft für Agrarökonomie ÖGA 2014
Period: 25.09.2014 - 26.09.2014 | Location: Vienna, Austria | Organizer: Austrian Society of Agricultural Economics
Year: 2014 - Resilience of family farms: understanding the trade-offs linked to diversification
Art: Talk - Selected presentation
Autoren: Darnhofer, I., Strauss, A.
Event: 11th European IFSA Symposium 2014 - Farming systems facing global challenges: Capacities and strategies
Period: 01.04.2014 - 04.04.2014 | Location: Berlin, Germany
Year: 2014 - Resilience and why it matters for farm management
Art: Talk - Keynote Speaker (Invited Speaker)
Autoren: Darnhofer, I.
Event: Invited plenary presentation. Agri-food and rural innovations for healthier societies. 14th Congress of the European Association of Agricultural Economists (EAAE)
Period: 26.08.2014 - 29.08.2014 | Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia
Year: 2014 - Linking the social and the ecological for resilience and adaptability: The case of a controlled grazing system in the Ethiopian highlands.
Art: Talk - Selected presentation
Autoren: Aregu, L., Darnhofer, I.
Event: Resilience 2014 - Third international science and policy conference on the resilience of social and ecological systems
Period: 04.05.2014 - 08.05.2014 | Location: Montpellier, France
Year: 2014 - Biolandbau in Salzburg: Warum so erfolgreich?
Art: Talk - Selected presentation
Autoren: Schindecker, S.M., Strauss, A., Darnhofer, I.
Event: 24. Jahrestagung der Österreichischen Gesellschaft für Agrarökonomie ÖGA 2014
Period: 25.09.2014 - 26.09.2014 | Location: Vienna, Austria | Organizer: Austrian Society of Agricultural Economics
Year: 2014 - Managing the trade-offs between factors that strengthen resilience
Art: Talk - Selected presentation
Autoren: Darnhofer, I.
Event: Resilience 2014 - Third international science and policy conference on the resilience of social and ecological systems
Period: 04.05.2014 - 08.05.2014 | Location: Montpellier, France
Year: 2013 - Resilienz und der Umgang mit dynamischen Rahmenbedingungen
Art: Talk - Keynote Speaker (Invited Speaker)
Autoren: Darnhofer, I
Event: CAS-Herbsttagung 2013 - Markt oder Staat - Perspektiven für die Landwirtschaft
Period: 22.11.2013 | Location: Vienna, Austria
Year: 2013 - Resilience and farming: the role of networks
Art: Talk - Keynote Speaker (Invited Speaker)
Autoren: Darnhofer, I.
Event: 3rd Viennese Talks on Resilience Research and Networks 2013
Period: 21.06.2013 | Location: Vienna, Austria
Year: 2013 - Innovation to create resilient agro-food systems
Art: Talk - Keynote Speaker (Invited Speaker)
Autoren: Darnhofer, I
Event: Family farming: A dialogue towards more sustainable and resilient farming in Europe and the world
Period: 29.11.2013 | Location: Brussels, Belgium
Year: 2013 - Does excluding women undermine the resilience of communal grazing land? A case study in Amhara region, Ethiopia
Art: Talk - Selected presentation
Autoren: Aregu, L., Darnhofer, I. and Wurzinger, M.
Event: XXVth Congress of the European Society for Rural Sociology
Period: 29.07.2013 - 01.08.2013 | Location: Florence, Italy
Year: 2012 - Transition to organic farming in Austria. The co-evolution of actors' strategies.
Art: Talk - Selected presentation
Autoren: Darnhofer, I., Sutherland, L.-A.
Event: 3rd International Conference on Sustainability Transitions 2012
Period: 29.08.2012 - 31.08.2012 | Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Year: 2012 - Sustainable agriculture: Balancing natural and social sciences
Art: Talk - Keynote Speaker (Invited Speaker)
Autoren: Darnhofer, I.
Event: 3rd CASEE Conference 2012 - Sustainable Agriculture and Food Production in the Danube Region
Period: 03.05.2012 - 05.05.2012 | Location: Cluj-Napoca, Romania | Organizer: ICA-CASEE
Year: 2012 - Transition to sustainable agriculture: Assessing the case of organic farming in Austria
Art: Talk - Selected presentation
Autoren: Darnhofer, I. and Sutherland, L.-A.
Event: 13th World Congress of Rural Sociology IRSA Conference 2012- The New Rural World: From Crises to Opportunities
Period: 29.07.2012 - 04.08.2012 | Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Year: 2011 - Transition to sustainability = transition to plurality?
Art: Talk - Selected presentation
Autoren: Darnhofer, I., Sutherland, L.-A.
Event: 2nd International Conference on Sustainability Transitions 2011
Period: 13.06.2011 - 15.06.2011 | Location: Lund, Sweden
Year: 2011 - Strengthening the resilience of institutions governing communal grazing land in Ethiopia
Art: Talk - Selected presentation
Autoren: Behailu, L., Darnhofer, I.
Event: Vienna Workshop on Sustainable Development for Doctoral Students 2011
Period: 24.11.2011 - 26.11.2011 | Location: Vienna, Austria | Location: Vienna, Austria
Year: 2010 - Stratégies pour assurer la capacité d'adaptation d'une exploitation agricole: pistes théoriques
Art: Talk - Selected presentation
Autoren: Darnhofer, I.
Event: Agir en situation d'incertitude
Period: 22.11.2010 - 24.11.2010 | Location: Montpellier, France
Year: 2010 - From managing for profits to managing for adaptability
Art: Talk - Selected presentation
Autoren: Darnhofer, I.
Event: 11th Conference of the International Society for Ecological Economics ISEE 2010 - Advancing sustainability in a time of crisis
Period: 22.08.2010 - 25.08.2010 | Location: Oldenburg, Germany
Year: 2009 - Navigating the dynamics: Resilient farms through adaptive management
Art: Talk - Keynote Speaker (Invited Speaker)
Autoren: Darnhofer, I.
Event: 60th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Animal Production EAAP 2009 - Biodiversity and Sustainable Animal Production Systems
Period: 24.08.2009 - 27.08.2009 | Location: Barcelona, Spain
Year: 2009 - Strategies of family farmers to strengthen their resilience <a href="http://www.wiso.boku.ac.at/fileadmin/_/H73/H733/pub/Ika/2009_Darnhofer_ESEE.pdf">[Fulltext]</a>
Art: Talk - Selected presentation
Autoren: Darnhofer, I.
Event: 8th International Conference of the European Society for Ecological Economics 2009 - Transformation, innovation and adaptation for sustainability
Period: 29.06.2009 - 02.07.2009 | Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia
Year: 2009 - Organic farmers searching for alternatives to conventionalisation
Art: Talk - Selected presentation
Autoren: Darnhofer, I.
Event: 23rd Congress of the European Society for Rural Sociology 2009 - Re-inventing the rural: Between the social and the natural
Period: 17.08.2009 - 21.08.2009 | Location: Vaasa, Finland
Year: 2009 - Konventionalisierung: Notwendigkeit einer Bewertung mittels Indikatorensystem, basierend auf den IFOAM-Prinzipien <a href="http://www.wiso.boku.ac.at/fileadmin/_/H73/H733/pub/Biolandbau/2009_WiTa_konvOF.pdf">[Fulltext]</a>
Art: Talk - Selected presentation
Autoren: Darnhofer, I., T. Lindenthal, W. Zollitsch, R. Bartel-Kratochvil
Event: 10. Wissenschaftstagung Ökologischer Landbau 2009
Period: 11.02.2009 - 13.02.2009 | Location: Zürich, Switzerland
Year: 2009 - "Konventionalisierung": Die Schattenseite des Bio-Booms?
Art: Talk - Selected presentation
Autoren: Zollitsch, W., Darnhofer, I.
Event: Generalversammlung Biolandwirtschaft Ennstal 2009
Period: 17.04.2009 | Location: Stainach, Austria
Year: 2008 - In the absence of their men: Women and forest management in the Mid-hills of Nepal
Art: Talk - Selected presentation
Autoren: Giri, Kalpana
Event: 2nd International Conference on Environmental Economics and Investment Assessment 2008
Period: 28.05.2008 - 30.05.2008 | Location: Cadiz, Spain
Year: 2007 - Experiences from transdisciplinary workshops. Co-learning about the effects of global change on farming and rural areas.
Art: Talk - Selected presentation
Autoren: Darnhofer, I. and M.C. Loibl
Event: 22nd Congress of the European Society for Rural Sociology 2007 - Mobilities, vulnerabilities, sustainabilities
Period: 19.08.2007 - 24.08.2007 | Location: Wageningen, Netherlands
Year: 2007 - Adaptiveness of organic farms. Results from transdisciplinary workshops
Art: Talk - Selected presentation
Autoren: Darnhofer, I.
Event: 22nd Congress of the European Society for Rural Sociology 2007 - Mobilities, vulnerabilities, sustainabilities
Period: 19.08.2007 - 24.08.2007 | Location: Wageningen, Netherlands
Year: 2006 - Can family farmers be understood as adaptive managers?
Art: Talk - Selected presentation
Autoren: Darnhofer, I.
Event: 7th European IFSA Symposium 2006
Period: 07.05.2006 - 11.05.2006 | Location: Wageningen, Netherlands
Supervised Theses
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