Räume des Experimentierens: Die Einführung von Sprühdrohnen in der digitalen Landwirtschaft

• Main Authors: D. Pauschinger, F. Klauser
• Format: Article
• Language: deu
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2020-10-01
• Series: Geographica Helvetica
• Online Access: https://gh.copernicus.org/articles/75/325/2020/gh-75-325-2020.pdf

<p>This article investigates how new digital technologies are established in agriculture. It does so by drawing upon empirical data from a qualitative case study with a Swiss based but internationally operating start-up that has recently obtained the first authorisation to spray crop protection products on vineyards and fruit plantations with their home-made drone. Conceptually the article takes inspiration in Actor-Network-Theory (ANT) and challenges common understandings of overly urban centred approaches of how new technologies find entry in public policies. The authors argue that instead of seeing a straightforward process of implementing the new drone technology, there has been a joint-effort between the private company and federal institutions to experiment, improve and regulate the functioning of the sprayer drone. A process that is, so is argued, heavily marked by knowledge transfers and formalisations of new private-public alliances, that have been channelled through three particular spatial categories, relating to policy experiments, socio-technical experiments and strategic experiments.</p>