Faith and Doubt in an American Working Landscape: The Importance of Scale,Work, and Place in Rural Development Planning

The term “working landscape” (WL) is increasingly used by American planners and policy makers to describe the rural places and livelihoods they aim to shape. This paper draws from a mixed-methods study of WL language as a collective action frame in the state of Vermont, where WL has been formalized into policy. Natural resource leaders and professionals share a common definition of WL that is supported by four key beliefs. However, interviews conducted in two representative farming communities suggest that landuse practitioners have not adopted WL language, and in some cases are skeptical of its meaning. The analysis explores potential explanations for the failure of the WL collective action frame to resonate across scales. The paper argues for a bottom-up planning approach that produces working landscapes policies that allow for diverse forms of work and accommodate the specificities of place.