850), although the focus of their research was on amenity land ownership. Abrams and Bliss ( 2013) similarly excluded holdings under 40 acres (16 ha) from their American study, because those ‘ properties were too small to effectively manage for agricultural or forestry objectives’ (p. 76), because they were unlikely to be eligible for participation in the agri-environmental scheme under study. Wilson himself for example, deliberately excluded ‘ hobby or part-time farms with less than 15 ha’ from his research ( 1997, p. As Burton and Wilson ( 1999) argue, ‘lifestyle’ farmers are either intentionally or unintentionally omitted from quantitative surveys. Gaining access to hobby farmers is challenging because there is no definitive list (Holloway, 2001). The definition thus includes ‘lifestyle’ and ‘non-commercial’ farmers (i.e., agricultural land managers who are not primarily profit driven). In this article I present a methodology for studying a difficult to reach population – ‘hobby farmers’: agricultural land managers who manage their holdings primarily for amenity purposes. The utility of the parish study method is demonstrated through two key findings of the research: the problematic definition of ‘hobby farmers’ in the study site and the trajectories towards de facto land abandonment in a peri-urban locale. A number of ethical and EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) issues also arise around identifying participants, mapping, photos and incentivising participation in the research. However, the parish study method is not suited to studies of dispersed groups and is more resource intensive than standard qualitative interview-based studies. The method also enabled the analysis of agrarian identity and land use. Participant mapping was found to be useful for identifying farmers who are not normally included in rural social research, leading to a high response rate and a respondent pool for photo elicitation. This ‘parish study’ methodology combined participant mapping and qualitative interviewing with photo elicitation. In an investigation designed to assess agrarian transition processes in a peri-urban locale, data was sought on every agricultural holding in a Scottish parish (municipality). This paper presents a methodology for undertaking research with a ‘difficult to reach population’ – hobby farmers.
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