Abstract
This paper investigates how members of the United Kingdom’s regenerative farming community construct their identities through participation in an emerging community of practice. Drawing on a year-long ethnographic study across multiple farms, community events, and online spaces, the research examines how regenerative farmers negotiate belonging, legitimacy, and values amid ecological and institutional pressures. The analysis integrates identity work, communities of practice, and boundary theories to illuminate how farmers develop a sense of self in relation to shared practices and collective narratives.
Findings show that regenerative farmers derive professional identity from belonging to a relational network characterised by shared ecological commitments, practical experimentation, and circulating stories of soil health and biodiversity. Identity work was shaped by strong boundary-making: participants positioned themselves against conventional, input-intensive agriculture and against what they described as superficial or market-driven “regenerative” practices. These spatial, moral, and aesthetic boundaries reinforced identities rooted in ecological stewardship, systems thinking, and care.
Values—particularly nature connectedness, long-term responsibility, and hope for ecological renewal—were central to identity construction. A pronounced future orientation, often mingling optimism with anxiety about environmental decline, shaped how participants interpreted their work and its limits. These value-laden identity negotiations were visible in daily practices, embodied interactions with land, and reflections captured in interviews and fieldnotes.
The study demonstrates that regenerative farming is not only a set of ecological techniques but a meaningful site of identity formation. By making these processes explicit, the paper contributes to identity work scholarship and enriches understanding of the social dynamics underpinning sustainability transitions.