Multifunctionality of agriculture is easy to identify as a conceptual device for the reconfiguration of policy, but as the four papers in this section show in their individual ways, there are some serious limitations and problems where its practical implementation is concerned. In analytical terms, monofunctionality was simpler and more tractable. Agricultural markets, at least in relative terms, are spatially integrated, homogenous, and few in number. That has helped to advance the development of aseries of quantitative tools which, over several decades, have produced useful results. In contrast, rural development (just one of the dimensions of multifunctionality) has complex and extensive dimensions, that sometimes enter the market domain but, more often than not, permeate the social, political and cultural as well; it is also more broadly influenced by historical, romantic and moral conceptions of a proper or good life that deserves support. It is not therefore surprising that (although assuredly through no fault of the authors) this complexity highlights the limited potential of quantitative tools applied to various aspects of multifunctionality.
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