Social change is often narrated as a sequential process from traditional society to industrial or urban society. In this kind of a narrative, the countryside and agricultural livelihoods are often interpreted as undeveloped and as a contrast to the urban. Furthermore, rural development has often happened unnoticed. This article intends to discuss the sociological knowledge produced by studies that highlight the own experiences and knowledge of rural actors, farmers. The aim is to understand and interpret the narrated identities of farmers, and their agency in the changing circumstances of farming. Farmers act and face societal changes individually, while utilising cultural patterns of action that emerge from their own background. If they perceive the general circumstances and societal structures as constant and unchangeable, then their ability to react to external changes can be limited. In the success stories farmers defined their life through agency. This strengthened their possibilities of expressing different identities and redefining them in a flexible way in a changing environment.