12/11/2020
Dear all,
Both Margriet Goris and Leonardo van den Berg are soon going to defend their respective PhDs on agroecology in Brazil.
All of you are cordially invited to attend the public defence of their PhD theses via WUR aula tv.
Margriet and Leonardo both spent two years in Brazil, where they studied and became immersed in the agroecology movement. One of the things that struck them was how agroecology differed from sustainable agriculture approaches in the Netherlands such as Kringlooplandbouw or Natuurinclusieve landbouw. In the Netherlands moving towards sustainable agriculture is often seen as a technological endeavor focused on innovation and creating policies or markets that support them. In Brazil, agroecology is an emancipatory project that places a great deal of emphasis on fostering caring engagements between nature and local culture, creating autonomous spaces that protect people from neo-liberalism, and on bringing peasants, of different identities, together. Please find below a short summary of their Phd-thesis. If you are interested in receiving their PhD-thesis, please email to respectively [email protected] or [email protected].
The defence will take place:
Leonardo van den Berg: โBuilding social movements for transformation: the case of agroecology in Brazilโ
Wednesday 18 November 16.00
https://www.wur.nl/en/activity/Building-movements-for-transformation.-Defending-and-advancing-agroecology-in-Brazil-1.htm
Margriet Goris: โEmancipation of young agroecological peasants in Zona da Mata, Minas Gerais, Brazil: an identity in-the-makingโ
Monday November 30 13.30
https://www.wur.nl/en/Calendar-1/show/Emancipation-of-young-agroecological-peasants-in-Zona-da-Mata-Minas-Gerais-Brazil-an-identity-in-the-making-1.htm
Summary โ โBuilding movements for transformation: defending and advancing agroecology in Brazilโ by Leonardo van den Berg
While the popularity of transition approaches to transform agriculture and food systems has surged, evidence that these approaches serve rather than change the dominant institutional order, and thereby do little to address underlying causes of unsustainability, is mounting. This thesis investigates the different way in which social movements foster transformation by looking at the agroecology movement in Brazil. By combining insights from affect theory, political economy and political discourse theory it captures how the agroecology movement challenges the dominant order and advances alternatives in the domains of practice, territory and the wider institutional environment. The thesis shows that affects play a central role in mobilising people and building alternative, more caring ways of production, distribution and life. It also shows how the agroecology movement combines diverse forms of resistance and politics to support and protect alternatives from hostile forces and co-optation by powerful agents, while building a broad, popular movement. The thesis concludes that in contrast to transition approaches, social movements have the potential to foster transformation that is bottom-up, equitable and democratic.
Summary โ โEmancipation of young agroecological peasants in Zona da Mata, Minas Gerais, Brazil: an identity in-the-makingโ by Margriet Goris
Intergovernmental organizations and researchers point to agroecology as a pathway to preserve biodiversity, address climate change and achieve the sustainable development goals. Little is known about how young people become engaged in peasant agroecology. Literature shows that autonomy is decisive for young people to start farming. The thesis draws on Feminist and peasant studies literature, as well as discourse theory and the concept of affect to analyze and understand the relevance of relationality and resignification in young peopleโs engagement in peasant agroecology in times of authoritarian governments. It uses film-based action research methods that visualize how young people build, maintain, and alter their relationships with peers, with family, and with nature and culture in popular education, and how they, through those relationships, co-produce a form of relational autonomy. This relational autonomy is emancipatory because it enables young people to to resignify peasant agroecology. The notion of โPeasantโ becomes an inclusive category that is not tied to bodies, and that does political work by connecting diverse groups of peasants with multiple, interrelated identities in terms of age, gender, race, sexual orientation, beliefs and place, but with a similar way of farming with nature.
PhD defence Emancipation of young agroecological peasants in Zona da Mata, Minas Gerais, Brazil: an identity in-the-making PhD candidate drs. MB (Margriet) Goris Promotor prof.dr. E (Esther) Turnhout Co-promotor dr. JH (Jelle) Behageldr.ir. GM (Gerard) Verschoor Co-promotor dr da Silva Lopes Organis...
