Agroecology

Méndez, V. Ernesto; Bacon, Christopher M.; Cohen, Roseann; Gliessman, Stephen R.

doi:10.1201/b19500

Cited by 35 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…Inspired by these early PAR efforts, contemporary agroecology combines scientific methods, on-farm practices, and social movement organization (International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty, 2015;Méndez, Bacon, Cohen, & Gliessman, 2015;Vandermeer & Perfecto, 2013).…”

Section: Accountability and Reciprocity: Doing Research Differentlymentioning

confidence: 99%

Operating principles for collective scholar-activism: Early insights from the Agroecology Research-Action Collective

Wit

Shattuck

Iles

et al. 2021

J. Agric. Food Syst. Community Dev.

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Scholar-activism is attractive to researchers who want not just to learn about the world, but about how to change that world. Agri-food studies have experienced a surge in the past two decades in researchers who see closer ties to social movements as key to food systems change. Yet to date, much scholar-activism depends on individually negotiated researcher-movement relationships, which may or may not be sustained long term and where knowledge can remain siloed. The Agroecology Research-Action Collective (ARC) seeks something different. Born of a desire to subordinate scholarship for scholarship’s sake to the needs and exigencies of movements, ARC envisages collective processes, horizontal non-exploitative learning among ourselves and with movements, and mechanisms for multidirectional accountability. This reflective essay is the story of how ARC set out to “get our house in order”: to organize ourselves as scholars committed to systematizing more accountable and reciprocal relationships with frontline communities and grassroots movements. We first share the Principles & Protocols that guide our actions and the process through which we developed them. We then discuss two interconnected arenas in which ARC is developing a community of practice guided by the Principles & Protocols. The first arena is through integrating participatory education into our everyday teaching and mentoring. The second arena is working to achieve broader social and institutional change by sharing methods and strategies for mobilizing resources and legitimating knowledge, both old and new.

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Section: Accountability and Reciprocity: Doing Research Differentlymentioning

confidence: 99%

Operating principles for collective scholar-activism: Early insights from the Agroecology Research-Action Collective

Wit

Shattuck

Iles

et al. 2021

J. Agric. Food Syst. Community Dev.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It is even more so when it is a commons linked to agroecology. Méndez et al (2015Méndez et al ( , 2017 underline the convergence of PAR and agroecology's principles, inasmuch as both aim to: empower populations; adapt to the local environment; and consider multiple scales and long-term benefits, as well as the heterogeneity of actors and knowledge.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Building a Knowledge Commons: Evidence from the Participatory Guarantee System for an Agroecology Label in Morocco

Lemeilleur

Sermage

2020

International Journal of the Commons

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For want of public regulations for organic agriculture in Morocco, stakeholders chose to develop their own label and a Participatory Guarantee System (PGS). In this paper, we present the Participatory Action Research that led to the emergence of a PGS for local markets. Theoretically, we consider this mode of governance-by delegating to the peer community the definition of what is the local norm, and the control of this one-as a type of knowledge commons. Based on an evaluation of the Participatory Action Research, we question to which extent it could lead to a common vision, influence the design, appropriation and improvement of rules for the PGS schemes and, lastly, contribute to the emergence of a commons. We applied the grammar of institutions to describe the outputs of the participatory process. Substantial results show that the different components of the knowledge commons are now available to the community and are fairly well appreciated by the participants. Operational results suggests that the PGS still faces challenges, especially when it comes to scaling-up. We finally propose a critical analysis of the participatory approach used to build this type of socioeconomic innovation as a knowledge commons and discuss the conditions required for replicating a knowledge commons in and beyond the context of Morocco.

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“…Jurors heard from, and asked questions of, both genetic scientists and concerned citizens -a technique Michel Pimbert and colleagues (2001) follow in the context of GMOs and smallholder jurors in contemporary India. Participatory budgeting, citizens juries and assemblies, food policy councils, and participatory action research (PAR), among others, have all been explored as avenues for combining elements of deliberative and participatory democracy in the context of science and food systems (Powell and Kleinman, 2008;Philbrick and Barandiaran, 2009;Aasen and Vatn, 2013;Carlson and Chappell, 2015;Méndez et al 2016). PAR and other decolonial methodologies have gone especially far toward addressing issues of power inequality between Western scientism and knowledge systems systematically suppressed during European colonialism (Freire, 1970(Freire, , 2014Dussel, 1985Dussel, , 2013Mignolo and Escobar, 2013;Wakeford and Sanchez Rodrigues, 2018).…”

Section: Creating Spaces For Epistemic Justicementioning

confidence: 99%

Democratizing CRISPR? Stories, practices, and politics of science and governance on the agricultural gene editing frontier

Wit

2020

Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene

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Many trends in agricultural biotechnology have extended fluidly from the first era of genetic modification using recombinant DNA techniques to the era of gene editing. But the high-profile, explicit, and assertive discourse of democratization with gene editing-especially CRISPR-Cas9-is something new. In this paper, I draw on semi-structured interviews with gene editors, policy analysts, and communications experts as well as with critical academic and civil society experts. I use Science and Technology Studies and political ecology lenses to unpack democratization in three main parts. First is democratizing discourses: On what grounds is CRISPR said to be democratic? Who is saying so? How do dissident communities respond to these narratives? Second is agricultural applications, with a focus on the Innovative Genomics Institute's work in developing gene-edited food crops, including a case of saveable clonal hybrid rice. Third is governance, where I contrast US Department of Agriculture regulations and the CRISPRcon conference as "closed" and "invited" spaces, respectively, for democratic participation. Next, I argue that "created spaces," in which power is held by typically delegitimized actors and ideas, offer an opening for working out democracy on the terrain of biotechnology. I conclude with a set of principles and practices for CRISPR governance based on the idea that democratization of biotechnology requires epistemic justice. By gathering multiple, partial knowledges together, we move beyond narrow risk-benefit framings to better evaluate not just what CRISPR is and does, but what democracy means and whom it serves.

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Agroecology

Cited by 35 publications

References 0 publications

Operating principles for collective scholar-activism: Early insights from the Agroecology Research-Action Collective

Operating principles for collective scholar-activism: Early insights from the Agroecology Research-Action Collective

Building a Knowledge Commons: Evidence from the Participatory Guarantee System for an Agroecology Label in Morocco

Democratizing CRISPR? Stories, practices, and politics of science and governance on the agricultural gene editing frontier

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