Seminar: Agroecological practices as territorial development: an analytical schema from Brazilian case studies

Library seminar room 7, The Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA

Join us for an International Development Seminar

Discussion: 12:30 – 14:00 (Lunch 12:00-12:30, please register)

Speaker:

Dr Les Levidow, Senior Research Fellow, Development Policy and Practice, Faculty of Arts and Social Science, The Open University

Abstract:

Agroecological practices have been widely promoted as an alternative to the hegemonic agro-food system, yet they also are used for ‘greening’ the system.  The concept ‘territorial development’ has been mobilised for multi-stakeholder efforts at expanding a transformative agroecology.  According to various theoretical perspectives, territory is shaped by power relations, mediating relations of production. In this paper, an analytical schema helps identify how agroecological practices are appropriated for diverse trajectories of territorial development, each with distinctive power relations. The schema links several parameters: origins, aims, work organisation, product certification, markets, public policies, land access, knowledge development and technological innovation.  Territorial dynamics are illustrated by Brazilian case studies; in some cases, participants build capacities linking agroecological practices, socio-environmental technologies and a solidarity economy.  The schema provides a stronger basis for a ‘strategic reading of territory’, identifying opportunities and difficulties of trajectories for a transformative agroecology.

Seminar is FREE to attend

Please email FASS-collaborations@open.ac.uk if you would like to register