summary
Efforts to sustainably transform agriculture and food systems, have mostly focused on top-down policy mechanisms and on technical solutions, which have insufficiently considered social, cultural and institutional dimensions of transformation. Fostering sustainable solutions that are effective at scale requires the analysis of how these dimensions can be leveraged to catalyze transformative change. This project addresses this knowledge gap by co-designing strategies for bottom-up transformation through the strengthening and networking of affective engagements between farmers, their land and societal actors. Transformation is rooted in affective responses which arise through specific experiences. Affects are bodily sensations which mobilise individuals and groups to engage in or change behaviours. Affects can engender deep forms of change that go beyond economic rationalities or that break with established socio-cultural behavioural patterns. Affects are thus important in understanding attitudes and attachments that drive transformation, and by what means they can be generated, strengthened, and sustained. Research on affect and transformation is necessarily rooted in the experiences and practices of societal actors and requires a participatory co-production approach. This project investigates and co-designs strategies for strengthening and networking affects in collaboration with bottom-up sustainability-oriented farmers’ organisations. The research will also establish connections between local farming practices, farmer-society relations, and national and international societal organizations and movements to identify strategies for scaling up local initiatives and build collaborations that can catalyze transformation at institutional levels. The research address three objectives:
- To investigate the role of affects in driving sustainability-oriented behaviours in bottom-up farmers’ organisations;
- To identify how affects can block or leverage change and co-design strategies to scale-up and network these affects by connecting local farmer practices and organisations with societal actors;
- To develop a theory of affect in sustainability transformations.
partners
This project is part of the NWA/NWO-funded Joint Solutions for Multiple Environmental Crises project (https://www.nwo.nl/projecten/nwa141822017)
Project duration: 1 February 2023- 31 December 2024
who's working on this project
Contact: Leonardo van den Berg
