Resisting, learning, growing : the role of social movement praxis in UK agroecology transformations
Year: 2024
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The current industrial agrifood system is unsustainable, prompting calls for agrifood system “transformation”. But conflicting interests among actors lead to differing problem framings with many approaches failing to address power and politics, relying on technical fixes that uphold the corporate industrial model. Agroecology, a radical transformative paradigm, integrates science, practice, and politics to promote change led by social movements. While agroecology scholars and activists emphasise the importance of social movement praxis in fostering transformations, research focuses on Global South movements and neglects social movement theory. This thesis addresses this gap by exploring the role of social movement praxis in UK agroecology transformations, drawing on agroecology and social movement conceptual frameworks. Using participatory action research and activist ethnography, I focus on the Landworkers’ Alliance (LWA) and other actors advocating a political articulation of agroecology. \nThe thesis empirical contributions are firstly, demonstrating how the movement fosters transformative change by developing members’ drives, powers, and consciousness through prefigurative praxis. Secondly, I identify that while the movement’s prefigurative subculture strengthens a sense of collective identity amongst members, it also serves to alienate wider actors such as mainstream farmers, limiting transformative impact. My conceptual contribution proposes an agroecology movement ecology framework, building on a grassroots model, incorporating feminist of colour coalitional politics. This framework emphasises the importance of diverse movement spaces and actors in progressing systemic change and the need to strategically connect action within a movement ecosystem to build collective power. I highlight the critical roles for prefigurative “home” spaces and more risky and heterogenous “coalition” spaces to progress transformation. I identify three types of learning transformations require - entry, deepening, and transformative-transgressive. Finally, I recommend that anchoring in prefigurative praxis allows the movement to engage a broader range of strategies and positions while guarding against co-optation, reflecting agroecology’s ecological and pluriversal nature.
Author: Taherzadeh, Alice
Language: English
Subfield: Development
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7062122377