Smallholder movements have been working for decades to develop methods for agriculture based on natural cycles and to address societal challenges. Agroecology is gaining momentum worldwide, in Europe e.g. in the course of the EU Green Deal, or the Farm-to-Fork and Biodiversity Strategies.
The confluence of multiple ecological and social crises requires a paradigm shift of global food systems. Politically, however, the debate on food system transformation is caught between transformative aspirations and business-as-usual. For example, the UN Food Systems Summit in September 2021 promised to be a „solutions summit“ and agroecology was promoted by some actors as a transformative framework.
In the workshop, we look at agroecology as a practice, scientific discipline, and political-social movement. A focus will be on the role of smallholder networks in the global South, as well as current political struggles and issues of global justice.
In addition to short content inputs, (role) plays and interactive methods will shape the workshop. Participants will gain an understanding of the possibilities of social change through agroecology, as well as the dangers of co-optation attempts and „greenwashing“.
Speaker:
Philipp Bück is project officer for smallholder rights and agroecology in Asia at the DKA Austria. He has been working in development cooperation for 20 years, since 2018 with a focus on agroecology and food system transformation. Occasionally he is an external lecturer at the University of Vienna, studies himself or gardens vegetables.
Organization:
Dreikönigsaktion der kath. Jungschar
The workshop takes place in seminar room 219 in the building Science Park 2.
