Giuseppe Feola gives invited talk at Technical University Eindhoven

Giuseppe Feola gave an invited talk at the brownbag seminar of the Technology, Innovation & Society group at Technical University Eindhoven. The talk, titled A degrowth transformation? The unmaking of capitalism in Territorio Campesino Agroalimentario Nariño and Cauca (Colombia) introduced degrowth and presented some findings on ongoing research in the resaerch programme UNMAKING.

Abstract.

With ever more compelling evidence of the un-sustainability of capitalist ‘development’, as well as of the lock-in of this economic paradigm, it is problematic to assume transformation can happen by mere addition of supposed ‘solutions’, be they technological, social, or cultural. Yet, theorizations of sustainability transformation have foregrounded processes of creation (making) of novel socioecological relations, but have obscured processes of deliberate deconstruction (unmaking) of existing ones. Calls for, and interest in the deliberate ‘unmaking’ of unsustainable socioecological relations are mounting across research fields from degrowth (decolonization of the imaginary) and autonomous geographies (crack capitalism), to transition theories (destabilization, phase-out) among others. Yet, theorizations of such ‘unmaking’ remain fragmented, narrowly focussed on one specific aspect (e.g. the symbolic level), or take the broader political economy for granted. In response to those gaps, the aim of this paper is to advance theorizations of sustainability transformation by specifically disentangling processes of construction (making) and deconstruction (unmaking). To do so, the paper uses the case of a concrete, ongoing sustainability transformation in the regions of Nariño and Cauca (Colombia): Territorio Campesino Agroalimentario, a peasant movement that is engaged in the construction of a socio-economic model based on relational ontologies and principles of autonomy, dignity and sufficiency. The paper identifies processes of unmaking of capitalism in Territorio Campesino Agroalimentario, discusses their diversity beyond siloed paradigms or disciplines, and shows how they interplay concretely with the making of post-capitalist realities. In doing so, this paper covers some ground towards an integrative framework of the role of the disruption of capitalism in sustainability transformation.