Julia Spanier, Leonie Guerrero Lara and Jacob Smessaert presented three papers and co-led a workshop session at the 9th International Degrowth Conference in Zagreb, Croatia.   Julia Spanier, Leonie Guerrero Lara and Jacob Smessaert, with Christina Plank and Michaela Pixova. Fertile Ground: Building solidarities and alliances between food sovereignty and degrowth across the rural urban…

Guilherme Raj presented the paper ‘Selective, quiet and representational: lessons from rural queer empowerment in a community-supported agriculture‘ at the 2023 conference of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 20-22 July 2023. Abstract: Rural queer studies call for examinations of how gender and sexual relations organise agri-food systems. These…

Raj, G., Feola, G. & Runhaar, H. Work in progress: power in transformation to postcapitalist work relations in community–supported agriculture. Agriculture and Human Values (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-023-10486-8   Abstract. Community-supported agriculture (CSA) initiatives are spaces where diverse work relations are performed. From a postcapitalist perspective, these initiatives attempt to create alternative-capitalist and non-capitalist work relations next to…

Laura van Oers, Julia Spanier and Giuseppe Feola presented papers at the third Rural Geography Conference hosted by the University of Groningen. Laura van Oers presented the paper titled ‘Setting-up a participatory guarantee systems (PGS) initiative in the Netherlands‘  (also see here for a methodological report on this study). Julia Spanier presented ongoing research on ‘Radical…

On 29 June Giuseppe Feola presented the talk ‘Sustainability transformation beyond capitalism: theorizing negation and affirmation in prefigurative grassroots initiatives’ at the Chair of Economic Geography and Globalization Studies (Prof. Sarah Ruth Sippel) of the Institute of Geography, University of Münster, Germany.   Abstract. Prefigurative grassroots initiatives are hopeful spaces of sustainability transformation beyond capitalism….

On 22 June Giuseppe Feola presented the talk ‘Sustainability transformation from the bottom up: grassroots initiatives in and beyond capitalism’ at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon. The seminar was part of the series organized by the research group SHIFT: Environment, Territory and Society.

Spanier, J., Guerrero Lara, L., Feola, G., (in press). A one-sided love affair? On the potential for a coalition between degrowth and community-supported agriculture in Germany. Agriculture and Human Values, DOI: 10.1007/s10460-023-10462-2 Abstract: Community-supported agriculture (CSA) is a grassroots response to the threat the global industrial agri-food system poses to smallholders. The degrowth community, calling for a…

Laura van Oers presented the paper ‘The politics of phase-out and deliberate destabilisation for sustainability transitions‘ at the Eu-SPRI conference in Brighton, United Kingdom. The full paper can be accessed here.

Giuseppe Feola presented the paper ‘Schismogenesis and prefiguration in grassroots transformative spaces’ at the Alternative Futures and Popular Protest 2023 conference in Manchester. Abstract: The aim of this paper is to advance the theorization of prefigurative grassroots initiatives (e.g., community supported agriculture, autonomous peasant/food collectives) as spaces of sustainability transformation beyond capitalism. The paper’s main…

Jacob Smessaert and Julia Spanier published an essay in the Political Ecology platform Undisciplined Environments. The essay, titled ‘What can degrowth bring to food system transformation beyond capitalism?‘ discusses the following questions: Can degrowth theory contribute valuable new perspectives to the thinking and doing of food system transformations beyond capitalism in the Global North? Or…