Laura van Oers presented her PhD research on unlearning in sustainability transitions at UCLouvain (Belgium). The research talk was part of a tri-cycle of seminars on unlearning and critical approaches to nature-based solutions. Laura’s talk discussed the notion of ‘unlearning spaces’ and presented  insights from her empirical research on community supported agriculture in the Netherlands.

Giuseppe Feola spoke at Utrecht University’s Future Food Annual Symposium, on the theme ‘Future Food Systems: Evolution or Revolution’. Giuseppe discussed the following statement, in response to the organizer’s invitation to discuss whether achieving sustainable food systems would involve evolution or revolution, and what would be the role of scientists in that endeavour: Nothing short…

On 18 October Julia Spanier gave a talk titled ‘Rural-urban degrowth transformations: lessons from community-supported agriculture’ at the Postgrowth Cities project at the University of Amsterdam. Julia’s talk built on research from her PhD, and addressed the following questions: How are degrowth transformations facilitated and hindered by present-day rural-urban relations? What is the role and meaning…

Leonie Guerrero Lara presented the paper ‘Degrowth and agri-food systems: a research agenda for the critical social sciences‘ at the Critical Political Economy Research Network monthly meeting (online) on 5 October 2023. The discussant was Dr Bernd Bonfert, Postdoc at the Department of Environmental Science, Aarhus University. The full paper can be found here.

Members of the UNMAKING team organized and/or presented at the  ‘3rd Utrecht Degrowth Symposium: Sowing sustainability in food and agriculture‘ at Utrecht University. The symposium brought together policymakers and civil servants, researchers, students, farmers,  social movements, and other interested people to explore what a degrowth perspective can bring to the debate on agri-food system sustainability….

Laura van Oers and Giuseppe Feola present at the 14th International Sustainability Transitions Conference in Utrecht. Laura van Oers: Community-supported agriculture as spaces to unlearn capitalism? Evidence from two Dutch cases. The importance of double-loop learning and associated unlearning for sustainability transitions is increasingly recognised (van Mierlo and Beers 2020; van Poeck and Östman 2021; Vetter…

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…

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….