933342 Food sovereignty and critical agrarian studies

Type
Lecture and seminar
Semester hours
3
Lecturer (assistant)
Diez Sanjuan, Lucia
Organisation
Offered in
Sommersemester 2025
Languages of instruction
Englisch
Content

This course introduces food sovereignty as a peasant-driven movement and alternative paradigm that advances a radical and holistic transformation of food and agricultural systems, putting power relations and food justice struggles at the core of its proposal. Food sovereignty has gained increased relevance in the academic sphere in the last decades, especially among scholars engaged in critical agrarian studies, who have long been interested in how dominant power structures and relations (both material and ideological) shape agrarian transformations.

In this seminar (implemented as an intense “blocked” workshop), we introduce the frameworks and historical developments of food sovereignty and critical agrarian studies, and discuss how power dimensions emerge, are reproduced, contested and transformed in the context of agri-food systems transformations, with a special focus on the role of language, knowledge and communication. Students will explore and unravel how dominant ideologies shape public discourses on sustainable food systems’ transformation, and will delve into alternative ways of knowledge (co-)creation, arts-based and audio-visual research to engage in diverse forms of knowledge construction and communication.
Previous knowledge expected

None
Objective (expected results of study and acquired competences)

By the end of this course students will:

-be familiar with the frameworks, development, and academic/activist perspectives of food sovereignty and critical agrarian studies.
-understand the relevance of power dimensions in the context of agri-food systems transformations
-understand the interrelations between the diverse dimensions, scales and actors involved in agri-food systems
-be able to develop critical discourse analyses on different texts from diverse actors of the agri-food system
-have gained experience with alternative forms of knowledge construction and communication for agri-food systems transformation.
-have gained experience in the application of audio-visual and arts-based practices for qualitative and transdisciplinary research
You can find more details like the schedule or information about exams on the course-page in BOKUonline.