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  • Book
  • Open Access
  • © 2021

Agroecology Now!

Transformations Towards More Just and Sustainable Food Systems

Palgrave Macmillan

Authors:

  1. Colin Ray Anderson

    1. Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University, Wolston, UK

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  2. Janneke Bruil

    1. Cultivate! Collective, Bennekom, The Netherlands

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  3. M. Jahi Chappell

    1. Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University, Coventry, UK

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  4. Csilla Kiss

    1. Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University, Coventry, UK

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  5. Michel Patrick Pimbert

    1. Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University, Coventry, UK

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  • Develops a framework for understanding and advancing agroecology transformations

  • Argues for the importance of bottom up food governance and deepening democracy for agroecology transformations

  • Critiques the dominant food regime

  • This is an Open Access book

Sections

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Table of contents (12 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiv
    PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Colin Ray Anderson, Janneke Bruil, M. Jahi Chappell, Csilla Kiss, Michel Patrick Pimbert
    Pages 1-8Open Access

  3. Agroecology and Sustainability Transformations

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 9-9
      PDF

    2. Origins, Benefits and the Political Basis of Agroecology

      • Colin Ray Anderson, Janneke Bruil, M. Jahi Chappell, Csilla Kiss, Michel Patrick Pimbert
      Pages 11-28Open Access

    3. Conceptualizing Processes of Agroecological Transformations: From Scaling to Transition to Transformation

      • Colin Ray Anderson, Janneke Bruil, M. Jahi Chappell, Csilla Kiss, Michel Patrick Pimbert
      Pages 29-46Open Access

  4. Domains of Agroecology Transformations

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 47-47
      PDF

    2. Domain A: Rights and Access to Nature—Land, Water, Seeds and Biodiversity

      • Colin Ray Anderson, Janneke Bruil, M. Jahi Chappell, Csilla Kiss, Michel Patrick Pimbert
      Pages 49-66Open Access

    3. Domain B: Knowledge and Culture

      • Colin Ray Anderson, Janneke Bruil, M. Jahi Chappell, Csilla Kiss, Michel Patrick Pimbert
      Pages 67-84Open Access

    4. Domain C: Systems of Economic Exchange

      • Colin Ray Anderson, Janneke Bruil, M. Jahi Chappell, Csilla Kiss, Michel Patrick Pimbert
      Pages 85-99Open Access

    5. Domain D: Networks

      • Colin Ray Anderson, Janneke Bruil, M. Jahi Chappell, Csilla Kiss, Michel Patrick Pimbert
      Pages 101-111Open Access

    6. Domain E: Equity

      • Colin Ray Anderson, Janneke Bruil, M. Jahi Chappell, Csilla Kiss, Michel Patrick Pimbert
      Pages 113-127Open Access

    7. Domain F: Discourse

      • Colin Ray Anderson, Janneke Bruil, M. Jahi Chappell, Csilla Kiss, Michel Patrick Pimbert
      Pages 129-149Open Access

  5. Part III

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 151-152
      PDF

    2. Power, Governance and Agroecology Transformations

      • Colin Ray Anderson, Janneke Bruil, M. Jahi Chappell, Csilla Kiss, Michel Patrick Pimbert
      Pages 153-173Open Access

    3. Reflexive Participatory Governance for Agroecological Transformations

      • Colin Ray Anderson, Janneke Bruil, M. Jahi Chappell, Csilla Kiss, Michel Patrick Pimbert
      Pages 175-190Open Access

    4. Conclusion

      • Colin Ray Anderson, Janneke Bruil, M. Jahi Chappell, Csilla Kiss, Michel Patrick Pimbert
      Pages 191-195Open Access

  6. Back Matter

    Pages 197-199
    PDF
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About this book

This open access book develops a framework for advancing agroecology transformations focusing on power, politics and governance. It explores the potential of agroecology as a sustainable and socially just alternative to today’s dominant food regime. Agroecology is an ecological approach to farming that addresses climate change and biodiversity loss while contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals. Agroecology transformations represent a challenge to the power of corporations in controlling food system and a rejection of the industrial food systems that are at the root of many social and ecological ills. In this book the authors analyse the conditions that enable and disable agroecology’s potential and present six ‘domains of transformation’ where it comes into conflict with the dominant food system. They argue that food sovereignty, community-self organization and a shift to bottom-up governance are critical for the transformation to a socially just and ecologically viable food system. This book will be a valuable resource to researchers, students, policy makers and professionals across multidisciplinary areas including in the fields of food politics, international development, sustainability and resilience.
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Keywords

  • Agroecology
  • food security
  • food sovreignty
  • sustainable food
  • sustainability transitions
  • agroecology transitions
  • Ecology of Food Systems
  • Political Ecology
  • Land Reform
  • Farmer Organisations
  • SAAFON
  • sustainable developement goals
  • STG 2
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Reviews

“The insights of this book are highly relevant to policy makers, but its scholarly approach makes it suitable for audiences … especially undergraduate and graduate students in interdisciplinary, sustainability or social sciences programs and agroecology practitioners. … ‘Agroecology now!,’ has a wide array of material with more accessible language, as well as videos. … This book is likely to help the reader to reflect on their own agency and how it relates to transformation of their local food systems.” (Rafael Cavalcanti Lembi, Agriculture and Human Values, Vol. 39, 2022) “At a time of converging crises— social, environmental, economic, health— agroecology is capturing global attention as a real alternative to the industrial food system and a way to mitigate climate change, biodiversity loss, the loss of farming knowledge, farmer insolvency, and more.  This timely book presents how agroecology, as a transformative vision and practice, combats the exploitative capitalist food system of oppression and marginalization, not only of the world’s farmers but of the primacy of human well-being and ecological health.  This book is an indispensable guide to transformative agroecology in its multiple domains, illustrated through multiple case studies and analysis of the roles of governance and power.” (Molly D. Anderson, William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Food Studies at Middlebury College, USA)

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Authors and Affiliations

  • Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University, Wolston, UK

    Colin Ray Anderson

  • Cultivate! Collective, Bennekom, The Netherlands

    Janneke Bruil

  • Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University, Coventry, UK

    M. Jahi Chappell, Csilla Kiss, Michel Patrick Pimbert

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About the authors

Colin Ray Anderson is Associate Professor at the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University, UK. His research focuses on food systems, sustainability transitions, social movement organizing and knowledge mobilization.

Janneke Bruil is a co-founder, facilitator and researcher at Cultivate!, an international collective that works with social movements to advance healthy and just food systems rooted in agroecology. She is also an active member of Voedsel Anders, the Dutch food sovereignty platform.

M. Jahi Chappell is the Executive Director of SAAFON (the Southeastern African-American Farmers’ Organic Network), the author of the award-winning book Beginning to End Hunger, and Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Agroecology, Water, and Resilience, UK.

Csilla Kiss works as International Research Engagement and Liaison Officer at the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience at Coventry University, UK. She supports collaborative research across the world on socially just and ecologically sustainable food systems.  

Michel Patrick Pimbert is Professor of Agroecology and Food Politics as well as Director of the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience at Coventry University, UK.  


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Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Agroecology Now!

  • Book Subtitle: Transformations Towards More Just and Sustainable Food Systems

  • Authors: Colin Ray Anderson, Janneke Bruil, M. Jahi Chappell, Csilla Kiss, Michel Patrick Pimbert

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61315-0

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Author(s) 2021

  • License: CC BY

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-61314-3Published: 08 December 2020

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-61315-0Published: 07 December 2020

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIV, 199

  • Number of Illustrations: 19 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Environmental Policy, Sociology, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Management, Development Studies, Food Science

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Hardcover Book USD 37.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
Learn about institutional subscriptions