Drawing your attention to a free choice course starting in P6 this academic year – RSO58806 Beyond Sustainability: Theorizing Post- & Anti-Capitalist Food Futures

The course is co-taught by Rural Sociology (Mark Vicol and Oona Morrow), Cultural Geography (Chizu Sato) and Knowledge, Technology and Innovation (Katherine Legun) staff. The focus of the course is a deep dive into radical theories that conceptualize post- and anti-capitalist transitions beyond a technocratic understanding of sustainability.

This course examines radical and critical theories of change that explicitly challenge the dominant capitalist global food system. In the course we seek to problematize and re-theorize often taken for granted categories that the status quo of our food system is built around – sustainability; technology; production; economy; growth; and capitalism itself. Food and food systems are deeply political, shaped by historical structures. Yet, food systems are also shaped by the everyday practices of human and non-human actors. The course therefore does not adopt an a-priori ontology of food system change, but rather explores radical theory across the structure-agency divide.Engaging with key readings and texts, we examine theoretical approaches including Marxist political economy, diverse economies, science and technology studies, more-than-human approaches and feminist political ecology. Each week, we discuss a theoretical approach in relation to four cross-cutting themes of food system change:property; labour; ecology; and technology. In the course we also critically examine the role of the neoliberal university in realizing just food futures. Throughout the course, students are encouraged to discover and develop their own theoretical framework for radical change. In the final week of the course, students are tasked with applying theory to creatively imagine their own post anti-capitalist food future.

Be sure to check out this video featuring Mark Vicol, where he provides additional insights into the course:

Welcome to the blog of the Rural Sociology Group at Wageningen University. Here, we share insights about people, projects, and publications within our group. Our focus lies in the exploration of food provisioning dynamics, agrarian transformations, as well as rural and regional development from a comparative perspective.

August 30, 2023, 13.30-15.00 Claudia Oviedo Rodriguez will defend her PhD-thesis titled The Promised Transformation: Mexican Coffee Policies During the Administration of President López Obrador during a ceremony in the Auditorium of the Omnia building of Wageningen University. The ceremony will be live broadcasted: a link will appear five minutes before the start in the events box (upper left of the screen). See the Abstract below. The full thesis can be downloaded once the embargo has been lifted: clicking its DOI. The paper Incorporation of different types of farmers into different coffee markets is published open access in the Canadian Journal of Development Studies. Contact: claudia.oviedo.rodriguez@outlook.com.

Abstract
This thesis analyses Mexican coffee policies during the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO). It builds on approaches of state theories, agrarian political economy, and global value chain studies, and contributes to debates regarding the role of the state in small farmers’ livelihoods. The thesis is based on a case study analysing implementation of rural policies in the Soconusco region of Chiapas, and contains four empirical and analytical chapters. Chapter 1, “Evolution of Coffee Policies in Mexico”, addresses how the interests of the state and its mechanism of support to coffee farmers evolved from the time this crop was introduced to Mexico until the start of the AMLO administration. Chapter 2, “Incorporation of Different Types of Farmers into Different Coffee Markets”, discusses social differences among beneficiaries of rural programmes and the conditions under which different types farmers are incorporated into the market. Chapter 3, “Arabica, Robusta, and the Narrative of Quality Coffee”, analyses collaboration and conflicts among the state, small-scale farmers, farmer organizations, and the coffee processing industry with respect to formulation and implementation of coffee policies. It also explores the role of quality in the politics of coffee. Chapter 4, “AMLO’s Rural Programmes and Elimination of Intermediaries” discusses achievements and weaknesses of rural programmes, paying particular attention to the AMLO administration’s strategy of bypassing farmer organizations upon providing agricultural subsides. The aim of this thesis is to understand how a radical transformation that has been promised by the Mexican state influences social relationships among the state, small farmers, farmer organizations, and the coffee processing industry.