𝗥𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 the way citizenship shapes our agricultural and food systems. Engage with critical debates on justice, fairness, and the democratization of food provisioning.
𝗥𝗲𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲 agriculture through the lens of agrarian and food citizenship. Explore how individuals and movements challenge existing systems and build equitable alternatives.
𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗺 agency in shaping the future of food and agriculture. Learn how acts of citizenship drive meaningful change toward fairer and more inclusive systems.
Join us in this graduate course, 𝗗𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗰𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝗔𝗴𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗙𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴: 𝗔 𝗖𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗟𝗲𝗻𝘀 (May 19–23, 2025). Participate in seminars, workshops, and excursions led by leading scholars like Engin Isin and Cristina Grasseni, and contribute to envisioning just and sustainable futures.
SDC@CSPS and RSO@CSPS invite you to Geopolitics of food, nature and development: crises, narratives and challenges
Seminar with dr. Natalia Mamonova – RURALIS, Norway prof. Anja Nygren – University of Helsinki , Finland prof. Mike Goodman – University of Reading, UK
Join us for an engaging seminar featuring three distinguished scholars exploring critical global issues at the intersection of political ecology, food security, and environmental transformations.
Topics and Speakers:
1. ‘From Climate Saviour to Tinfoil Hats and Factory Slop: An Analysis of the Narrative Grammars of Cultured Meat in UK Food and Farming Media’ by prof. Mike Goodman (University of Reading, UK)
In this new paper co-authored by RSO member Mark Vicol, the authors argue that the everyday experience of food insecurity is highly differentiated in village contexts in Myanmar (and the Global South more broadly), and develop an everyday political economy approach as a fruitful way to interrogate and understand this difference. The analysis is based on a large scale mixed-methods study of rural villages in Myanmar’s Central Dry Zone conducted between 2016 and 2019. You can read the paper for free here https://rdcu.be/d5bci, or download here (paywall) https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-024-01506-4.
Postscript: On 1 February 2021 the Myanmar military (Tatmadaw) deposed the democratically elected National League for Democracy government of Myanmar in a coup d’état before returning power to a military junta. At the time of writing, the military junta has thrust Myanmar back into a period of violence, arbitrary arrest, oppression, uncertainty and de facto civil war. Many villages in the Central Dry Zone have been arbitrarily burned by the military, and residents forced to flee, including the villages in this study. Similarly, many Myanmar researchers, academics and activists have been arrested or forced to flee the country. It is likely that the dynamics analyzed in this paper have shifted dramatically and unevenly, however further research remains impossible at present. The authors of the paper are distressed that the people interviewed for this paper are now the bearers of state-sanctioned violence and express our solidarity with those wishing to return democracy to Myanmar.
Farm labourer in Myanmar’s Central Dry Zone. Photo credit: Mark Vicol
Het was niet per se mijn bedoeling. Maar, als iemand die queer is en van het platteland komt (een kippenboerderij om precies te zijn) was het misschien altijd zo bedoeld. Wat ik bedoel is de focus van mijn onderzoeksstage, die ik (met veel dankbaarheid) heb kunnen doen bij RSO. Ik had het voorrecht om gesprekken te mogen hebben met queer farmers in Nederland. Hiermee probeerde ik te begrijpen wat ze doen en waarom ze het doen; wat hen helpt te doen wat ze willen doen en wat hen belemmert; de manieren waarop ze zich beperkt voelen door wie ze zijn en waar ze wonen en werken; en hoe hun omgeving en hun praktijken hen in staat stellen zich vrij te voelen en soms juist datgene te vieren wat hen maakt tot wie ze zijn.
Internship opportunity at Boerengroep & AgroEcology Works
Goals • Improving food sovereignty in Gelderland province • Improving the income of CSA’s (Community Supported Agriculture) • To give people with a low income ( f.e. people who go to the Food Bank), the opportunity to become a CSA member and harvest their own organic, local food • Expand the movement for Solidarity Payment and increase awareness Description of the internship We are looking for a (preferably Dutch speaking) student who is passionate to be involved in the movement for food sovereignty and solidarity payment. You will contact municipalities in the province Gelderland to indicate whether there is a fund available for people with a low income, and explore the opportunities of linking this fund to a CSA membership. You will co nduct research by finding out CSA’s in the surroundings of interested municipalities, communicate with CSA farmers, CSA members and municipalities.
We are open to your own suggestions about the focus on the internship and there are always side projects possible, such as organising an excursion to a farm that uses solidarity payment, working with Boerengroep on other topics that are running, transcribing interviews on solidarity payment, and we encourage you to work 1 or 2 days a week on a farm and get hands on experience.
Background information As solidarity payment becomes more and more used and explored in the Netherlands, we want to dive into the support of municipalities of this agroecological practice. There are several examples of CSA’s that are part of a municipal program in which people with a low income get financially supported to become part of a CSA. In this way, people with a low income benefit from it, obtaining access to organic, local food. Next to it, the CSA will benefit from it, by obtaining more members and thereby a better income. Moreover, this collaboration helps farmers to ask for a fair income, as the responsibility of food accessibility is taken off their shoulders.
Requirements • Passion for social just food systems • Willing to learn how to interact and communicate with diverse parties: municipalities, farmers, CSA members • Understanding and speaking Dutch language is a pre as you need to reach out to municipalities. In case you’re really enthusiastic and don’t speak Dutch, we are open to discuss options. What we offer • A working space in Wageningen • A lot of freedom within the focus of the internship • Opportunity to meet our wide network in the agroecological movement • Working in a passionate team • 2 contact persons; Elske Hageraats (AgroEcology Works), Marcha van Wijk (Stichting Boerengroep) • An office dog How to Apply If you find yourself enthusiastic about the topic of solidarity payment and want to put your effort in making the world a bit more fair, you can contact us by sending an email to st.boerengroep@wur.nl. Please include reasons what you are enthusiastic about and how you would like to shape the topic into something you are passionate about.
Rural Sociology Wageningen University 