Periodic Reporting for period 4 - UNMAKING (Societal transformation to sustainability through the unmaking of capitalism? A comparative study of radical grassroots innovations in Europe)
Reporting period: 2023-08-01 to 2024-01-31
Motivation
Modern capitalist societies engage in destructive modes of interaction with the natural environment. The notion of sustainable development was proposed in the 1990s as an attempt to resolve such tension, but improvement has been limited. Destructive interaction with the natural environment is now recognized not simply as a remediable side effect of modern capitalist societies, but instead as one of their characterizing traits. The need for a societal transformation to sustainability is increasingly accepted. However, the question of how a societal transformation to sustainability can actually come about is still open. Grassroots initiatives may hold the potential to transform society toward sustainability, but their capacity to generate such transformation is unclear.
What is ‘unmaking’?
The concept of unmaking, which was originally proposed in this project, denotes multilevel processes to deliberately ‘make space’ for alternatives that are incompatible with capitalist socioecological relations. They can vary from open confrontation to ‘exit’ from the dominant system. For example, members of the global Transition Towns Movement undertake a so-called ‘inner transition’ to liberate themselves from habitual and addictive tendencies, and enable harmonious engagement with people and nature. Urban gardeners physically deconstruct spaces to give them new meaning and innovative food producing uses. The ecovillage of Lammas lobbied the Welsh Government to reject standard land use classifications and change planning legislation, which permitted access to land for self-built ecohousing. Fordhall farm in England refused economic growth imperatives, which created the need for innovative ‘popular shareholding’ governance arrangements
Primary research question
To what extent, under what conditions and through what processes do grassroots initiatives unmake modern, capitalist institutions and practices?
Modern capitalist societies engage in destructive modes of interaction with the natural environment. The notion of sustainable development was proposed in the 1990s as an attempt to resolve such tension, but improvement has been limited. Destructive interaction with the natural environment is now recognized not simply as a remediable side effect of modern capitalist societies, but instead as one of their characterizing traits. The need for a societal transformation to sustainability is increasingly accepted. However, the question of how a societal transformation to sustainability can actually come about is still open. Grassroots initiatives may hold the potential to transform society toward sustainability, but their capacity to generate such transformation is unclear.
What is ‘unmaking’?
The concept of unmaking, which was originally proposed in this project, denotes multilevel processes to deliberately ‘make space’ for alternatives that are incompatible with capitalist socioecological relations. They can vary from open confrontation to ‘exit’ from the dominant system. For example, members of the global Transition Towns Movement undertake a so-called ‘inner transition’ to liberate themselves from habitual and addictive tendencies, and enable harmonious engagement with people and nature. Urban gardeners physically deconstruct spaces to give them new meaning and innovative food producing uses. The ecovillage of Lammas lobbied the Welsh Government to reject standard land use classifications and change planning legislation, which permitted access to land for self-built ecohousing. Fordhall farm in England refused economic growth imperatives, which created the need for innovative ‘popular shareholding’ governance arrangements
Primary research question
To what extent, under what conditions and through what processes do grassroots initiatives unmake modern, capitalist institutions and practices?
Achievements
The project successfully delivered an insightful investigation of the socio-cognitive and socio-political processes through which agrifood grassroots initiatives unmake environmentally disruptive institutions and practices that are deeply ingrained in capitalist societies. It did so by first developing a novel, integrative theoretical perspective (Feola, 2019; Feola et al., 2021; Feola, under review), which informed empirical research across case studies of agrifood grassroots initiatives in Italy, Germany and Portugal. In turn, the empirical work also contributed to further theoretical development, among which a framework for the political economic analysis of deliberate destabilization in sustainability transitions (van Oers et al., 2021), a theoretical framework on democratic praxis (Smessaert and Feola, 2023), the development of concepts of power and empowerment for the analysis of grassroots initiatives (Raj et al., 2022; 2024), the concept of unlearning for sustainability transitions (van Oers et al., 2023), and a groundbreaking research agenda on degrowth in agrifood systems (Spanier and Feola, 2022; Guerrero Lara et al., 2023; Spanier-Guerrero Lara and Feola, 2024).
Resonance and outreach
The theoretical and empirical contribution made by the project has been very well-received by the academic community, as testified by the high and growing number of citations, the invited talks, and the invitations to participate in scientific workshops and research collaborations.
The project has produced 2 PhD theses, while a third one is being defended before the end of 2024. The project also produced several publications in highly-ranked international peer-reviewed journals, countless presentations at conferences and other scientific events, invited talks and lectures, many of which for a lay audience, and substantial engagement with knowledge utilization through a broad and diverse range of activities targeting both the interested general public, and members of agrifood grassroots initiatives more specifically (e.g. at food sustainability festivals, public symposia, through blog posts and podcasts etc.).
The project successfully delivered an insightful investigation of the socio-cognitive and socio-political processes through which agrifood grassroots initiatives unmake environmentally disruptive institutions and practices that are deeply ingrained in capitalist societies. It did so by first developing a novel, integrative theoretical perspective (Feola, 2019; Feola et al., 2021; Feola, under review), which informed empirical research across case studies of agrifood grassroots initiatives in Italy, Germany and Portugal. In turn, the empirical work also contributed to further theoretical development, among which a framework for the political economic analysis of deliberate destabilization in sustainability transitions (van Oers et al., 2021), a theoretical framework on democratic praxis (Smessaert and Feola, 2023), the development of concepts of power and empowerment for the analysis of grassroots initiatives (Raj et al., 2022; 2024), the concept of unlearning for sustainability transitions (van Oers et al., 2023), and a groundbreaking research agenda on degrowth in agrifood systems (Spanier and Feola, 2022; Guerrero Lara et al., 2023; Spanier-Guerrero Lara and Feola, 2024).
Resonance and outreach
The theoretical and empirical contribution made by the project has been very well-received by the academic community, as testified by the high and growing number of citations, the invited talks, and the invitations to participate in scientific workshops and research collaborations.
The project has produced 2 PhD theses, while a third one is being defended before the end of 2024. The project also produced several publications in highly-ranked international peer-reviewed journals, countless presentations at conferences and other scientific events, invited talks and lectures, many of which for a lay audience, and substantial engagement with knowledge utilization through a broad and diverse range of activities targeting both the interested general public, and members of agrifood grassroots initiatives more specifically (e.g. at food sustainability festivals, public symposia, through blog posts and podcasts etc.).
This project has produced many empirical insights and theoretical contributions.
Nonetheless, the primary and overall project contribution to theory is the development of a novel interdisciplinary perspective on grassroots initiatives for sustainability transformation. Theorizations of sustainability transformation had for long foregrounded the construction (making) of novel socioecological relations; however, they generally have obscured processes of deliberate deconstruction (unmaking) of existing, unsustainable ones. Amidst ever more compelling evidence of the simultaneous unsustainability and continued reproduction of capitalist modernity, it is misguided to assume that transformation can happen by the mere construction of supposed ‘solutions’, be they technological, social or cultural. We rather need to better understand whether and how existing institutions, forms of knowledge, practices, imaginaries, power structures, and human-non-human relations can be deconstructed at the service of sustainability transformation. This project demonstrated the usefulness of a lens that attends to processes of making and unmaking in sustainability transformations through an analysis of ongoing agrifood sustainability transformations. The project identified processes of unmaking of capitalism in agrifood grassroots initiatives and demonstrated how they are concretely entangled in the construction of post-capitalist realities. This project thus opens a research agenda on sustainability transformation that is sensitive to and theoretically equipped for the analysis of transformation as a multifaceted, multilevel process that entails the deconstruction of capitalist modernity and the construction of post-capitalist realities. Central to this agenda is a plural engagement with theories of social change from across the social sciences and humanities, which had not previously been mobilized for this endeavor.
Nonetheless, the primary and overall project contribution to theory is the development of a novel interdisciplinary perspective on grassroots initiatives for sustainability transformation. Theorizations of sustainability transformation had for long foregrounded the construction (making) of novel socioecological relations; however, they generally have obscured processes of deliberate deconstruction (unmaking) of existing, unsustainable ones. Amidst ever more compelling evidence of the simultaneous unsustainability and continued reproduction of capitalist modernity, it is misguided to assume that transformation can happen by the mere construction of supposed ‘solutions’, be they technological, social or cultural. We rather need to better understand whether and how existing institutions, forms of knowledge, practices, imaginaries, power structures, and human-non-human relations can be deconstructed at the service of sustainability transformation. This project demonstrated the usefulness of a lens that attends to processes of making and unmaking in sustainability transformations through an analysis of ongoing agrifood sustainability transformations. The project identified processes of unmaking of capitalism in agrifood grassroots initiatives and demonstrated how they are concretely entangled in the construction of post-capitalist realities. This project thus opens a research agenda on sustainability transformation that is sensitive to and theoretically equipped for the analysis of transformation as a multifaceted, multilevel process that entails the deconstruction of capitalist modernity and the construction of post-capitalist realities. Central to this agenda is a plural engagement with theories of social change from across the social sciences and humanities, which had not previously been mobilized for this endeavor.