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To learn, understand and apply new theoretical approaches and concepts around the themes of social sustainability, social contestation, active citizenship, societal participation in environmental and economic sustainability. To be able to elaborate on them in exam questions.
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To analyze both academic and societal debates about social sustainability (such as food sovereignty, food justice, de-growth, solidarity economy, etc.), developing an understanding of the arguments at hand and one’s own critical and scientifically sound position. To exercise such skills in a group moderating task.
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To learn to report on the theoretical and ethnographic findings presented in the course in a scientific way (using argumentation, organization, and analysis). To Learn to present research findings and literature analysis in a written paper.
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Sustainability is an increasingly contested terrain. The very meaning of the term ranges from environmental stewardship to the search for technological fixes to the multiple challenges of climate change, demographic pressure, and our current inefficient and wasteful provisioning of energy, food, and natural resources. However, such interpretation of sustainability is limited and it is often contested. A ‘triple bottom line’ is increasingly invoked to point out that sustainability has not only an environmental and economic meaning (by which an enterprise cannot be polluting or running business in the red) but also a social one: our livelihoods and models of development must be not only economically viable and environment-friendly but also socially equitable. Around the world, a variety of citizens’ initiatives express a felt need for sovereignty over matters of sustainability. Alternative food networks, alternative currencies, and models for transition to renewable resources and societal resilience characterize such initiatives.
Anthropologists can describe and contextualize such grassroots understandings of societal innovation and contestation. They do so on the basis of a fine-grained comprehension of the cultural diversity of such understandings, whether due to ethnic, class, gender differences, or age, health, and status. This course offers a theoretical vocabulary to interpret and analyze such social phenomena.
Content-wise, we will focus on constructive efforts to offer alternatives to the current provisioning systems, looking especially at "food activism" as one of the many possible expressions of active citizenship in building social, economic, and environmental resilience. We will focus on the work of social scientists and particularly on ethnographies of alternative provisioning movements in the US and Europe. Provisioning activism (especially in the field of food, but also of energy and commodity provisioning) ranges from Solidarity Economy networks to Community-Supported Agriculture schemes, from Slow Food to Fair Trade, and many other actors and organizations. We will explore emerging networks and innovative social dynamics such as collective buying and direct relationships between producers and consumers, to investigate if and how they change lifestyles and challenge political assumptions about the role of the consumer in contemporary society. Can individuals and communities make an impact upon their provisioning systems? Do local supply chains transform lifestyles and make them more sustainable? Are these emerging economic circuits promoting environmental, economic and social sustainability? Do they provide survival strategies for local agriculture, smallholders, and regional economies? Students will learn about diverse kinds of provisioning activism: practices, theories, and participants. By engaging with the literature and case studies presented, students will build their own critical framework through which to assess the limits, potentials, and results of provisioning activism as one form of sustainable citizenship.
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