Open Call Papers
Operating principles for collective scholar-activism
Early insights from the Agroecology Research-Action Collective
Maywa Montenegro de WitUniversity of California Santa Cruz https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8975-5316
Annie ShattuckUniversity of Indiana, Bloomington
Alastair IlesUniversity of California, Berkeley https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8719-5557
Garrett Graddy-LovelaceAmerican University
Antonio Roman-AlcaláInternational Institute for Social Studies https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9209-8786
M. Jahi ChappellSoutheastern African American Farmers’ Organic Network (SAAFON)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2021.102.022
Keywords: Scholar-Activism, Agroecology, Participatory Action Research, Community-Based Research, Food Systems, Food Sovereignty
ABSTRACT
Scholar-activism is attractive to researchers who want not just to learn about the world, but about how to change that world. Agri-food studies have experienced a surge in the past two decades in researchers who see closer ties to social movements as key to food systems change. Yet to date, much scholar-activism depends on individually negotiated researcher-movement relationships, which may or may not be sustained long term and where knowledge can remain siloed. The Agroecology Research-Action Collective (ARC) seeks something different. Born of a desire to subordinate scholarship for scholarship’s sake to the needs and exigencies of movements, ARC envisages collective processes, horizontal non-exploitative learning among ourselves and with movements, and mechanisms for multidirectional accountability. This reflective essay is the story of how ARC set out to “get our house in order”: to organize ourselves as scholars committed to systematizing more accountable and reciprocal relationships with frontline communities and grassroots movements. We first share the Principles & Protocols that guide our actions and the process through which we developed them. We then discuss two interconnected arenas in which ARC is developing a community of practice guided by the Principles & Protocols. The first arena is through integrating participatory education into our everyday teaching and mentoring. The second arena is working to achieve broader social and institutional change by sharing methods and strategies for mobilizing resources and legitimating knowledge, both old and new.
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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES
Maywa Montenegro de Wit, University of California Santa Cruz
At the time of the research, Dr. Montenegro de Wit was University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Human Ecology, University of California, Davis. Montenegro de Wit is now Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Studies, University of California Santa Cruz.
Annie Shattuck, University of Indiana, Bloomington
Assistant Professor, Department of Geography
Alastair Iles, University of California, Berkeley
Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
Garrett Graddy-Lovelace, American University
Associate Professor, School of International Service
M. Jahi Chappell, Southeastern African American Farmers’ Organic Network (SAAFON)
Executive Director
FULL ARTICLE (PDF)
PUBLISHED
2021-02-11
HOW TO CITE
Montenegro de Wit, M., Shattuck, A., Iles, A., Graddy-Lovelace, G., Roman-Alcalá, A., & Chappell, M. J. (2021). Operating principles for collective scholar-activism: Early insights from the Agroecology Research-Action Collective. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 10(2), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2021.102.022
More Citation Formats
ISSUE
Vol 10 No 2 (2021): Special Issue: The Impact of COVID-19 on the Food System
SECTION
Open Call Papers
Copyright (c) 2021 The Authors
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The copyright to all content published in JAFSCD belongs to the author(s). It is licensed as CC BY 4.0. This license determines how you may reprint, copy, distribute, or otherwise share JAFSCD content.
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