The Generative Potential of Tensions within Belgian Agroecology

Pierre Marie Stassart, Maarten Crivits, Julie Hermesse, Louis Tessier, Julie Van Damme and Joost Dessein
Additional contact information
Pierre Marie Stassart: Environment Management and Sciences Department, Université de Liège, 6700 Arlon, Belgium
Maarten Crivits: Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (ILVO), 9820 Merelbeke, Belgium
Julie Hermesse: Institute for the Analysis of Change in Contemporary and Historical Societies (IACS), Université de Louvain, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Louis Tessier: Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (ILVO), 9820 Merelbeke, Belgium
Julie Van Damme: Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Université de Louvain, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Joost Dessein: Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (ILVO), 9820 Merelbeke, Belgium

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 6, 1-22

Abstract: Food crises and ecologization have given rise to a Belgian dynamic that does not behave according to the conventional tripod of agroecology: practitioners, social movement, and scientists. Instead of simply recounting the history of Belgian agroecology, the authors trace the history and dynamics in Belgium), a journey along six strands that weave themselves into a Belgian tapestry: Genetically modified crop commandos, a scientific paradigm shift, hybrid expertise opening the Northern route that intersects with a Southern political route, an original non-institutional dynamic in the French-speaking part of Belgium and an institutional initiative that led to a rift in Flanders. In the following section, we identify, emerging from those six strands, four tensions that create a space of innovations, namely, politically differentiated discourses, land access, fair price, and epistemic tensions. We discuss then the generative potential of the 4 tensions and describe the potential of reconfigurations generated by boundaries organizations, food justice and transdisciplinarity. We conclude that the concept of agroecology continues to have transformative potential in Belgium today. However, no one can predict the course of such a largely non-institutional dynamic.

Keywords: agroecology; transition; transdisciplinary; food justice; controversies; peasants (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:6:p:2094-:d:153394

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