Emerging Agro-Rural Complexities in Occident Mexico: Approach from Sustainability Science and Transdisciplinarity

Diego Subercaseaux, Ana I. Moreno-Calles, Marta Astier and José de Jesús Hernández L.
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Diego Subercaseaux: Posgraduate in Sustainability Science, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico (UNAM), Morelia 58190, Mexico
Ana I. Moreno-Calles: National School of Higher Studies, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico (UNAM), Morelia 58190, Mexico
Marta Astier: Center for Research in Environmental Geography, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico (UNAM), Morelia 58190, Mexico
José de Jesús Hernández L.: Center of Studies in Human Geography, El Colegio de Michoacán, La Piedad 59379, Mexico

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 6, 1-28

Abstract: Rural and agricultural modernization and industrialization (RAMI) increased in recent decades in a multiscalar way. RAMI has implied the rural landscape transformation through the arrival of industrial models. These processes have not been linear or unidirectional; heterogeneities, opposites, mosaics, hybridizations, new interactions, problems, and tensions, between traditional and industrial agriculture and other agriculture types, have emerged. We tackle and problematized the RAMI processes, which is a complex and a real-world problem, from Sustainability Science (SS) and transdisciplinarity. Thus, considering studies and experiences in different rural areas in the world, an epistemological positioning is presented, which allows overcoming scientific frontiers and relating it to rural sustainability. We delve into the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin (LPB), Mexico, an area with a strong agricultural tradition (“milpa” systems). Recently, the presence of industrial agriculture (mainly avocado monoculture and berry greenhouses) has increased, occurring the coexistence between peasant-entrepreneurs, indigenous–non-indigenous, and new-rural. The article aims to understand comprehensively the emerging complexities from the RAMI, deepening LPB’s real case. The epistemological approach developed allow us to conceive the interaction and possible complementation between traditional agriculture, industrial agriculture and other agriculture types, and the emergence of an included middle that corresponds to an “emerging complexity”. Finally, relevant topics and questions are highlighted.

Keywords: rural and agricultural modernization and industrialization; peasant agriculture; industrial agriculture; rurality; traditional knowledge; epistemology; complexity; Lake Pátzcuaro Basin; Michoacán; Purépecha people (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:6:p:3257-:d:517772

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