Agroecology as a Practice-Based Tool for Peacebuilding in Fragile Environments? Three Stories from Rural Zimbabwe

Georgina Mcallister,Julia Wright

doi:10.3390/su11030790

Abstract

This paper investigates how transformative agroecology may contribute to the critical reframing of social–ecological relationships, and how this might in turn create a foundation for bottom-up peace formation in fragile environments, within which rural communities are often habituated to conditions of control, violence and mistrust that drive social division. Here, we consider the value of social farming in reforging relationships through which social–ecological change may be negotiated and alternative sources of agency and identity may be cultivated in order to transcend entrenched patterns of division. Three case studies are presented, drawing on primary data from participatory action research with farming communities in Zimbabwe that also consider the differential attitudes and experiences of agroecological and conventional farmers. The study finds that, where agroecological farmers were exposed to more plural ways of thinking, being and acting together, levels of autonomy from coercive structures were increasing, as were both a sense of efficacy and optimism to effect social–ecological change. This was particularly pronounced where collective processes to shape physical landscapes were forging bonds of solidarity, reciprocity and trust. In these cases, agroecological farmers were increasingly able to envisage a future together shaped by collective endeavour, evidenced by changing attitudes and relationships with one another and their environment. The paper explores the extent to which farmers in each location were able to instrumentalise resilience and agency for everyday peace, and the variances found according to historical context and local power dynamics that represent barriers to change.

Highlights

This paper investigates the transformative potential of agroecology located in fragile post-colonial environments, where nation-building was often born out of violence and social upheaval
Violent environments are described as ‘site-specific phenomena rooted in local histories and societies, yet connected to larger processes of material transformation and power relations.’ [11] (p. 25)
Occurring simultaneously and in parallel with more formal processes, representing a ‘contextual legitimacy’ which might be more intrinsically stable [32], these processes, while perhaps never entirely free of power reproduction, serve as a moderating role between a liberal top-down homogenising technocracy, and the exclusionary tendencies of the customary. While this is the first time that agroecology has been brought together with peacebuilding, this study is based on only three case studies in a single country, representing a snapshot in time, and with relatively small cohorts of farmers

Summary

Introduction

This paper investigates the transformative potential of agroecology located in fragile post-colonial environments, where nation-building was often born out of violence and social upheaval. The victors of an unstable and negative peace have manufactured consent through coercive social, economic and/or political strategies These strategies suppress pluralism, which is seen as antithetical to the singular vision of nation, growth and development. What emerges from such periods of control and division reaches into every aspect of social life, forming complex layers of popular resistance, compliance, apathy, activism and nostalgia. This is an environment where ‘tyrannical regimes frequently manipulated populations by creating isolation, separating people from each other, crushing their capacity for critical thinking, and reducing their power to resist’ [1] Violent environments are described as ‘site-specific phenomena rooted in local histories and societies, yet connected to larger processes of material transformation and power relations.’ [11] (p. 25)

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