“We grow earth”: performing eco-agrarian citizenship at the semi-periphery of Europe

Abstract

ABSTRACT Peasant studies have long demonstrated the historical contribution of peasants to the stewardship of earth’s commons. We enter the debate on ecological citizenship through a concern for environmental and food justice/sovereignty, two scholarly fields that have rarely been connected despite their theoretical complementarity. We argue that peasants have historically acted as eco-citizens, even if they still have to reclaim their political status as citizens with rights . We focus on the labor practices and advocacy efforts of peasants in Romania and Portugal and analyze their testimonies to identify rural civic engagements as acts of planetary eco-citizenship based on interdependence and care. Building on Wittman´s concept of agrarian citizenship, we look at three dimensions of collective action – peasant agroecology, seed sovereignty and re-localization of food – as political acts which expand prevailing visions of eco-citizenship by de-centering urban and national spaces as the locus of civic engagement and the promotion of transnational political action.