Course
Summer School for the Food Commons - 3 ECTS
The political, legal, and academic calls for governing food and its varied material and cultural components as a commons rather than a commodity are growing in importance and recognition. Food commons are increasingly recognized as essential to a number of interconnected struggles for the right to food, food security, food sovereignty, food justice, and degrowth. At the same time, food commons are often overlooked as relics of a distant past, doomed to enclosure, or too messy to govern. Together we will investigate why this is the case, and identify opportunities for research and action.
Registration
Intensive summer school with lecturers and several excursions to food commons across the Netherlands!
This five day intensive summer school introduces students to inspiring case studies of actually existing food commons through field visits and lectures, while testing the relevance of different theoretical and methodological approaches. Together we will explore and apply different theoretical perspectives to understand different types of food commons – ranging from food and seeds, to soil and land, to food knowledge and public health – in diverse rural and urban contexts. We will draw on transdisciplinary expertise in food studies, law and legal studies, sociology and geography, and community economies, to develop a relational, culturally, and materially grounded approach to understanding food and food systems as commons. Finally we will experiment with a variety of arts-based and action-research methods for growing the food commons.
Learning outcomes:
After successful completion participants are expected to be able to:
- Identify existing, emerging, and potential food commons in your life and your research
- Evaluate different theoretical approaches for making sense of food commons
- Locate food commons approaches in longer histories of commons scholarship and activism
- Design a creative research or practice intervention for the food commons
- Formulate your own answer to the question: how do we transition from a commons extractive food system to commons regenerative food systems?
- Engage in active learning, critical and reparative thinking, experimentation and play, and academic debate
Activities:
The course offers combination of different educational activities:
- Lectures to introduce and explain new dynamics and theoretical approaches
- Self-study to further develop the understanding of the new dynamics and theoretical approaches discussed.
- Site visits and excursions to local food commons in the Netherlands
Assignments that address food commons regarding the new dynamics and theoretical approaches and apply these to the student’s own research:
- a. Personal statement prior to course.
- b. Reflection paper prior to class sessions
- c. Revised paper following class sessions
- d. Designing a creative intervention/innovation for the food commons
- Plenary discussions of literature and assignments.
Target group and min/max number of participants:
PhD candidates (min: 10 - max 20) from across the social and environmental sciences, especially critical agri-food studies, sociology, geography, anthropology, law, public health, and political science, with an interest in the food commons. In this course, we will move between close reading of texts, workshops, lectures, and discussion. Students following this course will not only learn about food commons in theory and practice, they will also engage in commoning practices within the context of the course, and experiment with creative and theoretically informed interventions and innovations that can contribute to the food commons.
Students participating in this course are expected to write a short statement (max. 1 page A4) to: i) introduce who they are in terms of disciplinary background and education ii); outline how they (intend to) engage with food commons (e.g. law, policy, conviviality, care, more-than-human perspectives, etc. etc. ); iii) outline questions or issues on these themes with which they would like to engage; and iv) offer expectations from the course.
Assumed prior knowledge:
Some knowledge of food systems and commons
Assessment:
Person Statement – pass/fail
Reflection papers – 100%
Creative intervention/innovation – pass/fail
Course fee:
| WGS PhD's with TSP | 350 euro |
| a) All other PhD candidates b) Postdocs and staff of the above mentioned Graduate Schools | 740 euro |
| All others | 1050 euro |
Cancellation conditions
Participants can cancel their registration free of charge 1 month before the course starts. A cancellation fee of 100% applies if a participant cancels his/her registration less than 1 month prior to the start of the course.
The organisers have the right to cancel the course no later than one month before the planned course start date in the case that the number of registrations does not reach the minimum.
The participants will be notified of any changes at their e-mail addresses.