Scaling up agroecology through new municipalism? Promises and pitfalls of experimentation in post-crisis Madrid

Abstract

Scaling up agroecology raises the question of how to relate to institutions. While the institutionalization of agroecology at national and international scales has raised concerns among activists and researchers, municipalities are increasingly envisioned as potential entry points for thinking about the reorganization of food systems. Using participatory and non-participatory observation, semi-directed interviews and documentary research, we explore the encounter between the agroecological movement and new municipalism in Madrid and interrogate the institutionalization of agroecology under the government of Ahora Madrid (2015–2019). The analysis of various arrangements through which agroecology has been operationalized highlights the fragile nature of the advances made as well as the constraints to the full integration of the agroecological project within the local government. These constraints, linked to how people relate to food and agriculture, to the forms of nature promoted by agroecology, and to collaborative approaches, suggest a need to consider the way experiments are lived and embedded in everyday life in order to promote learning and subjectivation processes.