Science as a territory in dispute: an analysis of power and paradigms in the conceptualization of agroecology

IF 3.6 2区社会学 Q1 AGRICULTURE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY

Agriculture and Human Values Pub Date : 2025-03-14 DOI:10.1007/s10460-025-10723-2

Jonas Adriaensens, Joost Dessein, Jeroen Adam

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Agroecology is often portrayed as a new paradigm challenging industrial agriculture. What a paradigm or a so-called paradigm shift consists of, is not always clear, however. This paper does not aim to introduce a novel definition of agroecology, but rather to critically interact with the concept of paradigm shift, both through a focus on power relationships within academia and between academia and alternate epistemologies. Our arguments stem from comprehensive ethnographic field work done in Argentina between 2019 and 2024 and are based on the notion that (a) academic spaces are inherently contested spaces and knowledge production does not occur in a vacuum, but in a context shaped by strong economic interests and power dynamics; (b) agroecology is a paradigm in consolidation; and (c) the role of non-Western epistemologies in the production of knowledge on agroecology is often ignored and the relationship between academia and actors involved in these epistemologies is often an unequal one. Through the interrogation of the characterization of agroecology as a “paradigm shift”—often used as a buzzword in academia—we contend that in order for agroecology to be truly emancipatory and not just another frontier of capital accumulation, a transdisciplinary shift is fundamental.

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作为争议领域的科学：农业生态学概念化中的权力与范式分析

农业生态学经常被描绘成一种挑战工业化农业的新范式。然而，一个范式或所谓的范式转移是由什么组成的，并不总是很清楚。本文的目的不是介绍农业生态学的新定义，而是通过关注学术界内部的权力关系以及学术界与其他认识论之间的权力关系，批判性地与范式转换的概念相互作用。我们的论点源于2019年至2024年间在阿根廷进行的全面的民族志实地工作，并基于以下概念：(a)学术空间本质上是有争议的空间，知识生产不是发生在真空中，而是发生在由强大的经济利益和权力动态塑造的背景下；(b)生态农业是整合的范例；(c)非西方认识论在农业生态学知识生产中的作用经常被忽视，学术界和参与这些认识论的行动者之间的关系往往是不平等的。通过对农业生态学作为“范式转变”的特征的质疑——这在学术界经常被用作一个流行语——我们认为，为了使农业生态学真正具有解放性，而不仅仅是资本积累的另一个前沿，跨学科的转变是根本的。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Agriculture and Human Values 农林科学-科学史与科学哲学

CiteScore

6.70

自引率

13.30%

发文量

审稿时长

>36 weeks

期刊介绍： Agriculture and Human Values is the journal of the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society. The Journal, like the Society, is dedicated to an open and free discussion of the values that shape and the structures that underlie current and alternative visions of food and agricultural systems. To this end the Journal publishes interdisciplinary research that critically examines the values, relationships, conflicts and contradictions within contemporary agricultural and food systems and that addresses the impact of agricultural and food related institutions, policies, and practices on human populations, the environment, democratic governance, and social equity.