Summer School for the Food Commons (registration closing May 8th) (Netherlands)

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Adam Calo

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6:09 AM (2 hours ago) 6:09 AM

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Hi All,

Forwarding a description for a Summer School for the Commons that I am involved in. Please share with interested PhD students!

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

From June 15-19^th we will host the Summer School for the Food Commons at Wageningen School of Social Sciences.

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.

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.

This inspiring, place-based, summer camp-esque 3 ECT course blends theory, practice, and politics with engaging lectures, discussions, convivial lunches prepared (sometimes by us!) with local and sustainable ingredients, and sites visits to food commons initiatives across the Netherlands. The course is geared towards PhD students but open to all, and has been greatly enjoyed by teachers, research staff and more senior scholars as well. Curious? Check out the blog about our very first summer school last year

The program is beginning to shape, and we wanted to share a taste of what we have planned so far….

We are extremely honored that David Bollier of the Schumacher Center for a new Economics and Commons Strategy Group will join us with Adam Calo for our field visit to the Biesterhof, a commons based regenerative farm that was developed on commoned land via Land von Ons, and has evolved into a cooperative enterprise and financial commons. There our colleague and farmer Howard Koster will give us a tour and feed us lunch from the farm. The theme of the day is Land, and we will discuss commoning land on various property regimes, relational finance, and bioregionalism. The next day we will be in Amsterdam at the Stadboerderij Ostdorp, where we will engage with local policy makers and practitioners who are putting commons into action to grow community economies, we will also welcome food commons experts Tomaso Ferrando and Ying Tzu Lin. The remaining days we will have our classes at farms, food forests, seed banks, community kitchens and gardens in and around Wageningen.

In case you have questions or would like to view the course guide from last year, please get in touch.

Registration remains open until May 8^th.

Dr. Oona Morrow (she/her)

Associate Professor in Food Sociology

Rural Sociology Group

Wageningen University & Research

Hollandseweg 1 | 6706 KN | Wageningen

oona....@wur.nl

Adam Calo

Assistant Professor of Environmental Governance and Politics

Radboud University, Netherlands

@adamcalo