Description:
In a context of climate emergency and crisis in rural areas, characterized by abandonment, masculinization and rural depopulation and intensification of agricultural work, alternative movements emerge that advocate a return to the countryside and direct their activity to the agri-food sector under agroecological production. . This project delves into the role of the new peasantry, and specifically of women, in the agri-food transition through agroecological initiatives, incorporating gender analysis in a transversal and specific way. The main objective of the proposal is to incorporate the gender perspective in the analysis of agroecological practices and initiatives implemented by the new emerging peasantry. The project contemplates four specific objectives: (1) study how gender has been addressed and what place women have occupied in the scientific, technical and social movement literature on neo-ruralism, new peasantry and agroecology, (2) review emerging agroecological initiatives in Spain that include innovations in terms of gender and equality between men and women, and analyze how these interact with other innovations (environmental, economic, governance and decision-making, knowledge transmission), (3) document and make visible the experiences of women as active subjects and agents of change in the alternative agri-food systems of the Community of Madrid, including their identity construction processes, their motivations to become agroecological producers, the barriers and stereotypes they encounter and how they overcome them, their ways of access to training and the role of women’s participation in networks in all these aspects, (4) characterize women’s perceptions about the impacts associated with climate change and identify adaptive and mitigation strategies against it. Thus, the main contribution of the project is to incorporate gender analysis in neo-rural, agroecology and climate change studies, as well as generate knowledge about the role that women are playing in emerging agroecological initiatives in Spain. The team is made up of 5 researchers in the early stages of their professional careers, from four entities: three national and one international. The proposal is adapted to the Sustainable Development Goals proposed by the United Nations and is aligned with the European Strategy for Gender Equality and the objectives of the Strategic Plan for Equality between Women and Men 2022-2025 regarding the inclusion of a gender perspective in the investigations. Projects in this direction aim to shed light on gender and equality in areas where the incorporation of the gender perspective is very scarce or incipient. Likewise, the results of the project may be relevant to promote the creation of public policies that facilitate the incorporation of women into the countryside, reduce the current masculinization of the rural environment, recognize the agrarian practices that women have historically developed and ultimately facilitate , the generational change. Making visible the role that women are playing in rural areas in terms of agri-food transition and adaptation and mitigation of climate change encourages the creation of social references that break gender stereotypes.
Financing Entity: Ministry of Equality.
Participating Entities: Autonomous University of Madrid, Leuphana University, Pablo de Olavide University, University of Girona.
RESEARCHERS
Autonomous University of Madrid
Beatriz Vizuete Sáenz de Ugarte
Marina García-Llorente
Other entities:
Isabel Díaz Reviriego (Leuphana University)
Elisa Oteros Rozas (Pablo de Olavide University)
Federica Ravera (University of Girona)
