Science, movement and practice? Analytical keys to identifying the “social dimension” of agroecology

Abstract

Although it has been agreed that agroecology can be understood as a movement, science and/or practice, this classification is insufficient in sociological terms. We sought to identify the political and ideological content of what is claimed to be the “social dimension of agroecology” by comparing the political discourses of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and La Via Campesina. Using Social Ecology and sociological materialism as analytical-interpretative tools, we identified that the fundamental distinction between the “types” of agroecology can be found in categories of class differentiation, ideology, social organization and the relationship between society and nature. We concluded that today agroecological knowledge can take on both a hegemonic-dominant-central form and a subaltern-peripheral-insurgent form. At the same time as they exclude each other, both mutually reinforce each other, in a dialectical relationship between authority and freedom.