Publication
Title
Fostering bottom-up actor coalitions for transforming complex rural territorial pathways
Author
Abstract
This contribution presents the perspective on rural transformations to sustainability of the TRUEPATH action-research project in the agrarian frontier in Nicaragua. We start from a ‘territorial pathways’ framework, assembled from diverse theoretical building blocks and empirically grounded in experiences with local development interventions. This framework holds that incumbent and transformative pathways emerge out of the power-laden interactions of the biophysical territory with dominant, respectively innovative configurations of ideas, social structures and ‘rules-in-use’. We emphasize the centrality and political nature of the on-going territorial processes and acknowledge that uncertainty and epistemological plurality are inevitable characteristics of any change process, implying the impossibility to define any particular objective end-point of ‘sustainability’. This has methodological consequences for our potential contributions to transformative change. We reflect upon the ambiguous role of actors (including ourselves) involved in action-research processes and position our expected contributions to transformative change vis-a-vis potentially transformative actor coalitions.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability
Publication
2021
ISSN
1877-3435
DOI
10.1016/J.COSUST.2021.02.001
Volume/pages
49 (2021) , p. 42-49
ISI
000755175200008
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (open access)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 11.05.2021
Last edited 03.10.2024
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