I conduct research on socioecological change in modern societies. I am interested in the social-, cultural- and political-ecological (i) conditions, (ii) mechanisms, and (iii) consequences of sustainability transformations. Specifically, I am primarily interested in grassroots and community-led transformations towards social and economic models that, not depending on perpetual economic growth, aim to sustain human wellbeing and the ecological basis of life. My research has a geographical focus on Europe and Latin America (especially Colombia). Thematically, I am interested in food systems and the climate crisis.

My past and present research agenda revolves around the following research lines:

• imaginaries and discourses of post-growth/post-capitalist societies (e.g., Feola and Jaworska, 2019; Büscher et al., 2021; Feola et al., 2023; Guerrero Lara et al., 2023);

• the prefiguration of post-growth/post-capitalist societies (e.g., Feola and Nunes, 2014; Feola and Butt, 2017; Feola, 2019; Poças et al., 2021; van Oers et al., 2023);

• the impacts of grassroots initiatives and social movements struggling sustainability, especially for post-growth/post-capitalist societies (e.g., Nicolosi et al., in press; Henfrey et al., 2023; Spanier-Guerrero Lara and Feola, 2024);

• the politics and governance of sustainability and/or post-growth/post-capitalist transformation (e.g., Oliver et al., 2018; Feola et al., 2019; van Oers et al., 2021; Frank et al., 2024; Patterson et al., 2024);

• advancing sustainability transition/transformation theories (e.g., Feola, 2015; Feola 2020; Feola et al., 2021; Smessaert and Feola, 2023). 

CURRENT PROJECTS

Societal transformation to sustainability through the unmaking of capitalism? A comparative study of radical grassroots innovations

The research programme's website can be found here.

This is a programme that consists of two separate, but parallel projects funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) through a Vidi Research Grant, and by the European Research Council through a Starting Grant, respectively. 

Duration and funding: 2019-2023, NWO Vidi Research Grant; 2019-2024, ERC Starting Grant

Motivation
Modern capitalist societies engage in destructive modes of interaction with the natural environment. The notion of sustainable development was proposed in the 1990s as an attempt to resolve such tension, but improvement has been limited. Destructive interaction with the natural environment is now recognized not simply as a remediable side effect of modern capitalist societies, but instead as one of their characterizing traits. The need for a societal transformation to sustainability is increasingly accepted. However, the question of how a societal transformation to sustainability can actually come about is still open. Grassroots initiatives may hold the potential to transform society toward sustainability, but their capacity to generate such transformation is unclear.
Primary research question
To what extent, under what conditions and through what processes grassroots initiatives unmake modern, capitalist institutions and practices?

What is ‘unmaking’?
The concept of unmaking, which was originally proposed in this programme, denotes multilevel processes to deliberately ‘make space’ for alternatives that are incompatible with capitalist socioecological configurations. They can vary from open confrontation to ‘exit’ from the dominant system.
For example, members of the global Transition Towns Movement undertake a so-called ‘inner transition’ to liberate themselves from habitual and addictive tendencies, and enable harmonious engagement with people and nature. Urban gardeners physically deconstruct spaces to give them new meaning and innovative food producing uses. The ecovillage of Lammas lobbied the Welsh Government to reject standard land use classifications and change planning legislation, which permitted access to land for self-built ecohousing. Fordhall farm in England refused economic growth imperatives, which created the need for innovative ‘popular shareholding’ governance arrangements

Expected results
This research comparatively studies grassroots initiatives in agriculture to
1. identify and categorize mechanisms of unmaking that are involved in radical grassroots initiatives
2. explain whether and how unmaking creates space for alternatives from the individual to the social-ecological level
3. understand mechanisms of unmaking at different levels interplay
4. explain why unmaking may result in different outcomes in the face of different types of capitalism
5. develop a theory of unmaking in societal transformation to sustainability.

Case studies and methods
UNMAKING focuses on whether and how capitalism is already being unmade by two types of grassroots innovation informed by visions of societal transformation and holding the potential to lead such transformation: permaculture and community supported agriculture.
A sample of permaculture and community supported agriculture initiatives will be studied over five years in Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain. The research explores causality in complex social-ecological systems comparing narratives across selected case studies. To do so, it combines Event Structure Analysis and Qualitative Comparative Analysis.

Governing sustainable agri-food systems: critical geographies of peri-urban agriculture and food sovereignty in Sogamoso, Colombia.

See: Project website.

Duration: 2017-2019. Funding: Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) Environment and Sustainability Grant No. 01/17.

Motivation

The peace process between the Colombian government and the rebel group FARC, which culminated in the peace agreement signed by both parties in 2016, has opened new possibilities for the future of sustainable agricultural development in Colombia. Yet, while the peace process is a window of opportunity, different and incompatible visions of sustainable rural development exist. Successive governments have pursued a strong liberalization and modernization agenda that has exposed rural and urban spaces to global competition and further challenges, including food prices volatility. On the other hand, peasant, environmental, indigenous and afro-Colombian grassroots movements have proposed alternative visions of sustainable agri-food systems and these have begun to the put into practice in cities and their surrounding territories across Colombia.
The most prominent vision emerging from such mobilization is that of Territorios Agroalimentarios (agri-food territories) (CNA, 2015). The principles informing Territorios Agroalimetarios are those of sustainability, food sovereignty, respect for and protection of cultural and agro-ecological diversity, and holistic, human-environment visions of territories and the commons. Territorios Agroalimentarios has has informed the development of peri-urban agriculture in and around urban spaces in efforts to not just directly challenge conventional models of agri-food networks but also create novel territorial practices in the pursuit of sustainable and culturally-diverse forms of food sovereignty. Thus, peri-urban agriculture—an historically under-studied yet vitally important and socially significant component to food sovereignty—is front and centre in the grassroots struggles for not just food sovereignty but also the peace process which arguably had sustainable agricultural at its core.
Yet, while Territorios Agroalimentarios’s initial successes to promote peri-urban agriculture in and around cities such as Sogamoso are important—and under proposed study in this project—these successes have come up against competing discourses from the City Councils in and around Sogamoso. There is a need, in order to build upon and further existing peace processes, to develop novel spaces of discussion, negotiation and participation around which a shared vision of sustainable food systems in peri-urban and urban settings might be developed.

Aims

1. Investigate and understand the impacts of PUA on food sovereignty and sustainable food systems outcomes;
2. Through participatory research methods, create novel negotiating spaces to build on and expand the existing grassroots efforts;
3. At a general level, explore the contributions of PUA systems to sustainable food systems, food sovereignty, biological and cultural diversity, poverty reduction and social inclusion;
4. Contribute to debates on the expanding geographies of food sovereignty and its theorisations.

Objectives

• Characterizing and analysing PUA systems in Sogamoso;
• Assessing the social, cultural, economic and ecological benefits of different forms of PUA within the study area;
• Understanding competing and converging discourses on PUA, rural development, food sovereignty and sustainable development in Sogamoso;
• Through targeted data collection, discussions and participatory meetings with local authorities, farmers, social movement representatives and local research partners, chart out new policy directions and possibilities, urban planning processes and further research initiatives to support and expand the benefits of PUA;
• Disseminating the project’s results through a diverse set of means, thereby accentuating the on the ground and potentially international impacts of this grassroots sustainable food intervention.

Anders Utrecht: Postcapitalist mapping for sustainable futures in the Utrecht Region

See: project website.

This project aims to develop a network that will give visibility and strengthen the cooperation of the initiatives working towards ecological sustainability and social change in the Utrecht Region.

PREVIOUS PROJECTS (selected)

The geography of grassroots innovations for sustainability.

See here  and here for more details and publications.

Duration: 2017-2019. Funding: various sources.

Climate Change, Water Resources and Food Security in Kazakhstan

Duration: 2015-2017. Funding: Newton Fund, Institutional Links Programme.

Adaptation between resilience and transformation. A Colombian case study 

See: short description, summary of results and publications here.

Duration: 2013-2015. Funding: British Academy/Leverhulme Trust Small Research Grant.