Towards Relational Approaches in Education for Sustainable Agrifood Systems: A qualitative and theoretical perspective on educational practices, sustainable agrifood systems and more-than-human ontologies

This PhD dissertation examines educational practices for sustainable agrifood systems, and the ambivalences associated with educating people in complex concepts and issues. This is done through a qualitative and theoretical perspective on educational practices, sustainable agrifood systems and more-than-human ontologies grounded in Science and Technology Studies (STS). The research is conducted in connection to an EU Horizon 2020 project under the EU Commissions program called the NextFOOD project.
This research builds on the acknowledgement of the urgency to respond to the sustainability crises that the world is facing today and in the future. The agrifood system that produces food for the world’s population has reached new levels of complexity with great environmental and ecological damage and social consequences affecting humans and non-humans all over the world. Education has been highlighted as one part of the pathway towards more sustainable futures with an emphasis on more practice-based learning approaches to better understand and learn about the complex challenges of the agrifood system.
In this context, this PhD investigates different international master courses, and the role of values and hidden knowledge practices in situated learning situations. It suggests a relational approach involving human and non-human actors, care and values as unavoidable parts of the knowledge production in the educational situations. Besides this, it introduces new ways of approaching ‘knowledge’ about sustainable agrifood systems that makes room for heterogeneity, values, emotions, local stories and sensorial experiences.