Online Participation and the New Global Democracy: Avaaz, a Case Study

More than 20 years after the Earth Summit of 1992, which introduced important social and ecological principles for policy-making and institutionalised participation, citizens are still largely excluded from decision-making processes that affect them. The internet was expected to change the balance of power in global politics. It has provided a platform for the presentation of alternative discourses and facilitated the organisation of social movements that clamour for a voice in global decision-making. The recent phenomenon of digital mobilisation has enthused the media, politicians, scholars and internet users alike. Could this be global democracy in the making? This article takes a critical look at the current dynamics of online participation, in particular the recent trend of online mass mobilisation, and will analyse the discourse, claims and practices of the web’s largest movement, Avaaz, in an attempt to assess the democratic quality of an organisation that insists it is “people-powered” and “member-driven”.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A global food polity : ecological-democratic quality of the twenty-first century political economy of food

Tese de doutoramento, Sociologia (Sociologia da Ciência e Tecnologia), Universidade de Lisboa, Instituto de Ciências Sociais, 2017Modern food production may be considered an epitome of the paradoxes that humanity is facing as we edge on into the twenty-first century. It is as much the source of problems that plague modern societies as it can be its solution. While more food than ever is produced, more people than ever suffer from some form of malnutrition. Even though agribusiness is overtaking energy as the biggest money maker, small scale farmers and rural populations are still the poorest people in the world. Although food appears cheap, calories are largely outweighing nutrients, creating food deserts in otherwise wealthy countries. Finally, agriculture is potentially as damaging to ecosystems and human health, as it is part of the solution for major social and ecological challenges: biodiversity loss, systemic pollution, gross social and economic inequities, and climate change. The politics of food are a mirror of geopolitics, touching on all the big questions: Grow or degrow? Heed the precautionary principle as heralded in international agreements or continue to "manage" risk? Industrialise and scale up further or switch to a holistic farming practice that places people and the Earth at centre, such as agroecology? Continue to allow the commodification and privatisation of natural resources or protect them as a commons? Allow countries in the Global South to defend their food self-sufficiency or pressure them to produce for global markets? Give consumers a real choice or deny them the right to know? Underlying all these questions are issues of power and conflicts of interest, with some people part of the “haves” and many others of the “have nots”, some scientists embracing ecology whereas others hold on to classical economics, some calling for reform while others prefer a revolution, in other words: with many shades of “green” occupying the wide spectrum of food politics. In my thesis, I contend that a food system that is simultaneously healthy and fair can only be realised in conditions of “substantive” democracy, understood as a polity where social and ecological concerns take precedence over other interests, where common resources are under social control, and all those people affected by decision-making are also the decision-makers. My thesis analyses the democratic and ecological quality of modern food politics to improve understanding of the leveraging factors for achieving such a substantive or food democracy

Food systems in depressed and contested agro-territories: Participatory Rural Appraisal in Odemira, Portugal

Farming regions in Europe, particularly in the South, are increasingly feeling the eects of climate change due to factors such as drought, extreme weather events, and desertification, with severe consequences for food security and food sovereignty. Additionally, decades of rural mismanagement have left countless of these farming territories severely depressed as well as at the mercy of competition for their natural resources. This paper presents and discusses the results of a Participatory Rural Appraisal conducted in the region of Odemira, Southwest Portugal. Rooted in the frameworks of agroecology and food democracy, this mixed methodology aims to support people in multiply stressed agro-territories to diagnose the state of their food systems and agroecosystems from a democratic and ecological point of view and engage local actors in imagining fairer and healthier food futures for their regions. Local food actors were invited to identify and qualify the main problems in the region’s food systems, complemented by an agroecological assessment of farm production systems. The results of the study confirm the status of Odemira as a depressed and contested agro-territory, whose social, economic, and ecological vulnerability is being compounded by the clash between the model of traditional smallholder farming and that of largescale intensive agriculture. The study also shows the potential of sustainable farming practices as well as collaboration between the dierent food actors to support an agroecological transition in the region. However, to jointly realise food democracy and food system sustainability, the tensions resulting from the current political support for hyper-industrialisation and the lack of democratic, institutional, and legal mechanisms available to local actors will need to be addressed head-oninfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pluralising the European energy landscape: Collective renewable energy prosumers and the EU's clean energy vision

To fulfil the European Union's (EU) goal of providing ‘Clean Energy for All Europeans', a transformative shift from centralised, fossil-fuel based systems to decentralised systems based on renewable energy sources (RES) is envisaged. Keen to lead the clean energy transition while embedding technological innovation and elements of justice and equitability into the envisioned ‘Energy Union’, EU Member States need their citizens on board as active participants. Prosumerism or self-consumption is an important part of this citizen involvement. While the new EU regulatory framework for energy now recognises civic-inspired prosumer initiatives such as energy communities, little is known about the full range and diversity of collective actors in renewable energy self-consumption as well as how they engage with the changing energy system. This paper presents an exploratory categorisation of the different collective social actors that produce and consume energy from renewable sources, referred to as ‘collective RES prosumers’, aiming to clarify their participation in the energy landscape. We find six categories with different engagement and needs, which we relate to the EU's current framing of collective energy actors. We recommend fine-tuning policies to the different actors to support a true-to-vision transposition of the recently completed Clean Energy Package (CEP).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Análise de um processo decisório controverso: a co-incineração em Souselas

Trabalho avaliado na unidade “Métodos Interactivos de Participação e Decisão” do Programa Doutoral em Avaliação de Tecnologia na FCT-UNL sob orientação da Profª Lia Vasconcelose do Prof. Nuno Videira. [Relatório entregue em Dezembro de 2011]A controvérsia científica gerada em torno do destino a dar à fração perigosa dos resíduos industriais produzidos em Portugal e a forma como o país lidou com essa situação foi o que mais se salientou no caso de Souselas. Aqui o aspeto dominante da análise centrou-se na implementação de uma solução para o tratamento de resíduos industriais perigosos (RIP). Estes resíduos são resultantes de processos industriais e contém ou estão contaminados por substâncias que, em determinadas concentrações, representam risco para a saúde humana e, ou para o ambiente. O seu tratamento pode ser feito por co-incineração em cimenteiras existentes. Tendo como pano de fundo a análise de um processo controverso ambiental, através da construção da história dos vários atores intervenientes, o caso de Souselas foi o nosso objeto de estudo. Numa primeira fase, foram identificados e caracterizados os atores intervenientes no processo, tem termos de posição, interesses e/ou preocupações. Esta análise foi reforçada com a reunião de elementos de análise documental. Numa segunda fase foi elaborado o historial do processo. Estavam assim reunidas as condições para se fazer uma interpretação do que realmente se passou no processo, identificando que partes do mesmo foram bem e mal sucedidas, e interpretando o porquê desses sucessos e insucessos. Assim, após a identificação das variáveis chave e dos leverage points, foi elaborado um diagrama causal, bem como um esquema de simulação do comportamento de referência no caso de Souselas. Conclui-se que o processo de Souselas foi um marco significativo no que respeita à organização social e espontânea de atores locais em situações de oposição a decisões da administração central com impacto local. Foi também um ponto de viragem na governança segundo o modelo da democracia representativa, cujo carácter tecnocrático e elitista é posto em causa. O caso de Souselas salientou-se como um microcosmo do conflito de interesses que verificamos a nível global, agudizado desde os anos 90 e que opõe governos (e os atores que lhes estão mais próximos) às organizações da sociedade civil, aos restantes cientistas e aos cidadãos em geral

Collective renewable energy prosumers and the promises of the energy union: Taking stock

A key strategy in the European Union’s ambition to establish an ‘Energy Union’ that is not just clean, but also fair, consists of empowering citizens to actively interact with the energy market as self-consumers or prosumers. Although renewable energy sources (RES) prosumerism has been growing for at least a decade, two new EU directives are intended to legitimise and facilitate its expansion. However, little is known about the full range of prosumers against which to measure policy effectiveness. We carried out a documentary study and an online survey in nine EU countries to shed light on the demographics, use of technology, organisation, financing, and motivation as well as perceived hindering and facilitating factors for collective prosumers. We identified several internal and external obstacles to the successful mainstreaming of RES prosumerism, among them a mismatch of policies with the needs of different RES prosumer types, potential organisational weaknesses as well as slow progress in essential reforms such as decentralising energy infrastructures. Our baseline results offer recommendations for the transposition of EU directives into national legislations and suggest avenues for future research in the fields of social, governance, policy, technology, and business models

Análise da realidade agroalimentar em Odemira 2022. Relatório do projecto Diagnóstico Rural Participativo de Odemira

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Introdução. Alerta vermelho, alerta verde: dar forma à transformação ecossocialista

Este número temático é fruto também de muito trabalho de cuidado activista e académico, que (tal como o cuidado doméstico) é invisível, desvalorizado e não reconhecido (Federici, 2019; Barca, 2020a, 2020b).2 Um processo contínuo de motivar, sensibilizar, articular pessoas, conhecimentos, visões de mundo, expectativas e de responder às solicitações adaptando-as ao “possível” e à construção de algo que nos faça sentido colectivamente. Editar este número temático juntando academia e activismo – e em especial numa altura de grandes perturbações e mudanças de rotina da organização da vida causadas pela pandemia – foi uma intensa caminhada recheada de aprendizagem e desafio. Estamos muito gratas a todas as pessoas que, de alguma forma, contribuíram para este resultado colectivo. Contámos com o trabalho incansável de toda a equipa editorial, mas deixamos um especial agradecimento à Ana Sofia Veloso e à Alina Timóteo. Agradecemos também a colaboração de todas/os3 que contribuíram com textos, e que participaram no processo de revisão por pares. É importante reconhecer também o trabalho das investigadoras Begoña Dorronsoro e Paula Sequeiros, que participaram na organização dos Encontros e deram força ao projecto de organização deste número. A revisão da Introdução contou com contributos valiosos de Stefania Barca e Sérgio Pedro, a quem estamos também muito gratas. De entre as pessoas envolvidas muitas são mulheres, que passaram a ter uma ainda maior sobrecarga de trabalho decorrente da actual situação pandémica, dos confinamentos, do acompanhamento de filhas/os e outros familiares, e da necessidade de permanência em casa por precaução ou doença. Tiveram uma maior dificuldade em conciliar o trabalho remunerado (presencial ou remoto) com o trabalho não remunerado e viram-se confrontadas com novas necessidades de cuidados, nomeadamente a nível da saúde mental.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio