The political imaginaries of blockchain projects: discerning the expressions of an emerging ecosystem

There is a wealth of information, hype around, and research into blockchain’s ‘disruptive’ and ‘transformative’ potential concerning every industry. However, there is an absence of scholarly attention given to identifying and analyzing the political premises and consequences of blockchain projects. Through digital ethnography and participatory action research, this article shows how blockchain experiments personify ‘prefigurative politics’ by design: they embody the politics and power structures which they want to enable in society. By showing how these prefigurative embodiments are informed and determined by the underlying political imaginaries, the article proposes a basic typology of blockchain projects. Furthermore, it outlines a frame to question, cluster, and analyze the expressions of political imaginaries intrinsic to the design and operationalization of blockchain projects on three analytic levels: users, intermediaries, and institutions.</p

Prefigurative Post-Politics as Strategy:The Case of Government-Led Blockchain Projects

Critically engaging with literature on post-politics, blockchain and algorithmic governance, and drawing also on knowledge gained from undertaking a three-year empirical study, the purpose of this article is to better understand the transformative capacity of government-led blockchain projects. Analysis of a diversity of empirical material, which was guided by a digital ethnography approach, is used to support the furthering of the existing debate on the nature of the post-political as a condition and/or strategy. Through these theoretical and empirical explorations, the article concludes that while the post-political represents a contingent political strategy by governmental actors, it could potentially impose an algorithmically enforced post-political ‘condition’ for the citizen. It is argued that the design, features and mechanisms of government-led projects are deliberately and strategically used to delimit a citizens’ political agency. In order to address this scenario, we argue that there is a need not only to analyse and contribute to the algorithmic design of blockchain projects (i.e. the affordances and constraints they set), but also to the metapolitical narrative underpinning them (i.e. the political imaginaries underlying the various government-led projects)

Animal breeding in organic farming

After a general introduction into the available breeding techniques for animal breeding and an overview of the organic principles, points for discussion are identified and scenario's for organically accepted breeding methods are discussed

Vision of breeding for organic agriculture

This report describes the results of research into the vision of breeding systems within organic agriculture in the Netherlands. The purpose of the research was to arrive at a vision for breeding in organic agriculture by means of interviews and discussions with organic livestock farmers and social organisations. The research was prompted by the fact that, as things stand, organic livestock farmers generally have to rely on the conventional breeding supply. Neither the breeding method not the animal type produced meet the requirements of organic agriculture. Interest in breeding has increased because organic agriculture is expanding, and as yet too little attention has been paid to the development of specific organic breeding programmes and associated legislation. In recent decades conventional agriculture and breeding have tended more and more towards industrialisation and uniformity with breeding becoming a multinational concern. The breeding organisations have no incentive at present to provide special services for organic agriculture as the market is too small and the costs are too high. Taking the current breeding situation as the starting point, a number of scenarios are described for each animal sector which could gradually lead to a system of breeding which is more organic both in its aims and in the chain-based approach. The naturalness of the breeding techniques is an important factor in considering the available options. The different scenarios served as a basis for the interviews and discussions with livestock farmers and social organisations. We have established that the farmers and organisations consider it important for organic agriculture to work on developing a breeding system which follows the principles of organic agriculture. The most important reasons for this are that: (1) consumers expect all production factors in the chain to be of organic origin, (2) most livestock farmers currently use conventional breeding techniques which fall short of the organic requirements on a number of points, such as the use of artificial reproduction techniques and mono-functional breeding for production. For the development of organic breeding, livestock farmers feel that in the first instance the use of artificial reproduction techniques, including cloning and transgenic techniques, should be restricted. Next the livestock farmers and social organisations want breeding to be adapted to or based on the organic environment. There is a suspicion that owing to genotype-environment interaction (G x E) conventionally-bred animals cannot adapt well to the organic environment, and this leads to health and welfare problems. The farmers would like to see this development taking place within 5 to 10 years. It must however proceed one step at a time since the farmers cannot yet form a complete picture of the impact of all the different factors. Most of the people involved see the ideal form of breeding, with natural reproduction and regional or farm-specific selection, as a standard to be achieved in the distant future. At the moment most livestock farmers have neither the knowledge nor the socio-economic means to set up such breeding programmes. The development of breeding and the associated legislation require an international approach, for which suitable contacts must be sought in other countries. The final chapter of this report looks in more detail at the steps to be taken in each sector. Ideally developments should probably be initiated and supervised by a central body, such as an organic breeding foundation, which could be set up to govern the breeding of all farm animals

Animal breeding in organic farming:Discussion paper

It is uncertain whether animals which have been bred for conventional production are capable of optimum performance in organic conditions. In conventional agriculture there is a movement towards maximum control of production conditions in order to optimise animals' yield in intensive production systems. By contrast, organic agriculture is based on natural processes and closed cycles, and takes into account the underlying connections between production factors. Following organic ideology, production capacity should be curtailed by acting in accordance with guiding principles such as naturalness, animal welfare, efficient use of fossil fuels in the farm cycle, and agri-biodiversity (IFOAM, 1994). Organic production should be tied to the land, with farms preferably being self-sufficient mixed farms with closed cycles. An additional point of concern are the reproduction techniques used in conventional breeding. Artificial insemination (AI) and embryo transfer (ET) are commonplace in conventional animal breeding. But these techniques are 'artificial' and they deprive animals of natural mating behaviour and negatively affect the animals' welfare and integrity. By bringing in animals from conventional agriculture, organic farmers are indirectly making use of these techniques. These and other concerns have led to the project 'Organic breeding: a long way to go', which aims to lay down clear visions and an action plan for an organic breeding system

De werkvloer van een Kennisnetwerk Vitaal Platteland; Kennis maken met regionale kennisarrangementen

Op welke wijze kan het samen leren doen bij gebiedsontwikkeling worden ondersteund en wat kan een landelijk kennisnetwerk vitaal platteland daaraan toevoegen? Dit was het vertrekpunt voor een aantal werkbezoeken van de werkgroep kennisnetwerk vitaal platteland aan enkele regionale kennisarrangementen als onderdeel van een gezamenlijk leertraject. Dit verslag presenteert de bevindingen en komt met aanbevelingen voor een kennisnetwerk vitaal in wording. What support can be provided to joint learning in area development and what can a national knowledge network for a vital countryside add? This was the starting point for visits to various regional knowledge arrangements by the work group involved in the knowledge network for a vital countryside project as part of a joint learning programme. This report presents the findings and presents recommendations for a vital knowledge network for a vital countryside in the making