Giuseppe Feola presented the paper ‘Las memorias colectivas, las construcciones sociales del lugar y la política de futuros imaginarios en las transiciones hacia la sostenibilidad’ at the Transitions in Latin America and the Caribbean Network – part of the Sustainability Transitions Research Network (held online).

On 17 August 2018 Jaime Suzunaga and Giuseppe Feola gave a guest lecture in the course of Socioeconomic Accounting, in the School of Public Accounting at the Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia in Sogamoso. The lecture included a talk and a discussion with the students | El 17 de Agosto 2018 Jaime Suzunaga y Giuseppe Feola dictaron una clase como oradores invitados en el curso de Contabilidad socioambiental en la Escuela de Contaduría Pública en la Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia en Sogamoso. La clase se compuso de una charla y una discusíon con los estudiantes.

Giuseppe Feola at UPTC Sogamoso on 17 August 2018

On 18 April 2018 Giuseppe Feola gave a research talk at the Transmobilities seminar series, at the Department of Human Geography and Planning, Utrecht University.

Governing agriculture in peri-urban spaces in Sogamoso, Colombia: a critical analysis

This talks presents the initial findings of an ongoing project on peri-urban agriculture in the context of post conflict Colombia. The project analyses discursive and practical interconnections between the emerging geographies of food sovereignty, sustainable agriculture, and peace making. It critically explores the links between specific socio-political arrangements and peri-urban agriculture, and the potential of peri-urban agriculture to support models that are alternative to capitalist, growth-oriented Development. This talk specifically focuses on (i) competing imaginaries of development, and (ii) land use conflicts in and around the study area of the city of Sogamoso. First, the talk discusses the apparent tension between imaginaries of modernization and Development, and counter-imaginaries that elaborate core food sovereignty themes of environmental sustainability, autonomy and dignity. Second, the talk discusses the inconsistency of national environmental and development policies that trickle down at urban level by creating new, or amplifying already existing land use conflicts (e.g. between mining and agriculture, or conservation and agriculture). In their turn, these conflicts exacerbate long standing barriers to governance of peri-urban spaces, including social fragmentation and lack of trust among actors. Some actors deal with conflicts by employing strategies that aim to influence –not always legally- key decision makers, while others employ ‘exit’ strategies of autonomy. This results in an uneven landscape of winners and losers, which appears to make the prospect of conflict resolution yet less likely.

Jaime Suzunaga presented the project and some of the emerging results in a poster at the ‘4to Taller Regional de Educación Ambiental’ held at the UniBoyacá (Tunja, Colombia) on 30 August – 1 September 2017 | Jaime Suzunaga presentó el proyecto y algunos de los primeros resultados en un poster al ‘4to Taller Regional de Educación Ambiental’ en la UniBoyacá (Tunja, Colombia) el 30 de agosto – 1 de septiembre 2017.