Natural powers: from the bio-economy to the eco-economy and sustainable place-making

Abstract

The current intensification of efforts to develop post-carbon solutions to the global food/energy security problems is developing a highly contested policy/technology/ production/consumption arena. The paper examines how current attempts to resolve these new productivist priorities are embedded in combinations of sustainability, security, sovereignty and resource governance concerns. These concerns are coming together with the new contested framings of the bio-economy and the eco-economy. The framings hold different implications for social and spatial development. The paper argues that it is important to apply and connect a critical 'post normal' sustainability science approach to developing the place-making properties of the eco-economy model, as well as examining the implications of the wider and more dominant bio-economic framing. The analysis shows that to achieve synergies between sustainability, security, sovereignty and effective resource governance, a more place-based eco-economic model needs to be progressed.

A new analytical framework of farming system and agriculture model diversities. A review

“…Food, energy and technological sovereignty are often additional key issues. They can be broadly defined as the right of nations and people to design or control their own food and energy systems and agro-ecological technologies Duru et al 2015b;Kline et al 2016;Koohafkan et al 2012;Marsden and Farioli 2015).…”

Transition Governance towards a Bioeconomy: A Comparison of Finland and The Netherlands

“…The transition towards a bioeconomy is complex, involving several sub-transitions including: untwining the agricultural sector from the fossil sector; untwining the chemical sector from the fossil sector; converting the chemical sector into a food-health sector; and shifting the focus in the forestry sector from bulk to high-end specialty products. Such fundamental change processes tend to be highly contested [22][23][24][25][26], involve a great number of actors across different domains and will probably take decades to reach a new dynamically stable equilibrium. As such, we propose that the concepts and insights developed in the field of sustainability transitions have much to offer in order to understand the change processes involved in the transition towards a biobased economy.…”

Geographical perspectives on sociotechnical transitions and emerging bio-economies: introduction to a special issue

“…Moreover, Eaton, Gasteyer, and Busch (2014) demonstrate that 'national sociotechnical imaginaries' -that is, a 'collective vision of a feasible, desirable future social order, provided by technological projects' (228) -are framed in different ways by different individuals according to experiences and recollections within the regions and localities that might host said technological projects. As such, it is evident that connections to place are central to these visions, such that (actors' participation in) STTs also represent acts of place-making, and not simply strategic decisionmaking; that is, they represent 'the process of reproducing, eliminating, and/or modifying the structures, identities, meanings, geographies, positionalities, and power relations associated with a given place' (Murphy 2015, 12; see also Marsden and Farioli 2015).…”