Agroecological transitions: A systematic review of research approaches and prospects for participatory action methods

There have been many calls for an agroecological transition to respond to food shocks and crises stemming from conventional food systems. Participatory action research and transformative epistemologies, where communities are research actors rather than objects, have been proposed as a way to enhance...

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Main Authors: Sachet, Erwan, Mertz, Ole, Le Coq, Jean-François, Cruz García, Gisella S., Francesconi, Wendy, Bonin, Muriel, Quintero, Marcela
Format: Journal Article
Language:Inglés
Published: Frontiers Media 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/118138
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author Sachet, Erwan
Mertz, Ole
Le Coq, Jean-François
Cruz García, Gisella S.
Francesconi, Wendy
Bonin, Muriel
Quintero, Marcela
author_browse Bonin, Muriel
Cruz García, Gisella S.
Francesconi, Wendy
Le Coq, Jean-François
Mertz, Ole
Quintero, Marcela
Sachet, Erwan
author_facet Sachet, Erwan
Mertz, Ole
Le Coq, Jean-François
Cruz García, Gisella S.
Francesconi, Wendy
Bonin, Muriel
Quintero, Marcela
author_sort Sachet, Erwan
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description There have been many calls for an agroecological transition to respond to food shocks and crises stemming from conventional food systems. Participatory action research and transformative epistemologies, where communities are research actors rather than objects, have been proposed as a way to enhance this transition. However, despite numerous case studies, there is presently no overview of how participatory approaches contribute to agroecological transitions. The present article therefore aims to understand the effect of applying participatory action research (PAR) in agroecology. We undertook a systematic review of articles reporting methods and results from case studies in agroecological research. On the one hand, our systematic review of 347 articles shows that the agroecological research scope is broad, with all three types—as science, a set of practices and social movement—well-represented in the corpus. However, we can see a clear focus on agroecology “as a set of practices” as the primary type of use of the concept. On the other hand, we found a few case studies (23) with a participatory approach while most studies used extractive research methods. These studies show that understanding the drivers and obstacles for achieving an agroecological transition requires long-term research and trust between researchers and farmers. Such transformative epistemologies open doors to new questions on designing long-term PAR research in agroecology when confronted with a short-term project-based society.
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spelling CGSpace1181382025-12-08T09:54:28Z Agroecological transitions: A systematic review of research approaches and prospects for participatory action methods Sachet, Erwan Mertz, Ole Le Coq, Jean-François Cruz García, Gisella S. Francesconi, Wendy Bonin, Muriel Quintero, Marcela participatory action research participatory approaches agroecosystems literature reviews investigación práctica participativa enfoques participativos agroecosistemas There have been many calls for an agroecological transition to respond to food shocks and crises stemming from conventional food systems. Participatory action research and transformative epistemologies, where communities are research actors rather than objects, have been proposed as a way to enhance this transition. However, despite numerous case studies, there is presently no overview of how participatory approaches contribute to agroecological transitions. The present article therefore aims to understand the effect of applying participatory action research (PAR) in agroecology. We undertook a systematic review of articles reporting methods and results from case studies in agroecological research. On the one hand, our systematic review of 347 articles shows that the agroecological research scope is broad, with all three types—as science, a set of practices and social movement—well-represented in the corpus. However, we can see a clear focus on agroecology “as a set of practices” as the primary type of use of the concept. On the other hand, we found a few case studies (23) with a participatory approach while most studies used extractive research methods. These studies show that understanding the drivers and obstacles for achieving an agroecological transition requires long-term research and trust between researchers and farmers. Such transformative epistemologies open doors to new questions on designing long-term PAR research in agroecology when confronted with a short-term project-based society. 2021-10-26 2022-02-15T12:39:45Z 2022-02-15T12:39:45Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/118138 en Open Access application/pdf Frontiers Media Sachet, E.; Mertz, O.; Le Coq, J.-F.; Cruz-Garcia, G.S.; Francesconi, W.; Bonin, M.; Quintero, M. (2021) Agroecological transitions: A systematic review of research approaches and prospects for participatory action methods. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 5:709401. 13 p. ISSN: 2571-581X
spellingShingle participatory action research
participatory approaches
agroecosystems
literature reviews
investigación práctica participativa
enfoques participativos
agroecosistemas
Sachet, Erwan
Mertz, Ole
Le Coq, Jean-François
Cruz García, Gisella S.
Francesconi, Wendy
Bonin, Muriel
Quintero, Marcela
Agroecological transitions: A systematic review of research approaches and prospects for participatory action methods
title Agroecological transitions: A systematic review of research approaches and prospects for participatory action methods
title_full Agroecological transitions: A systematic review of research approaches and prospects for participatory action methods
title_fullStr Agroecological transitions: A systematic review of research approaches and prospects for participatory action methods
title_full_unstemmed Agroecological transitions: A systematic review of research approaches and prospects for participatory action methods
title_short Agroecological transitions: A systematic review of research approaches and prospects for participatory action methods
title_sort agroecological transitions a systematic review of research approaches and prospects for participatory action methods
topic participatory action research
participatory approaches
agroecosystems
literature reviews
investigación práctica participativa
enfoques participativos
agroecosistemas
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/118138
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