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Ajates González, Raquel

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Ajates González
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Mostrando 1 - 10 de 18
  • Publicación
    Innovative Food Systems Teaching & Learning: Overcoming disciplinary and teaching silos to fix the food system
    (Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València, 2017-06-21) Ajates González, Raquel
    While inter-university and interdisciplinary research projects are very common in Higher Education (HE), inter-university and interdisciplinary teaching programmes are still very rare. This paper reflects on the first year of the Innovative Food Systems Teaching and Learning (IFSTAL) programme. IFSTAL is a three-year project funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) with the aim of bringing together postgraduate students from very different programmes to learn about food and farming beyond their own disciplines. IFSTAL creates learning environments and activities that encourage students to think systemically about the transdisciplinary challenges facing the food system. IFSTAL combines both face to face events and an inter-university virtual learning environment (VLE) that was created from scratch for this project. At the end of its first year, a survey was carried out to evaluate the programme and inform the structure for year two (Y2). Survey data revealed students preferred interacting at face to face events over the shared VLE. The programme for Y2 was re-designed to incorporate more flipped classroom features with an andragogy-based approach.
  • Publicación
    GROW Citizens’ Observatory: Leveraging the power of citizens, open data and technology to generate engagement, and action on soil policy and soil moisture monitoring
    (IOP Publishing, 2020) Woods, M.; Hemment, D.; Ajates González, Raquel; Cobley, A.; Xaver, A.; Konstantakopoulos, G.
    Citizens' Observatories (COs) seek to extend conventional citizen science (CS) activities to scale up the potential of citizen sensing for environmental monitoring and creation of open datasets, knowledge and action around environmental issues, both local and global. The GROW CO has connected the planetary dimension of satellites with the hyperlocal context of farmers and their soil. GROW has faced three main interrelated challenges associated with each of the three core audiences of the observatory, namely citizens, scientists and policy makers: one is sustained citizen engagement, quality assurance of citizen-generated data and the challenge to move from data to action in practice and policy. We discuss how each of these challenges were overcome and gave way to the following related project outputs: 1) Contributing to satellite validation and enhancing the collective intelligence of GEOSS 2) Dynamic maps and visualisations for growers, scientists and policy makers 3) Social-technical innovations data art.
  • Publicación
    Onto new horizons: Insights from the WeObserve project to strengthen the awareness, acceptability and sustainability of Citizen Observatories in Europe
    (Sissa Medialab, 2021-10-11) Hager, Gerid; Gold, Margaret; Wehn, Uta; Ajates González, Raquel; See, Linda; Woods, Mel; Tsiakos, Chrysovalantis; Masó, Joan; Fraisl, Dilek; Moorthy, Inian; Domian, Dahlia; Fritz, Steffen
    WeObserve delivered the first European-wide Citizen Observatory (CO) knowledge platform to share best practices, to address challenges and to inform practitioners, policy makers and funders of COs. We present key insights from WeObserve activities into leveraging challenges to create interlinked solutions, connecting with international frameworks and groups, advancing the field through communities of practice and practitioner networks, and fostering an enabling environment for COs. We also discuss how the new Horizon Europe funding programme can help to further advance the CO concept, and vice versa, how COs can provide a suitable mechanism to support the ambitions of Horizon Europe.
  • Publicación
    Developing a functional food systems literacy for interdisciplinary dynamic learning networks
    (Frontiers Media, 2021-11-26) Pope, Harley; Frece, Annabel de; Wells, Rebecca; Borrelli, Rosina; Ajates González, Raquel; Arnall, Alex; Blake, Lauren J.; Dadios, Nikolaos; Hasnain, Saher; Ingram, John; Reed, Kelly; Sykes, Roger; Whatford,Louise; White, Rebecca; Collier, Rosemary; Häsler, Barbara
    The impact of human activity on the planet cannot be overstated. Food systems are at the centre of a tangled web of interactions affecting all life. They are a complex nexus that directly and indirectly affects, and is affected by, a diverse set of social, environmental and technological phenomena. The complexity and often intractability of these interactions have created a variety of food-related problems that people seek to address in a collaborative and interdisciplinary manner through the adoption of a holistic food systems perspective. However, operationalising a systemic approach to address food system challenges is not a guarantee of success or positive outcomes. This is largely due to the partiality inherent in taking a systems perspective, and the difficulty in communicating these different perspectives among stakeholders. A functional food systems literacy is therefore required to aid people in communicating and collaborating on food system problems within dynamic learning networks. The Interdisciplinary Food Systems Teaching and Learning (IFSTAL) programme has been operating since 2015 as a social learning system to develop a food systems pedagogy with a range of multi-sectoral partners. The findings in this paper arise out of iterative reflexive practice into our teaching approach and delivery methods by former and current staff. In order to foster integrative engagement on food system challenges, we propose and define a functional food systems literacy—a theoretical minimum that can aid diverse stakeholders to explore and intervene in food systems through more effective communication and collaboration. Derived from a reflective analysis of instruments and methods in delivering the IFSTAL programme, we provide a framework that disaggregates functional food systems literacy according to four knowledge types, and includes examples of skills and activities utilised in the IFSTAL programme to support learning in these different domains. We argue that claims to comprehensive food systems knowledge are unrealistic and therefore propose that a functional food systems literacy should focus on providing a means of navigating partial claims to knowledge and uncertainty as well as fostering effective collaboration. We believe that this will enhance the capabilities of stakeholders to work effectively within dynamic learning networks.
  • Publicación
    From land enclosures to lab enclosures: digital sequence information, cultivated biodiversity and the movement for open-source seed systems
    (Taylor and Francis Group, 2022-10-17) Ajates González, Raquel
    4th Industrial Revolution technologies that blur the lines across physical, digital and biological domains have entered seed systems. The digitalisation of seeds' DNA is generating the unstoppable growth of big data on digital sequence information (DSI). The paper analyses the legal vacuum for DSI, which aggravates the dematerialisation and fragmentation of seed, rendering it easier to control under legal, technological, social, financial and logistical enclosures. Open-source seed is explored as a governance mechanism across physical and digital spheres. DSI emerges as a critical juncture for seed movements, revealing how the construction of seed and food sovereignty is a digital and technological affair.
  • Publicación
    Esnetik: Ethics, trust, transparency and the challenges of negotiating meaningful sustainability.
    (Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR) at Coventry University, 2017) Ajates González, Raquel
    This chapter describes the research process and learning of a Basque multi-stakeholder cooperative as well as some reflections on the following three topics: sustainability, knowledge and transformation of the food system. Esnetik members’ sense of urgency and awareness that they must become allies of consumers and the environment has shaped what could be termed an ‘autonomous interdependence’ model of interrelations and dependencies amongst producers, workers and consumers. The chapter includes an invitation to reflect about how willing academia is to give up control of knowledge production processes and to accept and value other ways of knowing and their holders without incorporating them into predetermined and constrained categories that hinder positive transformations in food systems.
  • Publicación
    ‘GROW Citizens’ Observatory: Leveraging the power of citizens, open data and technology to generate engagement, innovative datasets and action on soil policy and soil moisture monitoring’
    (IOP Publishing, 2020) Woods, M.; Hemment, D.; Ajates González, Raquel; Cobley, A.; Xaver, A.; Konstantakopoulos, G.
    Citizens' Observatories (COs) seek to extend conventional citizen science (CS) activities to scale up the potential of citizen sensing for environmental monitoring and creation of open datasets, knowledge and action around environmental issues, both local and global. The GROW CO has connected the planetary dimension of satellites with the hyperlocal context of farmers and their soil. GROW has faced three main interrelated challenges associated with each of the three core audiences of the observatory, namely citizens, scientists and policy makers: one is sustained citizen engagement, quality assurance of citizen-generated data and the challenge to move from data to action in practice and policy. We discuss how each of these challenges were overcome and gave way to the following related project outputs: 1) Contributing to satellite validation and enhancing the collective intelligence of GEOSS 2) Dynamic maps and visualisations for growers, scientists and policy makers 3) Social-technical innovations data art.
  • Publicación
    Agricultural cooperatives remaining competitive in a globalised food system: At what cost to members, the cooperative movement and food sustainability?
    (Sage Publications, 2019-11-27) Ajates González, Raquel
    There are more than 40,000 agricultural cooperatives in Europe with 9 million farmer members and over 600,000 workers. Due to the democratic nature of the cooperative form, it is assumed agricultural cooperatives empower their members and allow small farmers to have a stronger voice in the supply chain. However, much of the academic literature on agricultural cooperatives focuses on the economic analysis of their performance, while hardly any research has been done on analysing the impact that policy, long supply chains and the internationalisation of the food system have on members and labour dimensions. This article contributes to covering this gap by analysing how agricultural cooperatives are being shaped and misshaped by European farming policy and the architecture of global food systems. Following Schneiberg’s thesis on social movements being a condition for processes of diffusion and mutualism, this article reflects on critical issues in organisational studies related to agricultural cooperatives, the cooperative movement and sustainable food systems. Case studies from Spain and United Kingdom are used to illustrate the Northern and Southern European perspective. The concept of deviant mainstreaming is applied to discuss how agricultural cooperatives are being co-opted and losing their transformative potential as a result of pressures to remain competitive, with effects on members, social justice and the environment. The findings suggest policy changes at the European level, and the increasing internationalisation of the food system is fuelling the amalgamation of agricultural cooperatives, which is threatening their local embeddedness and creating organisational tensions between the local, co-operative space and the global, capitalist space.
  • Publicación
    Translating agroecology into policy: the case of France and the UK.
    (MDPI, 2018-08-17) Ajates González, Raquel; Thomas, Jessica; Chang, Marina
    The popularity of agroecology has grown over the last few years as an alternative paradigm for food systems. This public attention has meant agroecology is increasingly becoming institutionalised and integrated into food policy frameworks. While there is a significant body of literature discussing the origins and worldviews intrinsic to agroecology, hardly any academic publications focusing on analysing policies claiming to have an agroecological focus exist. This first policy study of its kind contributes to the scarce agroecological policy literature by interrogating what we argue is a ‘translation’ process, which starts with the vision of agroecology and analyses how the concept changes once it has been operationalised into a policy document or law. Evidence from two European agricultural policy contexts, namely France and the United Kingdom, is presented. The methodology followed focused on the analysis of the context, problem construction, conceptualisation of agroecology, operational principles, and policy instruments included in the policy documents. Three main themes emerged from the case studies: differences in framing agroecology in the public policy arena; common dependencies to existing configurations influencing translations of agroecology in public policies; and the need for democratic discussion on the hybridisation of agroecology itself, as well as on implied, but often veiled, political choices. This paper concludes that a selective and relational hybridisation of agroecology is emerging during its ‘translation’ into public policies.