Freja Marie Hegelund
Doctoral student
Remaking lowland soils: Conflicting care practices in the green transition of the agricultural sector in Denmark
Author
Summary, in English
In the wake of the 2021 national objective to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector, the Danish government agreed to aim for redesignating 100.000 ha of carbon rich low-lying soils by 2030. Positioned as a pivotal element in achieving up to 50% in emissions reduction from the agricultural sector, these lowland soils assume a paramount role in Denmark's green transition of the sector.
Historically cultivated and drained by farmers to turn the lowland soils into fertile farming landscapes, the current transformative process of redesignation lowland soils is characterized by inherent conflicts in knowledge, practices, and perceptions. Tensions emerge notably between national policies, public authorities, and the local farmers intimately connected to these lands.
This paper explores how negotiations and conflicts between epistemic authority and situated and embodied knowledge can be understood through the conceptual lens of disrupting, contradictory and conflicting care. Understanding care as an act of caring-with central to the socio-ecological production and reproduction of landscapes (e.g., Tronto 1993; Harcourt 2023), this paper advocates for a broadened perspective on care encompassing contradictory practices and knowledges.
This approach illuminates the complexities inherent in repairing, maintaining, and remaking degraded agricultural landscapes, acknowledging both intentional and unintentional ignorance embedded in nature and landscape restoration efforts. The paper concludes by discussing how a focus on conflicting care practices both within the farm and beyond opens for new ways to reconceptualize and remake agricultural landscapes in times of ecosystem degradation, climate change and conflicts between forms of knowledge, matters of care and practices. This paper adds to the debate on how the historical practices and imaginaries of the future associated with agricultural lowland soils necessitate novel approaches to repairing and (re)knowing these landscapes.
Historically cultivated and drained by farmers to turn the lowland soils into fertile farming landscapes, the current transformative process of redesignation lowland soils is characterized by inherent conflicts in knowledge, practices, and perceptions. Tensions emerge notably between national policies, public authorities, and the local farmers intimately connected to these lands.
This paper explores how negotiations and conflicts between epistemic authority and situated and embodied knowledge can be understood through the conceptual lens of disrupting, contradictory and conflicting care. Understanding care as an act of caring-with central to the socio-ecological production and reproduction of landscapes (e.g., Tronto 1993; Harcourt 2023), this paper advocates for a broadened perspective on care encompassing contradictory practices and knowledges.
This approach illuminates the complexities inherent in repairing, maintaining, and remaking degraded agricultural landscapes, acknowledging both intentional and unintentional ignorance embedded in nature and landscape restoration efforts. The paper concludes by discussing how a focus on conflicting care practices both within the farm and beyond opens for new ways to reconceptualize and remake agricultural landscapes in times of ecosystem degradation, climate change and conflicts between forms of knowledge, matters of care and practices. This paper adds to the debate on how the historical practices and imaginaries of the future associated with agricultural lowland soils necessitate novel approaches to repairing and (re)knowing these landscapes.
Department/s
- Department of Human Geography
Publishing year
2024
Language
English
Pages
22-22
Full text
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Document type
Conference paper: abstract
Topic
- Human Geography
Keywords
- Care
- Soil
- Farming
- Agriculture
- Restoration
- Knowledge production
Conference name
16th NESS - Nordic Environmental Social Science Conference
Conference date
2024-06-04 - 2024-06-06
Conference place
Turku, Finland
Status
Published