Institute for International
Cooperation and Development Studies

Project Education for Social Transformation

Critical and transformational universities. Eco-social and eco-feminist approach to the social and climate crisis, with the right to food as the force for change

Objective

With this agreement, led by Justicia Alimentaria and Hegoa, we intend to consolidate the work that critical educational communities are undertaking in academia, and to build diverse alliances between the University and social agents in the Global North and Global South to reinforce critical research and teaching in relation to the right to food, along with the necessary ecological transition, with a focus on gender and the SDGs.

Description

The current context of climate emergency and global crisis requires specific knowledge to promote processes of eco-social and eco-feminist transition, to build fair and sustainable societies. Universities, through teaching, research and extension aimed at the academic community and social collectives in the Global North and Global South, have an important role to play in the commitment to that necessary transition. With this agreement, we present a proposal for dialogue between academic culture and social production that takes food as its strategic force for change.

Over four years, we will undertake activities designed to provide:

  1. Support and guidance for university lecturers in teaching spaces for qualifications linked to education. Inclusion of the right to healthy, sustainable food, with a focus on gender in undergraduate modules, as a contribution to the processes of transition (especially in social sciences, education sciences and other degrees related to food).

  2. Support strategies for critical research (undergraduate and master's dissertations), by launching shared and collaborative reflection spaces for students, lecturers and social agents. With this action, we intend to design and apply a set of strategies to these research projects that help develop critical situated knowledge that gives people the capacity to meet educational, social and environmental challenges in relation to the local-global perspective.

  3. Proposals for responsible, fair and sustainable public purchasing. Internal coherence on food matters. With a view to the University being an example of sustainable food practices, we will undertake a process of raising awareness, training and supporting decision-makers and staff responsible for procurement, to facilitate the transformation of university food practices.

  4. Motivation to the educational community as an agent for change, especially through student organisations. Awareness-raising activities (healthy and sustainable breakfasts, responsible consumer fairs, university workshops) and networking and training days for these groups.

  5. Meeting and connection spaces between university communities in the Global North and South. Through online working sessions and producing shared documents, we aim to identify and share methodological approaches – along with the experiences of those who have applied them – that link the University and wider society in the construction of transformational knowledge and South-North vision.
  6. Communication and socialisation of research, teaching, management and participation experiences, including a specific theme relating to the right to food from an eco-social and eco-feminist approach at the 7th REEDES Congress and the 1st Congress for a Critical and Transformational University.

Publications

Reports from the Critical Transformative University Meeting held on 19 May at the Espacio Ecooo in Madrid.

Details

  • Duration
    January 2023 - December 2026
  • Places
    Andalucía, Aragón, Castilla-La Mancha, Catalunya, Comunitat Valenciana, Euskadi, Illes Balears, Madrid
  • Status
    Active