Lanka Elvira Horstink
Initially trained as a social psychologist and project manager, I have extensive experience in group dynamics and informal adult education. After a career in communication, I worked as a campaign manager (Greenpeace Oceans Campaign and Global Seed Freedom Campaign), adult educator, and community organiser. For my work as a Seed Freedom advocate, I won the 1st prize of the 2014 Terre de Femmes for Portugal. After completing my PhD in Sociology with a dissertation on the ecological-democratic quality of the political economy of the global food system, I worked for the H2020 "PROSEU" project as work package leader on behalf of FEUP-UPorto, successfully concluding a review and Europe-wide survey on collective forms of Renewable Energy self-consumption. Currently employed as a research fellow at ICS-ULisboa, my post-doctoral research project focuses on researching and supporting an agroecological transition in Portugal through projects such as "TRAECE" [Agroecological Vocational Training for Farmers] and the Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) of the region of Odemira / Littoral Alentejo. I work within a diverse and transdisciplinary team of researchers and community organisers interested in applying and adapting collaborative and peer-to-peer methodologies from Latin America (PRA and Campesino-a-Campesino) and FAO (TAPE- Tool for Agroecology Performance Evaluation) to the Portuguese case, in particular in multiply stressed agro-territories.
Tese / Dissertação
Orientador
José Luis Garcia (ICS, ULisboa)
A produção alimentar moderna ilustra os paradoxos que a humanidade enfrenta: apesar de assistirmos a recordes de produção de comida, há mais pessoas a sofrer de má-nutrição e as pessoas rurais são as mais pobres do mundo. Adicionalmente, a agricultura tanto é uma ameaça à saúde humana e dos ecossistemas, como pode ser parte da solução de graves problemas ecológicos e sociais. Esta investigação analisa a qualidade ecológica e democrática da governança alimentar a fim de melhor entender quais são os factores que facilitam uma governança que se quer participativa e substantiva.




