Oral Presentation Institute of Australian Geographers & The New Zealand Geographical Society Conference 2014

Ecological agriculture and praxes of interdependence: conceptualising land stewardship as convivial assemblages. (14807)

Anne T O'Brien 1
  1. Institute for Social Justice, Australian Catholic University, Sydney, NSW, Australia

While carbon cycling has been politicised by the problem of global warming, and water cycles become more evident at times of drought, the contingency and the everyday manifestation of nutrient, energy and water cycling evade most peoples’ understanding. In my fieldwork with land stewards, however, these figure as central concerns. In more conventional ‘capitalocentric’ (Gibson-Graham) control and mastery-oriented agriculture, nutrients are understood as inputs. In more ecological forms of agriculture, nutrients are understood to be exchanged, unlocked, and stored by organisms. In this paper I examine how several techniques in ecological agriculture have altered the relationship of land stewards with the organisms involved. I draw on Illich, Latour, Delanda, and my fieldwork to conceptualise how these techniques can be understood as praxes of interdependent relationships that I call ‘convivial assemblages.’