Agroecological farmer-scientist cooperations as role-model for transformative research?

The rise of the consequences of climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation call for fast action. This is supported by various scientific studies and set as a political priority by most countries. However, current approaches and methods in science seem to be unsuitable to tackle the challenges of the ecological crisis. The urgency leads to an increased demand for a transformation of science towards more inter-/transdisciplinary, participatory, and solution-oriented research recognizing and integrating different knowledge systems. However, within the scientific community public scholarship remains a niche in which scholar activists struggle to fit into both worlds: academia and practice. One of the approaches to bridge the gap between science and practical implementation is the holistic concept of agroecology connecting research, activism, and practice for a sustainable food system. A core principle is the equal valuation of different knowledge systems which can be observed within several successful yet exceptional farmer-scientist cooperations (FSC) such as Philippine rice breeder-farmer network MASIPAG. This leads to the following questions: Are agroecological farmer-scientist cooperations a role-model for transformative research? What can we learn from these cooperations in regard to the aforementioned contested debate about scholar activists? What can researchers learn from successful farmer-scientist cooperation within agroecology for more transformative research? The theoretical background will be centered around the integration of different knowledge systems with the multi-evidence approach. I plan to carry out a multilevel participatory process with researchers within agriculture and related topics following the follow the helical cycle of participatory action research (analysis, planning, action, reflection), thereby contributing to the research on the benefits and limits of participatory research. The paper will discuss a preliminary framework for the first phase of the collaborative process to define common interests about learning outcomes from FSC for research. At the same time, adequate approaches for interviews with members of FSC will be discussed. Next, the results of the interviews will be collaboratively coded and discussed with researchers. The results can then serve as a first step for the implementation of concrete ideas for implementation in practice.