ABSTRACT

Agroecology started to amplify agroecology in Nicaragua in the 1980s and was translated into national policy in 2011. Using the Multi-Level Perspective on sustainability transitions (MLP), this paper explores whether the rise of agroecology has fundamentally transformed Nicaragua’s agri-food system. Drawing on the findings of a qualitative study including a range of agroecological actors and organizations, we create a rich innovation history timeline of Nicaragua’s agroecology development at different levels – the agroecological niche (space in which heterogenous actors nurture innovations) and the regime (dominant agri-food system paradigm). MLP analysis is used to explore the extent to which agroecology’s growth has transformed the national agri-food regime. We find that although the term ‘agroecology’ is used widely by government, incentives for transitions to agroecology are only weakly implemented. This stems partly from the co-optation of the agroecological niche’s discourse by regime actors. Currently, it seems the transition process is not a reconfiguration of the agri-food system, but rather that agroecology has been added to the regime without deeper changes.

摘要

农业生态学在1980年代开始在尼加拉瓜扩大农业生态，并在2011年被转化为国家政策。本文使用可持续发展的多层次视角（MLP），探讨了农业生态学的兴起是否从根本上改变了尼加拉瓜的农业食品体系。利用包括一系列农业生态参与者和组织在内的定性研究的结果，我们创建了尼加拉瓜农业生态发展各个层次的丰富创新历史时间表–农业生态位（异质参与者在其中培育创新的空间）和制度（主导农业） -食品系统范例）。MLP分析用于探讨农业生态学的增长在多大程度上改变了国家农业食品制度。我们发现，尽管政府广泛使用“农业生态学”一词，向农业生态过渡的激励措施实施得很少。这部分源于政权参与者对农业生态位利基话语的选择。当前，过渡过程似乎不是对农业食品系统的重新配置，而是农业生态已被添加到该制度中而没有更深层次的变化。