International Institute of Social Studies
International Institute of Social Studies

Democratizing Knowledge Politics Initiative

A RRUSHES-5 research initiative
RRUSHES-5 research initiatives

The Democratizing Knowledge Politics Initiative (DKPI) aims to break new ground within the parameters of scholar-activism, in the interdisciplinary fields of critical agrarian, environmental and food studies.

The objective of the Erasmus Professors Programme, is to advance Erasmus University Rotterdam’s mission of ‘creating positive societal impact’. The DKPI, coordinated by Erasmus Professor Jun Borras, aims to consolidate and expand his long-standing academic work, but also to break new ground within the parameters of scholar-activism, in the interdisciplinary fields of critical agrarian, environmental and food studies. 

A starting point of DKPI is that global knowledge politics is embedded in the logic and dynamics of global capitalism and as such is deeply undemocratic, privileging knowledge produced in academia; and within academia, privileging knowledge hubs in the Global North and knowledge that justifies the idea of limitless economic growth even at the expense of massive inequality, exploitation and destruction of the environment.

'One of our key values as social movements is the equal dignity of all human beings'

French farmer and global coordinator of La Via Campesina, Morgan Ody, reinforced this point. She noted how ruling elites have long devalued the knowledge of working people, portraying them as inferior. 

'One of our key values as social movements is the equal dignity of all human beings', she said. 'We must also challenge the knowledge hierarchy - and put peasant, Indigenous, women’s and academic knowledge on an equal footing.' 

This is a key ethical reference point for the kind of scholar-activism DKPI adheres to.

RRUSHES-5 painting people around a globe
Boy Dominguez

Equally important as a starting point of DKPI is the strong belief that there are other knowledges produced outside academia that are equally compelling and relevant, such as those generated in local communities, by social movements and independent research institutions, many of which are framed within the pursuit of socially just and ecologically sustainable future for humanity and the planet. Scholar-activists work within this framework.

Building a future that is fairer, kinder and more just

RRUSHES-5 - Scholar-activism and knowledge politics
Eleni Karafilli

The societal relevance and impact of the work of scholar-activists are not one-off events or moments but have an enduring character. The focus of efforts is on transforming structural and institutional spheres within the global circuits of knowledge politics (knowledge generation, attribution, circulation and use), towards democratizing these circuits. 

The DKPI does not consider societal relevance and impact as politically neutral. The kind of scholar-activism that guides its work takes the side of the exploited and the oppressed, unapologetically, and seeks to contribute toward building a future that is fairer, kinder and more just. 

The timing of activities is based not on project management logic, but on careful reading of the pulse of the moment in the field; it is defined by the activities’ societal relevance and anticipated impact.

Contributing to democratizing knowledge politics

Borras' research, publications and teaching commitments are framed within engaged scholarship, and always aspire to contribute to democratizing knowledge politics. However, there are several areas of scholar-activist work that the DKPI is focusing on that are being carried out directly in relation to the Erasmus Professors programme, including the work clusters highlighted below and in the select blog posts and events info at the bottom of this homepage. 

These activities are not random interesting occurrences; rather, they are part of a virtuous cycle that revert back to or provide positive input and feedback to research, publications and teaching work at ISS/EUR. A good example of this approach is the Myanmar Initiative.

International Writeshop in Critical Agrarian Studies and Scholar-Activism

Emancipatory knowledge politics can be produced in a deeply undemocratic global complex of knowledge politics, and one key axis of unjust relations is along the Global South-North divide. Therefore, struggles for social justice more broadly requires the democratization of knowledge politics. It is for this purpose that we initiated the Writeshop.

 

DKPI - The 5th International Writeshop, July 2024, Beijing, with 55 participants from 33 countries in the Global South

The initiative brings together an average of 55 participants per Writeshop. The participants are early career researchers (PhD and post-doctoral researchers) in/from the Global South who work or want to work in the fields of critical agrarian, environmental and food studies in the tradition of scholar-activism. 

It is a practice-oriented training, giving researchers the chance to workshop their draft papers, advising them how to get published in top class journals, introducing them to the inner workings of the world’s leading journals, book publishers and research grant institutions, as well as discussing the theoretical state of the art in the field. One output of the Writeshop is the revision of participants’ papers, preparing them for submission to journals. 

Writeshops have been held in 2019 (Beijing), 2 online sessions during the pandemic and in 2022 (Cape Town). The 5th Writeshop was held in 2024 in Beijing. Two regional writeshops, in Asia and Africa, will be held once every two years (in the year when the international edition is not running). 

Participants of the 2019 Writeshop decided to form their own global network, the Collective of Agrarian Scholar-Activists from the South (CASAS), and wrote a powerful global manifesto on democratizing knowledge politics. CASAS is now a co-organizer of the Annual Writeshop. 

The number of successful publications as a result of the Writeshop is huge, and the event elicits great enthusiasm and extremely positive feedback. 

The Writeshop is collective organized by: 

ICAS Small book series - collage

Small Book Series

Small book series in critical agrarian, environmental and food studies: small books on big issues – in multiple languages. 

Aimed at democratizing access to foundational knowledge – across the Global South/North, academic/activist and linguistic divides. The idea is to produce small books (45,000 words) that reflect the state of the art in key theoretical approaches and themes in critical agrarian, environmental and food studies. 

They are authored by leading scholars and written in an accessible manner, written in accessible manner and are translated into various languages. Authors are selected and invited to write on specific themes. 

The series was launched in 2010; to date it comprises 12 volumes, translated into 12 languages (Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Indonesian, Russian, Italian, Turkish, Arabic and Burmese). 

The different language editions were made possible because of a global network that has been built over time among scholars and movement activists who have brought their own resources to make the translations possible. It is an illustration of solidarity-based international community-building and a contribution to democratizing the co-ownership of initiatives. 

Most of the books in the series are now considered modern classics and ‘go-to’ sources in their field and among movement activists. For example, Book 1 in the series (by Henry Bernstein) is now one of the most cited publications in the field. The English editions of the series are available Open Access published by Fernwood Publishing and Practical Action Books.

DKPI is taking the lead in operationalizing this book series and publication in different languages. Three volumes are expected to be released in 2026.

ICAS Small Book Series

Engaged research and conferences

Conferences organized by academic disciplinary associations are at the heart of academic life, but they do not necessarily privilege societal relevance and impact, especially from the perspective of the exploited and the oppressed. 

Often, purely academic conferences are for those who can afford it: pay for their travel and accommodation cost, pay for the annual membership fees and conference fees. This can inadvertently reproduce the unjust structures of global knowledge politics since researchers from the Global South, especially early career, usually do not have the resources to pay for all these costs.

Academic conferences lack conversation with social justice movement activists and practical policy actors

In addition, such conferences could be too academic in the absence of conversation with social justice movement activists and practical policy actors. 

As critical agrarian, environmental and food studies started to gain momentum, the need to develop its own type of regular international conferences became clear.

The key features of engaged research and conferences include: 

  • inclusive participation that requires supporting the participation of traditionally marginalized early career research from/in the Global South, 
  • meaningful participation of social justice movement activists and practical policy actors – often in at least 3 main languages: English, Spanish and French. 

Such conferences were organized alongside efforts to build enduring global communities and networks: 

These initiatives have influenced several intergovernmental policies (e.g. FAO’s Natural Resources Tenure Guidelines [VGGT], the Dutch Foreign Ministry’s programme in land, etc.), the inter-governmental International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ICARRD in 2006, ICARRD in 2026) and helped kick-start the careers of many brilliant young researchers who are now world-leading scholars in their fields. 

European Conference on Agricultural Market Regulation

European Conference on Agricultural Market Regulation
Jun Borras

3-4 March 2025, ISS/EUR, through the DKPI, co-organized with European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC) and Free University of Brussels (ULB) a European conference on agricultural market regulation. 

The conference adopted an unconventional methodology: about half of the participants and resource speakers and input presenters were farmers, half were academic researchers. The photo shows European farmer leaders in dialogue with the EU agriculture commissioner.

Popular education and training with grassroots social movements 

That academic researchers can, and should, learn from local communities and grassroots social movements is key in the tradition of scholar-activism. It acknowledges the diversity and multiple-ness of knowledges that are relevant to effect positive social change. 

Nevertheless, there are ideas, practices, methods and skills in academia that can be useful to social movement work, especially in terms of understanding the various competing fundamental theories that affect working people’s everyday lives and movements’ struggles for social justice. 

Spearheading the massification of emancipatory popular education and training at the grassroots level

Activist Course in Critical Agrarian Studies and Scholar-Activism

It is for this purpose that the Transnational Institute (TNI) based in Amsterdam initiated an ‘Activist Course in Critical Agrarian Studies and Scholar-Activism’. 

The aim is to train a critical mass of potential popular educators across social justice movements who could spearhead the massification of such emancipatory popular education and training at the grassroots level. It is targeted at leaders of local and national grassroots social movements, NGOs and research organizations. 

There are 4 modules (roots of social problems, alternatives, strategy and tactics in the struggle for justice, social movement building). Each module consists of 5 days of in-person training, with each participant required to complete all 4 modules. Each training involves about 50 participants, and there are multiple language translations. For example: English/Indonesian/Khmer/Thai for the course with La Via Campesina Southeast Asia involving 40+ peasant leaders and community organizers in the region. 

Activist Course in Critical Agrarian Studies and Scholar Activism in the Southeast and East Asian region

Activist Course in Critical Agrarian Studies and Scholar Activism’
SPI

Indonesian Peasant Union’s (SPI’s) agroecology training center in Bogor, Indonesia. This first cohort is expected to finish the 4 modules in August 2025; a new cohort for 2026 is now being planned and organized. 

Between 2018 and 2024, DKPI had trained several hundreds of leading civil society leaders in Myanmar, an effort that continues today (involving multiple translations: English, Burmese, Karen, Mon). 

There is an ongoing course (2023-2025) with civil society leaders from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region with Siyada network, with translations English/Arabic. The course has theoretical, practical and skills-related components, including training in action research techniques. 

This initiative is premised on the assumption that there are four spheres of knowledge generation, attribution, circulation and use, namely, academia, grassroots social justice movements, independent research institutions and (inter)governmental institutions. They are distinct from one another, but overlap and interact with each other. A meaningful interaction between them requires an empowered set of actors from the grassroots and independent research institutions; otherwise, these latter actors are susceptible to being seen as subordinate partners in collaborative work with academics, including in the very academic projects that purportedly see societal relevance and impact as their mission.

Outputs

Selected recent activities, calls, news, videos and blog posts.

This is a RRUSHES-5 initiative

RRUSHES-5 research initiatives

Democratizing Knowledge Politics Initiative

Land Redistribution Initiative

Myanmar Initiative

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