I am starting the doctoral program in Development Sociology at Cornell University this Fall 2014 where I hope to continue to research in the Andes (mainly Ecuador, but expanding to do comparative work with Peru and Bolivia). Broadly, I am interested in issues of land, territory and displacement - and how civil society and the state attempt to resolve (or not) these issues/conflicts. Research as a masters graduate student (University of Michigan 2011-2013) looked at the institutional design of an Ecuadorian state agency - COPISA - and how they facilitated 'food sovereignty' policy-making workshops between 2010 - 2012. I head to Ecuador this July, 2014 to continue this research and follow-up on the 9 laws drafted by COPISA. I am also exploring the legislative process that lead to the approval of Ecuador's new Water Law, approved June 25, 2014. Thousands of civil-society organizations participated in the legislative process called Consulta Prelegislativa, or Prior Consultation, which is a different way of doing policy-making - (or power sharing) that several other countries in the Andes have attempted to implement. These are two participatory processes - one led by COPISA and the other, by the National Assembly - both are state sponsored participatory institutions that drafted laws that deal with contentious issues like that of food sovereignty and water resources - they drafted these laws with utter support of the social movement organizations of Ecuador. I hope to use these participatory institutions as case studies to get a sense of what makes these participatory processes produce (un)favorable outcomes (ie. the approval of the law) - among other things.
This research is definitely just in its prime - so what if we have a law? What about implementation? How are we really going to realize 'food sovereignty'? ---- those are the most important questions I can fathom - and will not try to answer this morning! But I suppose that as I travel through Ecuador these coming weeks and engage with the organizations and state actors - I'll get a better sense of what the challenges and opportunities are for implementing national level food sovereignty policies/politics.
Here's a video the National Assembly of Ecuador posted on their YouTube channel detailing the approval of the new Water Law:
Off to my day job --- where I test consumer products for toxic chemicals --www.healthystuff.org, Ecology Center.
Chao!
