One of these nights I had my first PhD nightmare, worth of being recorded. Basically, the way to my office was not normal steps, but a very steep ladder at which I had to climb, pushing and pulling myself up with my weak, pudding-like arms. When I was almost on the top, I felt my powers wanishing and I fell down the ladder...
But, the steps where close to a road, in the open, rather than in a building. And it happened that I fell into the back part of a pick-up driving by. I was very lucky not to fall on the street, for I would have broken my neck. However, the pick-up was transporting dry codfish and I remember thinking "Why do I, a vegetarian, have to land in the middle of dry codfish?"
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Agricultural marginalisation and sustainability
"Es sprechen zu den Menschensinnen
die Dinge in den Raumesweiten.
Sie wandeln sich im Zeitenlaufe.
Erkennend dring die Menschenseele,
von Raumesweiten unbegrenzt
und ungestört durch Zeitenlauf,
ins Reich der Ewigkeiten."
Rudolf Steiner
die Dinge in den Raumesweiten.
Sie wandeln sich im Zeitenlaufe.
Erkennend dring die Menschenseele,
von Raumesweiten unbegrenzt
und ungestört durch Zeitenlauf,
ins Reich der Ewigkeiten."
Rudolf Steiner
Links:
- Centre for Environment and Society
- CNA - Confederação Nacional da Agricultura
- Eco-living Portugal
- Food Sovereignty
- Global Network on Social Threefolding
- Institute for Social Threefolding
- International Institute for Environment and Development
- International Society for Ecology and Culture
- Jules Pretty
- Karmabanque
- Luzku-Fuzku
- Steiner Archive
- The Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability
- Via Campesina
- Wuppertal Institute
Blog Archive
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2007
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September
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- Discovery
- Nightmare
- Sometimes
- Autumn day
- Annabelle
- Auto-conhecimento
- Missing the point?
- Friendship test
- "Home"
- Miscellaneous thoughts
- WTO
- Anti-cooperation
- Slow Trade - Sound Farming
- Muita profundo....
- "Eufémia desobediente"
- Wohltaetigkeit
- Real sad story
- Give me a PhD
- Self-determination
- Tragedy
- Wishes
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September
(21)
About Me
- A.S.
- Born in Bavaria, grown up in Portugal, mainly on a farm in Beira alta. From 1999 to 2003 I studied Biology at the University of Coimbra. In 2004/05 I did a master's in "Environment, Science and Society" at the University of Essex. Currently I'm about to finish my PhD in Environmental Science on agricultural marginalisation.
Agricultural Marginalisation in Portugal: threats and opportunities for sustainable livleihoods
In Portuguese mountain areas traditional and sustainable forms of agriculture are on the edge of economic viability, mainly due to agricultural and trade policies which apply economic theories from the industrial sector to agriculture. As a result, small-scale and family-farmers are forced out of business and they become dependent on the global food-system and markets, when they have no alternative income sources in the rural areas where they live. At the same time, environmental degradation, unemployment and health epidemics related to urban lifestyles spread and more and more people wish to escape unsatisfying jobs and to reconnect to the land. An economic system that prevents people form satisfying their livelihood needs directly from the land ultimately creates artificial hindrances to human well-being. It is essential that sustainable land-based livelihoods are properly valued and become viable again. For this to happen both policy change and grassroots action are needed. Policies need to consistently support the aim of proximity-based sustainable agri-food systems, i.e. regional food sovereignty, and interested individuals need opportunities to learn how to make a living from sustainable agriculture and other land-based activities.
In my research these problematic global trends are explored in detail, regarding the specific situation of Portuguese mountain areas, and existing sustainable agriculture initiatives in the area are mapped as a means to understand the possibilities to support the development of low-impact land based livelihoods.
In my research these problematic global trends are explored in detail, regarding the specific situation of Portuguese mountain areas, and existing sustainable agriculture initiatives in the area are mapped as a means to understand the possibilities to support the development of low-impact land based livelihoods.
I'm able to do a Ph.D. thanks to a studentship from the Portuguese Science Foundation - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), that I wish to acknowledge here.
1 comment:
My first PhD nightmare:
I am working late and the department is all black. I get the distinct feeling that there is something evil waiting for me downstairs in the corridor. I walk down, am on the phone to my boyfriend, saying I am on my way home. In the shadows I see a person sitting with his back to the wall, waiting for me. I recognize instantly that this is the object of my recent premonition and turn around and run. I get to the staircase and there he is again. Silent, with no expression on his face. I turn back to the corrridor. There he is again. And so on, until morning, so that I have neither gone home, nor back to my office. The first rays of the sun, and he vanishes. Exhausted, I realize it's the morning and automatically trudge back upstairs to resume work.
Lovely feeling, being trapped on Level 3.
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