Between agriculture, science and environmentalism: practices and discourses at «l’Escola Agrària de Manresa» (1984-1994)

Abstract

This work deals with the transition from conventional agriculture to an ecological one in the particular case of the Escola Agrària de Manresa between 1984 and 1994. Along this period, the group of school teachers — immersed in the ecologist movement— reshape the pedagogical orientation and the experimental research towards alternative activities and practices. By analyzing the school organization, the teachers profiles, the new experimental practices and the associated discourses, and the relationships between the school and several farmers, we appreciate a network of production and circulation of knowledge and environmental sensibility among scientists, farmers and social activists. In this way we point out the link between science and ideology and we question the dichotomy between experts and laypeople. As well as we examine the tensions between the activist and institutional roles of the teachers and of the school, beyond a reductionist view of confrontation.