Agro-Cultural Frontiers and the Amazon: Contested Histories, New Alterities and Emerging Cultures

A group of five British, Brazilian and Colombian universities (Cardiff, KCL, Federal University of Mato Grosso, Federal University of Rondonia, in Brazil, and the National University of Colombia) intend to organise five workshops (two in the UK and three in South America) to involve international experts, national scholars and regional academic and non-academic stakeholders (such as farmer associations, local authorities, community and church organisations, cooperatives, NGOs, artists, etc.) to take part in networking activities, discuss existing knowledge and identify gaps in the state-of-the-art of agricultural frontiers in the Amazon.

The series of workshops and a coordinated engagement during two years will led to the consolidation of the Agro-Cultures Research Network, which will include additional academics in the core universities and in other regional centres of research, speakers and participants in the various workshops, and the academic, policy-making and non-academic communities. This proposed network will especially examine the socio-cultural trajectory of change in the Amazon with a focus on what we describe as 'agro-cultural' frontiers.

The proponents believe that Arts and Humanities can greatly contribute towards the solution of environment and development dilemmas in the Amazon region, particularly considering the aggressive advance of agricultural modernisation and the movement of people to new areas, which have resulted in complex cultural exchanges, the rapid erosion of old practices and the formation of new, hybrid identities. There is a clear responsibility of national governments and the international community to swiftly respond to the emerging challenges presented by impacts on traditions, customs and knowledges, mounting socio-economic inequalities and ecosystem degradation, and the lack of proper recognition of the agency, distinctiveness and subjectivities of subaltern groups of old and new residents (such as extractive communities, squatters, family farmers and indigenous tribes) in areas of agricultural frontier.

The Amazon occupies now an ambiguous place between the ancient and the modern worlds - not ancient enough yet not modern enough - which has resulted in the specific, lived socio-cultural dimensions of region being largely absent from many academic studies and policy-making. So far, the region has come to be defined especially through its natural and not its cultural history, and thus is represented primarily as a place of nature and not of culture. Despite a growing scholarly work among social scientists on socio-economic, agrarian and demographic aspects of the advance of the agricultural frontiers, less is known about how global influences and past legacies are incorporated and retransformed in the production of alterities and cultural expressions. The prevailing narrative of the agricultural frontiers in the Amazon is derived from a social imaginary dominated by the supposed heroism, entrepreneurialism and economic success of large-scale farmers, while interpersonal connections between different social groups, their subjectivities and cultural baggage, rising identities and household practices are still not adequately considered. Likewise, there is a significant anthropological literature on indigenous tribes, their oral histories and cultures, but little is known about their participation and reaction to the advance of agricultural frontiers.

Therefore, through a series of events and debates, the new network will, for the first time, jointly address the intensive cultural exchanges and historical transformation of the agricultural frontiers in the Amazon. The initiative will create an innovative space for discussion and North-South interaction between academics and non-academics focused on local knowledge, habits, language and subjectivities in the context of a rapidly changing cultural and spatial reality under the influence of (unsustainable) modernisation.

1. The Agro-Cultural Research Network will organise events and foster interaction that will influence diverse practices and academic and non-academic approaches. Scholars, students and non-academic stakeholders will engage with each other's research and experience during the workshops, which will be captured via audio-visual recording equipment and published in various forms (including academic journals and other forms of communication). Non-academics will be invited also to take part as speakers in the evens and will be involved from the start in the preparation of each workshop.

2. The workshops will benefit from the direct involvement of all participants in the identification of research gaps and future research demands. The non-academic actors will be able to have a role in steering the events and also co-producing the research agenda for the future. By working collaboratively, the outputs will reflect a diversity of voices and will provide evidence and tools that can be directly applied to promote innovations in terms, for example, of social inclusion and respect for cultural diversity. Likewise, future research collaborations that might emerge from the network are like to have a significant social, economic and cultural impact beyond the lifetime of the award.

3. The five workshops will be freely open to the public (no registration fees) and will attract a diversified audience. These events will stimulate encounters and engagements that could modify practices of all orders, such as academic, professional, practical and even personal. For example:

- Dialogues on the complexity of the agricultural frontiers, including issues of identity, culture, subjectivities, anxieties, imaginaries and aspirations, are likely to reconfigure of the perception of these locations, for instance, via projects connected to the ongoing work of key speaker Eduardo Castro has a distinguished work on the human encounters and anthropological changes in the Amazon, including consideration of humanity and divinity in the Amazonian society. Similarly, Boaventura Santos, who has engaged with farmers communities and indigenous tribes in South America and explored the concept of a new 'epistemology of the South'.

- Practitioners of writing, ethnography, arts, drama and filming could benefit from the contributions of key speakers such as Susanna Hecht, Arthuro Escobar, Sheila Aikman and Eduardo Gudynas.

- The first event, in Cardiff, is likely to impact on the new Centre for Research on Food Politics, Sustainability and Justice.

- The Cuiaba event, on identity and languages, will inform important research on indigenous tribes and peasant communities being affected by the advance of soybean plantations in the north of Mato Grosso.

- The third event is going to provide an invaluable opportunity for transboundary collaboration between Colombia and Brazil, which is normally difficult to happen. Additional inputs will be provided by Peruvian participants.

- The fourth event, in Porto Velho, is going to provide concrete elements for the analysis of food production trends and alternative practices, particularly with the collaboration of Bolivian participants.

- Finally, the last event, in London, will represent a unique opportunity to engage academics with the development community, international agencies and NGOs, public authorities and the artistic community.

4. The network will work to develop its activities, to enhance its agenda-setting statues and to make contributions and interventions into ongoing debates, issues and practices. The network will become a nexus from which to develop future collaborations and apply for further national and international funding to expand research activities. Funding bodies will include the AHRC, ESRC, Newton Fund and Global Challenges Research Fund, as well as Leverhulme and the British Academy, and other European and international bodies (as in the case of CNPq and FAPESP in Brazil).