Indian Society of Agricultural Economics Pre-Conference Workshop,17 December 2023 Institutional Economics and Social-Ecological Systems Analysis for Transitions to Sustainable Food and Agricultural Systems
Conducted by :ShivNadarInstitution of Eminence (IoE) Delhi NCR, Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH) Delhi&ENSFEA – LEREPS, Toulouse, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM A), and Watershed Support Services and Action Network (WASSAN) Hyderabad.
Agriculture and food systems are back at the heart of the local and global challenges of the 21st century. Overcoming these challenges imply changing farming practices, business models, supply chains, public policies and more widely, representations and behaviours related to agriculture and food. This implies changing/tailoring/adapting the institutions, rules and norms governing agriculture and food systems; these are norms of tenancy, property rights over natural resources, pricing mechanisms, research-state relations, market regulations, productivity and quality conventions as well as food cultures, values and cultivation rituals. These are norms developed, accepted and observed by actors and organizations like tenants and landowners, various types of farmers/producers, governments, agribusiness firms, agricultural research systems, food processors, traders and market yards, and communities. Institutions, ‘the rules of the game in a society’ are central to agrifood systems, their wellbeing, sustainability and resilience. This workshop introduces institutional economics, a school of thought in economics, that differs from other paradigms and shifts away from a notion of equivalence and equilibrium to consider singularity and open cumulative processes. It is based on clear relations between the substantive material, energy and information contents and flows in all economic activities that constitute an economy. The objective of this workshop is capacity development in institutional economics for sustainable, resilient and just agrifood systems in India. It builds a basic conceptual foundation and some analytical skills in institutional economics and social-ecological systems(SES) thinking that can be applied to understand and govern agrifood systems. The workshop is organized in four modules: three lectures (with prior reading material circulated) and one tutorial exercise. The latter is designed to help participants develop a robust research proposal in institutional economics to address a problem of their choice in Indian agrifood systems.
It will be full day workshop from 10 am to 6 PM.
Sessions: Animated byRajeswari S. Raina, Marie Dervillé, Sukhpal Singh and Dinesh Balam, will include an introduction to institutional economics, its intellectual history and meanings and roles in agrifood systems, an examination of institutions and the evolution of Indian agriculture, and a brief overview of SES with an illustration of measuring productivity in agro-ecological systems. The last session, designed as a tutorial, enables working with participants to write institutional economics research proposals that problematize aspects of India’s agrifood systemsApplication: PhD scholars and young faculty members/scientists may apply to the following email id (isaepconie@gmail.com)with (i) a one page CV, and (ii) a brief statement of interest, specifying how the knowledge andskills in institutional economics will help them. Last date for application: 31st August 2023. Shortlisted candidates will be informed by: 30th September 2023.
Participants are required to also register and attend the ISAE Annual Conference (18-20 December. 2023). The registration charges would include the boarding and lodging charges for all four days, including this Pre-Conference Workshop. The final amount will be communicated in the Conference Brochure. Participants are required to at least becomeAnnual member of the ISAEand the Annual membership fee is Rs.1000/-. (Lifetime membership will be appreciated and the Life Membership fee is Rs.10,000). Reading material and workshop guidelines will be sent to shortlisted candidates two weeks before the workshop.
For details contact : Hon. Secretary and Treasurer Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, C-104, First Floor, Sadguru Complex I, Near Vageshwari, Gen. A.K. Vaidya Marg, Goregaon (East), MUMBAI-400 063. Tel.: 28493723; Email: isae@vsnl.com