Marie Widengård

Humanekologi
Doktorand

Bakgrund

Academically, I have a Master of Science in Rural Development and a Master of Science in Aquatic and Environmental Engineering. My joint thesis work concerns Intellectual Property Rights to Genetic Resources, in the case of Participatory Plant Breeding in Nicaragua.

Intresseområden

Biobränsle, biodiesel, Jatropha, landsbygdsutveckling, jordbruk, markanvänding, land rättigheter, klimatförändring, miljö, mänskliga rättigheter, naturresurser, matsäkerhet, oljebrist, hållbart bränsle, hållbarhetskriterier, aktörsnätverk, diskursiv makt, konsument och producent makt, faktaproduktion, miljökonsekvensbeskrivning, kontraktsjordburk, storkskalig biobränsleproduktion, innovationssystem, social förändring, Afrika, Moçambique, Zambia, Indien, Brasilien

Pågående forskning

My thesis looks at agrofuels (biofuels) as a global phenomenon and how ‘it’ is shaped by various concerns and interests in the context of oil scarcity, climate change and agriculture and rural development. By ‘it’ I refer to agrofuels as a product, technology and innovation system that is developing in a complex, interdependent, dynamic and transnational manner. In the first part of my thesis, I sketch out the major themes and how these oscillate, block or support agrofuels in its many shapes and forms. In short I see that, though oil substitution is the prevailing driving force, issues of environment, climate change, food security, land rights etc do shift and rift the direction, rate and place of agrofuels development. In this broad review, I also trace the major externalities and changes that agrofuels incite in terms of domino, spill-over and unintentional effects such as how the EU 10% blending ratio may change the lives of small-scale farmers in Africa or how the increased food prices served to shift the agrofuels agenda.

In the second part, I look at biodiesel programmes especially how the so called socially inclusive biodiesel programme in Brazil was negotiated, designed and forgotten (?).

In the third part, I zero in on the oil-rich crop Jatropha and how it is developing, diffused and used across the globe. I analyse Jatropha as a global trend, and I try to find a pattern in how actors, networks, institutions, materiality and discourse act to support or block an energy system based on Jatropha. Here I especially follow Jatropha in Zambia, Mozambique and Brazil.

Note that my prime question is not whether agrofuels will save the planet but instead how the chain from consumers to producers, entrepreneurs to researcher, civil society to policy makers, are made to believe that it will (or will not). I therefore scrutinize path dependencies, lock-ins, controversies, dilemmas and perplexities surrounding agrofuels – rather than taking a stand on any odd CO2 report.

To understand such complex relationships, I am guided by various theoretical and methodological frameworks such as the multi-level perspective developed to describe transition processes and the dynamics between the socio-political landscape, regimes and niches; the dynamic innovation system approach developed to address the dynamics between actors, networks and institutions; the actor-network theory and its focus on the production and use of so called facts and circulating ideas; and thinking around global trends in terms of national, international and transnational processes. Political ecology, ethnographic methods and transnational research help me stay focused in this boundless research area.

Fältarbete

Before starting my PhD project in 2009, I worked in Southern Africa as a regional and national coordinator for Swedish Cooperative Centre, Forum Syd and Africa Groups of Sweden.

Undervisning