“Agroecology and Organic Farming as Levers of a New Culture of Cooperation and Peace”

Dear Colleagues,

In an effort to contrast the current mounting wave of emergent wars with their devastating effects, both material and spiritual, cultural institutions are urgently called for setting up a cultural peace-building barrier based on an ecological conscience. We are convinced that scholars of Agroecology and Organic Agriculture already have the mind-set for framing how to educate for making peace with nature and between human beings through a wisdom-inspired agriculture. To face this challenge, we invite you to submit articles for a Thematic issue of SEeB entitled “Agroecology and Organic Agriculture as Levers of a New Culture of Cooperation and Peace.” Relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available below.

Your collaboration and competence for providing meaningful contributions are welcome!

Guest Editors:

Fabio Caporali      caporali@unitus.it
Paolo Bàrberi         paolo.barberi@santannapisa.it
Józef Tyburski       jozef.tyburski@uwm.edu.pl

Call for papers letter no. 1  (PDF)
Call for papers letter no. 2 (PDF)

MANUSCRIPT  SUBMISSION  INFORMATION

Title of the Thematic Issue:
Agroecology and Organic Farming as Levers of a New Culture of Cooperation and Peace

Aims and scope:
Agroecology is an emerging paradigm aiming at fostering truly sustainable agriculture and food systems through the valorisation of positive interactions among agroecosystem components providing agroecosystem services. One major goal of Agroecology is to reduce or eliminate the use of controversial external inputs, while developing fair and equitable production, retail and consumption systems that are stable and resilient on the environmental, economic, and social sides. The human component is thus central to the agroecological approach, as it is in Organic farming, a well-known production method that fully endorses the agroecological principles.

Whether seen on an ecological, economic, or social perspective, promoting cooperation among agroecosystem components is key to the success of Agroecology. Increasing scientific evidence is showing that organizing agricultural and food systems around cooperation has greater potential for counteracting the effects of global crises like climate change, biodiversity loss and humans’ detachment from Nature and their own roots than industrial, simplified agro-food systems based on a logic of competition. Examples of such success stories are:

• On the ecological side, symbioses between soil-borne micro-organisms and plant roots, functional cooperation between different plant species and genotypes in intercropping or other polyculture systems, complex mixed farming typologies also including animals, like agro-sylvo-pastoral systems.
• On the economic side, the organization of agroecological and organic producers into local networks (e.g., biodistricts) that strengthen farmers’ individual capacity to produce sustainably and help develop short food supply chains in a circular economy perspective while also preserving local biodiversity and cultural heritage.
• On the social side, the possibility (i) for farmers, to increase the value added of their produce and keep it at the farm or territorial level; (ii) for citizens, to buy high quality food with minimal environmental footprint from farmers they can directly exchange with; (iii) for rural territories, to find opportunities of renaissance, averting abandonment and social desertification.

Importantly, fostering the cooperation culture that is tightly embedded in Agroecology would represent an important lever for developing a culture of Peace, in a world where vested interests, greed and selfishness are the causes of the many wars and conflicts affecting humans.

This Thematic Issue aims to gather theoretical and applied interdisciplinary research focused on the importance of cooperation as lever of a resurgence of humanity and of a culture of Peace through Agroecology and Organic farming. Original contributions, in the form of research articles, reviews, and opinion papers, are welcome from both the humanities and the experimental and social sciences domains. Contributions bridging these domains are particularly welcome. Examples of themes pertinent to this Thematic Issue are listed as bullet points into a framework of four parts (keywords in caps and italics), as follows:

1. PEACE  EDUCATION  through agroecology and organic farming

1.1. The Challenge of Peace Education: transdisciplinary processes to facilitate convergence of different disciplinary approaches.

1.2. The  ECOSYSTEM  CONCEPT as key to unveil the power of cooperation in nature and agriculture.

2. BIODIVERSITY  maintenance for  SUSTAINABLE  AGRICULTURE  and land management

2.1. Biological and/or ecological cooperation between agroecosystem engineers (micro-organisms, plants, animals) across different spatial and/or temporal scales, as fostered by farming activities.

2.2. Redesign of cropping, farming and agricultural systems through agroecological approaches and practices (e.g., Organic farming, permaculture, synergic/syntropic agriculture and the like).

2.3. Cooperation between agroecosystem/food system components in a Circular Economy perspective.

3. Cooperative CULTURAL  SERVICES and sustainable agriculture

3.1. Contribution of Agroecology and/or Organic farming to building a new Humanism, either centered on religious values or not.

3.2. Agroecology and/or Organic farming as framed in an Ecophilosophy or Ecotheology approach.

3.3. Agroecology and/or Organic farming: their role to foster Ethics in agricultural and food production systems (land ethics, environmental and social justice, food security and safety).

4. Organic farming case studies in Europe: practice, research, tuition (at farming system, landscape, or international level).

4.1. Contribution of the agricultural and environmental Law to foster a culture of cooperation and Peace through Agroecology and/or Organic farming.

4.2. Success stories of cooperation between farmers and other local actors as lever of socio-economic and/or environmental wellbeing at farm or territorial scale (e.g., biodistricts, food districts, other agricultural/food network typologies).

4.3. Examples of innovative educational programs on Agroecology and Organic farming focused on transdisciplinary approaches.

• When submitting an article, authors are required to indicate part’s number and thematic heading to which they want to contribute.
• The maximum word count, including references and tables, etc., for an article, must be limited to 5,000 words.
• Deadline for manuscript submissions: November 30, 2024.

EDITORIAL  TEAM’S  INFORMATION

1. SEeB is an open-access academic journal indexed by prestigious scientific platforms (SCOPUS, DOAJ, EBSCO, etc.). 
2. We do not charge authors for the publication of their articles.
3. More information on the SEeB journal is accessible at its website: https://czasopisma.uksw.edu.pl/index.php/seb/user/setLocale/en_US.
4. Author guidelines are available on the SEeB website: “For Authors.”
5. Citation style: We follow the Turabian (Chicago) citation style (remember to provide the full first names of authors in the reference list and provide DOIs if available). For details, see https://czasopisma.uksw.edu.pl/pliki/seb/turabian.pdf.
6. Manuscripts should be submitted online at the SEeB website. 
7. We accept submissions only in English.
8. All papers will be peer-reviewed.
9. Accepted papers will be published continuously on the journal’s website in the Online-First version (as soon as accepted) and finally will be published in the SEeB issue 1/2025 (March 2025).
10. Authors can direct technical questions to the SEeB editorial team at seib@uksw.edu.pl.
11. Substantive questions regarding the articles' topics and content can be directed to the guest editors via e-mail (see the addresses above).