Political ecologies of plant health
Cumulative vulnerabilities
This project views plant health as inseparable from climate change and from political economic dynamics surrounding agrarian change more broadly. Examining experiences managing plant pathogens offers a lens to understanding cumulative vulnerabilities, where the effects of plant pathogens and their management intersect with deeper social-ecological processes such as rural depopulation and marginalization.
Pathogen politics
This project takes a science and technology studies approach to examine how the pathogen is being managed, including whose knowledge counts in decisions about rural futures. It employs Q-methodology to understand diverse perspectives, their roots in various identities, and where there may be productive overlap. The aim is to make plant pathogen management more inclusive and equitable.
Multisensory ethnography
Participatory Photovoice workshops engage rural communities in understanding visceral experiences with landscape transformation and imagining possible futures for living with plant disease. Multisensory ethnography involves landscape walks with community members and scientists before, during, and after tree removal.
Focus on Xylella fastidiosa
Existing research on plant disease focuses on ecology, epidemiology, and economic losses. This overlooks social questions such as what makes farmers vulnerable to plant disease and what enables them to adapt. Without this knowledge, it is difficult to develop equitable solutions to manage plant disease. This project (2025-2029) builds on preliminary fieldwork conducted since 2019 and focuses on an ongoing Xylella epidemc in Spain’s Baleares and Valencian Community. To reframe plant health as a more-than-human phenomenon, the project emphasizes multispecies and multisensory ethnography. Conceptually, the study is rooted in political ecology, science and technology studies, and the environmental humanities.