Ecological embedding : stories of back-to-the-land ecopreneurs and energy descent

Sammanfattning: This thesis starts with the premise that to address ecological and climate crises, we need to understand their psychological and cultural roots found in the separation of modern societies from the natural world. This separation permeates mainstream approaches to sustainability that either sustain business-as-usual of the unbridled economic growth, or reform it with greener markets and technologies. At the same time, there is an emerging interest in alternative transitional ecopreneurs who have a different relationship with the natural environment and an agency with potentially more radical consequences for societal change. I look at ecopreneurs within the contemporary back-to-the-land movement, asking the following question: How do ecopreneurs reconnect with the land, and what does this mean for degrowth?My exploration was grounded in a dialogue between the literature on degrowth, ecopreneurship, critical organisational studies, and ecological embeddedness; and the ethnographic study of eleven back-to-the-landers who started small-scale ecological farms and permaculture enterprises in Sweden. I adopted a critical, narrative, and ethnographic research approach. The empirical research consisted of two studies that relied on narrative interviews and deep observations. The result was four essays that together, with the help of stories of back-to-the-land ecopreneurs, develop a process theory of ecological embedding.Ecological embedding is a process by which an ecopreneur is becoming more rooted in the land that provides the ecological conditions for life and economic activity. This process may be catalysed by psychological suffering in modern societies – an inner revolt – with examples of burn-out from the “rat race”, experiential deprivation of the office work, and ecological anxiety. The way back-to-the-land ecopreneurs develop, nurture, and negotiate their physical, emotional and spiritual ties with the land shapes the ongoing sensemaking and organising that is central to the formation of their alternative livelihoods and enterprises. It is also established that ecological embedding requires physical and psychological work on behalf of the back-to-the-land ecopreneur who navigates the contested terrain between the mainstream economy and alternative degrowth futures.The overall contribution consists in using the voices of back-to-the-landers in order to present their everyday experiences and critical knowledges about ecological embedding and transitions to a society that lives within planetary boundaries. Back-to-the-landers practice alternative forms of ecopreneurship that depart from the discursive and material conditions of the modern growth economy, and that revolve around a different set of values and objectives such as a more grounded life, non-materialist conceptions of well-being, regenerative ethos, post-capitalist relations, conviviality, resilience, alternative food economies and forms of local development. It is important to recognise the critical role of this new generation of individuals and families who enter alternative agriculture based on environmental and lifestyle aspirations, and who work hard to realise these aspirations on a daily basis, in spite of immense personal challenges and systemic hurdles that come from lacking institutional and political support.If we take seriously the ecopsychological crises of the modern civilisation and growth capitalism, to reconnect with local ecologies and to creatively downscale our economies becomes crucial. And this is not going to be an easy task.