Seeding economies of care

The history of humanity is also a history of a relationship with seeds: as a basic food source, gathered, gifted and exchanged; as a means for reproducing food and the foundation of agricultural systems; as protagonists in the narrative of domestication; as travel companions and stowaways following human migrations across the globe; as currency in the enterprise of empire; and appropriated, patented and privatised by the modern agri-food industry.

It is a history marked by the exploitation of human and more-than-human beings; a history of relations that have been ignored or are largely forgotten. It is also a history of plant-human involution, of co-becoming and intimate relationships of care.

Hear contributions from Ainslie Roddick (ATLAS Arts), Katie Dow (University of Cambridge) and Laura Pottinger (researcher and geographer) in a roundtable convened by Joss Allen (artist and researcher) and Rowan Lear (Glasgow Seed Library). Together, we will untangle some seed-human stories, the sharing economies of seed-swapping, and the potential to build new caring relationships between people, plants and place.

How to attend

You can attend this event online by registering for the International Degrowth Conference. You can select a sliding scale ticket price from £5 - £20.

About the contributors

Ainslie Roddick is artistic director of ATLAS Arts. ATLAS organises collective art projects across Skye, Raasay and Lochalsh – on the North West coast of Scotland. With an interest in publishing, libraries and distribution, Ainslie co-founded the Making Publics Press in Skye and Publication Studio, Glasgow. She previously worked as Curator at CCA.

Katie Dow is a senior research associate and deputy director of the Reproductive Sociology Research Group (ReproSoc), University of Cambridge. Katie specialises in connections between reproductive and environmental concerns and activism, from a multispecies perspective. Previously, she was an ESRC postdoctoral fellow at the University of Edinburgh. She was awarded a PhD in social anthropology by the London School of Economics.

Laura Pottinger is a social and cultural geographer interested in everyday forms of social and environmental activism. She is currently working on a project called Methods for Change (Aspect, UKRI), highlighting the value of social sciences methodologies to the wider world. In 2015, she completed a PhD in Human Geography at the University of Manchester, which looked at seed saving and exchange in the UK.

Joss Allen can be found at the edges of the garden, amongst the weeds and compost heaps. He is an artworker and gardener exploring how creative practices can shape earthy politics, community economies and ecological ways of being.

Rowan Lear is an artist and writer, and a caretaker of Glasgow Seed Library.