The Sprouting Food Forest: Changing the narrative of what it means to do research, engage with the forest and its creatures, and be human

Abstract

In this thesis, the processes of modernity will be used as a framework to examine how food forests come to contest them and be used as spaces through which human-nature relations can be restructured towards a more pluriversal ontology. The importance of this research lies in imagining new realities where humans can find re-integration with the Earth by inviting new ontologies of being into practice. These practices can formulate new understandings of ‘sustainability’ that reconfigure the relation between humans and nature, one that is not rooted upon domination and exploitation of our planet.T his dimension of world-making is a deviation from the formations made conventional within the processes of Western modernity, which are rooted in rationality of thought and built upon centuries of imperialism, colonization, and the diffusion of uncontested values that place technology, productivity, and science above all. Thus, the food forest will be researched as a space where new ontologies of being can sprout into existence, inviting relationality rather than hyper-separation between humans and nature.