The inaugural edition of the Commons Chair introduced a new residency format at the Nantes Institute for Advanced Study: the collective fellowship. From April to June 2026, three Mexican researchers - Paola Abril Campos Rivera, Claudia Rosina Bara and Karla Nicol Hernández Puente, from the Autonomous University of Querétaro and Tecnológico de Monterrey - were welcomed to the Institute to pursue a shared research project, Reimagining Food Systems: International Lessons and Practices for Advancing Food as Commons.
Drawing on more than fifteen years of research on alternative food networks and food sovereignty in Mexico, they engaged with food initiatives across the Nantes region to explore a central question: how can food systems transition towards models of collective governance, and how can food be reclaimed as a commons in the face of industrial agriculture and the global commodification of food?
Biographies
Research Project
Reimagining Food Systems: International Lessons and Practices for Advancing Food as Commons
This collective research project explores how food can be understood and governed as a commons—a shared resource collectively managed beyond the constraints of private ownership and market commodification.
Grounded in the values of solidarity, cooperation, and collective governance, this multidisciplinary team examines how communities in Mexico and across parts of Europe organise their food systems in ways that promote ecological sustainability, public health, and livelihoods, while fostering interdependence and reciprocity.
The project also investigates the role of education and gender in sustaining these practices, with particular attention to how responsibilities are shared equitably within communities.
As part of the residency, the team will organise an international roundtable bringing together practitioners, civil society organisations, and academics to discuss the challenges and opportunities involved in scaling up commons-based food practices. This dialogue will address issues of governance, inclusivity, and sustainability in food systems, while generating concrete avenues for future applied research.
The long-term objective is to develop a collaborative applied research project following the residency, focused on adapting and implementing successful food commons models across a range of contexts. Combining theoretical reflection with practical strategies, the project aims to contribute to the global debate on the commons as a foundation for more equitable and resilient food systems.
Chair Activities
Throughout their residency, the three researchers engaged in an ongoing dialogue with the Nantes region and its local stakeholders. They conducted an immersive field study across a wide range of initiatives, including collective farms (La Terre Ferme, MilpaS), seed nurseries (Germinance, La Boîte à Graines, La Ferme de Sainte-Marthe), the educational gardens of L'Agronaute, the Scopéli cooperative supermarket, community purchasing networks such as VRAC, participatory grocery stores and local markets, as well as land stewardship and resistance initiatives including the Jardin des Ronces and the Notre-Dame-des-Landes ZAD. They also met with local elected officials responsible for food policy and engaged with the scientific community, notably during a visit to INRAE Rennes' Cultivated Biodiversity and Participatory Research laboratory, which specialises in the participatory conservation of agrobiodiversity. These field encounters turned the residency into a genuine laboratory for exchange, bringing together perspectives from both the French and Mexican contexts around shared concerns.
This dialogue unfolded through three major public events. The inaugural conference, Rethinking Food Systems as Commons, brought together food initiatives from Nantes and the wider region, laying the foundations for a transatlantic exchange. In June, a dialogue co-organised with the Université du bien commun at the Académie du Climat in Paris explored agroecology, seeds, and collective approaches to food sovereignty. Finally, a webinar held in Spanish brought together around forty representatives from Mexican and Nantes-based initiatives, establishing the Institute as a hub within an international network of researchers and practitioners committed to transforming food systems.
Beyond these events, the residency gave rise to numerous collaborations and future initiatives. New partnerships were established with the Foodscapes group and the Rural Sociology Group at Wageningen University, the UNESCO Chair on World Food Systems in Montpellier, the Food Solidarity Network, and the editors of Food as Commons. The team also began developing a Food as Commons Summer School in Mexico. These collaborations will continue to strengthen the dialogue between Mexico and France well beyond the end of the residency.
