Seed Schools in Colombia and the Generative Character of Sociotechnical Dissent

In STS, dissent has typically been understood as resistance, a way of saying “no” that is intended to generate change in discourses, material systems, and forms of law and rule that would then govern those who are aggrieved. Using the case of La Red de Semillas Libres de Colombia (RSL) [Network of Free Seeds of Colombia], this paper builds on another approach most visible in feminist, decolonial, and indigenous STS that examines rebuilding rather than direct resistance. Drawing from interviews and participant observation, we show that RSL’s practices of “generative dissent” are temporally distinctive in three ways. Firstly, RSL’s emphasize knowledge-making in the present, they address bio- and social tempos situated in understandings of both the past and the future. Secondly, RSL re-form the bios revitalizing emotional and social capacities. And finally, they reshape human and more-than-human worlds by invigorating biosocial kinships and university-community epistemic ties.