Lanka Horstink

Initially trained as a social psychologist and project manager, I have extensive experience in group dynamics and informal adult education. After a career in communication, I worked as a campaign manager (Greenpeace Oceans Campaign and Global Seed Freedom Campaign), adult educator, and community organiser. For my work as a Seed Freedom advocate, I won the 1st prize of the 2014 Terre de Femmes for Portugal. After completing my PhD in Sociology with a dissertation on the ecological-democratic quality of the political economy of the global food system, I worked for the H2020 "PROSEU" project as work package leader on behalf of FEUP-UPorto, successfully concluding a review and Europe-wide survey on collective forms of Renewable Energy self-consumption. I subsequently conducted post-doctoral research at ICS-ULisboa, under a 6-year grant,  researching and supporting an agroecological transition in Portugal through projects such as "TRAECE" [Agroecological Vocational Training for Farmers] and the Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) of the region of Odemira / Littoral Alentejo. I am currently participating in two Horizon Europe projects, one focusing on alternative growth narratives, the other on rural development through agroecology in action. I work within a diverse and transdisciplinary team of researchers and community organisers interested in applying and adapting collaborative and peer-to-peer methodologies from Latin America (PRA and Campesino-a-Campesino) and FAO (TAPE- Tool for Agroecology Performance Evaluation) to the Portuguese case, in particular in multiply stressed agro-territories.