Simona Zollet

I just gave a closed-book, pen-and-paper midterm exam in my 300-level course at UBC with 100 students. All exams were graded by an experienced graduate-level TA according to a rubric. *** The average was 64/100.*** My class averages at UBC are usually 80-85. Context: • This was the first midterm, covering ONLY 4 weeks of material. • Students had a list of possible questions in advance: no surprise questions. • Questions included (a) 3 concept definitions, (b) 3 paragraph-long questions, and (c) a 1.5-page essay. • I have taught this class multiple times. Nothing in my teaching style changed this semester. • We read entire paragraphs of text in class, so students don't have to do something on their own that wasn't covered during the lecture. • Students take a 10-question multiple-choice quiz at the end of every class (30% of the final grade). • Attendance is 95-99% every class. Attention during lectures and participation in pair-work activities are very high → anticipating the end-of-class quiz. *** But unfortunately, I suspect many students are not reading the material on the syllabus. They are asking LLMs to summarize it instead.*** After the midterm, students reported: • They thought they knew concept definitions but couldn't produce them on paper. • They thought they understood the arguments but struggled to connect them or identify points of agreement and disagreement. My view: It might be “cool” or “innovative” to teach students to summarize readings with ChatGPT or write essays with Claude. But we may be doing them a disservice: reducing their ability to retain material, think creatively, and reason from what they know. If you only read what AI has summarized for you, you don’t truly "know" the material. Moving forward: We have a second midterm coming up. I don't know how to convey to students that the best way to do better on the exam is to rely on and improve their own reading skills.

Remember that the US *does not care* about the people of Venezuela. It is not about "narcotrafficking", or "democracy", or whatever propaganda they have going. It is *explicitly* about US control over oil, capital accumulation, and geopolitical power.

I'm excited to announce this new study, published in The Lancet Planetary Health, which explores public support for degrowth and ecosocialist transformation. The findings are quite surprising. We surveyed more than 5,000 people in the UK and US, using demographically representative samples and two separate study designs. Here I'll report results for the UK, but the US is similar. First, we presented people with a full proposal for degrowth-ecosocialist transformation, but without using any label. This included: -scaling down damaging and unnecessary production/consumption -cutting the purchasing power of the rich -establishing universal public services and a public job guarantee to reorganize production around needs -democratizing control over finance and the means of production -ending imperialist appropriation from the global South through unequal exchange We found that 82% of people supported it. Next, we presented people with various labels - including "degrowth", "ecosocialism", and "well-being economy" - without any description. We found that "degrowth" was supported by 20-26%, depending on the study, but also attracted a lot of opposition (16-34%). "Ecosocialism" had higher support, at 36-58%, and much lower opposition (11-16%). "Well-being economy" had even higher support (51-81%) and very minimal opposition (more on this later). Next, we gave people the full proposal but this time together with various different labels. We found that support was high regardless of the label, with very strong majorities. So what can we make of all this? For me, here are the main takeaways: First, the transformative vision and policies advanced by advocates of degrowth-ecosocialism are extremely popular and can form the basis of a winning political campaign. Second, the word "degrowth" is a crucial analytical and scientific term, but - depending on the context - perhaps less useful as a public-facing political slogan, as it is easily misunderstood.... ...UNLESS you have the capacity to educate people about what the term means and what such a transformation would entail. Third, the term ecosocialism is substantially more popular and I think can create broader political support (we didn't test related terms, like socialism or democratic socialism or communism... but this would be interesting!). What about "well-being economy"? It's popular and very useful in certain contexts, but it is also apolitical and can easily be co-opted by capitalists. To me it's important to be clear about the political antagonism that is at stake: this is a class war. Ecosocialism does this job (but other terms may work just as well or better). But ultimately, what this study shows is that we don't necessarily need a single term; it's the political substance and the concrete policies that matter. And we must remember that the struggle does not consist in deciding on the right terminology and framing. It consists in building power. This must remain front and centre. The paper is open-access, and I'll put a link in the reply.

🎥 UKOAPKAS – Ainu & Aboriginal art in dialogue. This film explores sustainability and art through a linoprint workshop. Directed by me produced by Ainu scholar Kanako Uzawa. 📽 Watch: youtu.be/oFN65Su3X-M #UKOAPKAS #IndigenousArt #Ainu #AboriginalArt #Sustainability

Lifestyle is a stronger predictor of aging and mortality than genetics. A new Nature study of ~500,000 people found: 🎯 17% of mortality variation was linked to lifestyle (exposome). 🧬 <2% of was explained by genetics. Here’s what you need to know 👇🧵 1/10

📢 New book: Postcapitalist Countrysides @UCLpress! From land commoning and rural social enterprises, to experimental food commons, Indigenous collectives & land art practices. And more! Co-edited with @gallent_n, @marksco_envplan & A Purves #OpenAccess uclpress.co.uk/book/postcapit…

first day of the comparative agroecological conference at @Alnarp_partner Looking forward to hear perspective on agroecological from different OECD countries around the world!

In the face of lots of advocacy around #COP29, it's worth discussing what good scientific advocacy does, & doesn't, look like. In an essay, @herzon_irina presents the Dublin Declaration as an example of flawed scientific advocacy that should make us wary: tabledebates.org/blog/what-can-…

It’s time for big thoughts and new alliances cause the Call for working groups for the European Society for Rural Sociology conference in Riga July 2025 is now out. Visit ruralsociology.eu to learn more. And spread the word to new and old collegues🗣️😀🇱🇻

The Agricultural Economics group at ZALF offers a 36-month part-time PhD position. jobs.zalf.de/jobposting/84d…

Countries worldwide will do anything possible to raise birth rates except things that would actually benefit women and childcare and wages lol.

@KG_Jura thanks for asking… I wanted to know too! Hope to see you there

.@_Food_Policy has a call for *review* papers for it's 50th anniversary issue! --> Review papers offer a state-of-the-art summary of a food policy-related issue [length: 10k - 15k words] 2-4 page proposals due Aug 31st h/t @cbb2cornell #EconTwitter 👀 #call-for-papers-food-policy" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">sciencedirect.com/journal/food-p…

BREAKING: 11 #science associations & networks in Europe published an open letter, criticising EU decision-makers for the rollback on the #EUGreenDeal and calling for responsible decision-making. conbio.org/policy/europe-… Link to the open letter: zenodo.org/records/113734…

On my way to Exeter University (Cornwall campus) to talk about knowledge production, language politics and decolonisation in the context of rurality. I'll be there in person, but if anyone wants to attend online send your email and I will send you the seminar link! @HaSSCornwall

Fresh action research has been published concerning the island SDGs education, deep mapping, and the integration of artist’s book and island soundscape on Osakikamijima, known as Japan's educational island. (Open Access) Shima, 18(1), 68–88. shimajournal.org/article/10.214…

Webinar Series on Agroecological Economies – Launches April 11, 2024

This year our webinars share the topic of our upcoming in-person learning exchange: ”Agroecological Economies”. The first webinar will focus on grassroots experiences with Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) as a way to strengthen access to markets and links and trust between consumers and producers. *We'll hear from speakers from India, Uganda, Bolivia, Kyrgyzstan, Colombia, Brazil, and Ecuador. *Interpretation in English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese is provided.

Please join us on April 11, at 10 am EDT (UTC-4). Register here: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regist…

congratulations Jasmine @Dr_SoilieJas ! Happy to have your paper in our special issue!

Working on sustainable solutions for #agriculture and resilient #foodsystems? 🫛🌱🔬👩‍💻 Present your research at #Landscape2024 #conference in Berlin! Submit your abstract or idea for a pre-conference workshop until 2 April: landscape2024.org/frontend/index

I will be one of the speakers at the 2/28 webinar, presenting about female newcomers to Japanese islands, japan’s policies to encourage settlement to remote/rural areas, and sustainability connected to entrepreneurship. Looking forward to a good discussion around these topics!