R estructuring processes in the global economy have made clear that power and success in business are not necessarily linked to scale of operations. Rather, what matters is the ability to control others at a distance (Whatmore 1998), replacing hierarchical and vertically integrated organizations with networks based on a continuity between the 'in' and the 'out' of the firm (Saxenian 1994). This may imply subcontracting operations, the creation of partnerships with suppliers and customers (Peters 1992) or the centralization of strategic functions (Harrison 1994) such as those linked to 'intellectual properties': r&d, strategy, and communication (Henderson 1998). As industrial firms reshape themselves to find new ways to compete at the global level, important forces lead to a general restructuring of economic regulation. National corporations and national trade unions lose their power of control in favour of both trans-national and local institutions.Rural development can be seen as one of the responses to the crisis in the postwar mode of agricultural regulation and its techno-economic paradigm ( Van der Ploeg et al. 2000). Centralized state intervention, agricultural co-operatives and national farmers' organizations -its pillars -have lost their capacity to regulate the agro-food system and to respond to the emerging problems of farmers, consumers and citizens. New practices based on alternative techno-economic principles and embodying a reshaping of local-global relations have begun to develop.One of the key points of rural development practices is collective action at the local level and its capacity to create alliances beyond the locality. Collective action enables small entrepreneurs to mobilize social relations to improve their economic performance and create new opportunities for growth. Successful cases of rural development demonstrate that collective action produces a local framework in which a constructed environment, institutions, symbols, and routines facilitate the activities of small firms by giving them access to resources that could not be accessed by individual action alone.The modernization paradigm does recognize the importance of collective action. However, its major principals are scale and efficiency. Thus agricultural development is seen in terms of balancing the power of the agribusiness by creating cooperatives in an effort to reduce costs and concentrate economic power, and of concentrating politic power by stimulating lobbying. In other words, an attempt

This article aims at analysing the features and the dynamics of those alternative agri-food networks in which consumers act as initiators. Drawing on a survey of ongoing initiatives at national level and on evidence from empirical fieldwork in a specific territorial context showing a variegated and dynamic reality at this regard (Tuscany), the article analyses consumers' evolving attitudes and behaviour, around and even beyond food, unfolding during their involvement in these initiatives. In particular, it focuses on the experience of the solidarity-based purchasing groups, consumers' organisations promoted by groups of citizens aiming at getting control of the food they consume. Using an actor-network perspective, the article analyses how purchasing and consumption routines change when consumers join these initiatives. The article also discusss the potential of these initiatives as drivers of change along with the following questions: to what extent do these initiatives challenge dominant food practices and system governance? On what basis are these initiatives sustainable and are replicable in different contexts? How can they foster other forms of civic engagement? In this regard, the article tests a transition management approach, considering solidarity-based purchasing groups as socio-technical niches within broader socio-technical regimes in a macro landscape characterised by the globalisation of the food system. In particular, it analyses the critical points where niches enter in conflict with existing socio-technical regimes, and the way in which these groups act to remove legal, technological and cultural barriers to their development.

The chapter explores the linkages between farming systems and agri-food chains in a territorial development context. Lock-in effects within the current agrifood system are analysed through a socio-historical analysis. Then the experiences of emergent, still relatively small-scale, alternative food networks are assessed in terms of their transformative potential to enable sustainable food systems at a larger scale. Finally, the analysis focuses on the transition processes of agri-food systems at the territorial scale and considers the changes needed in governance modes. The chapter underlines the interdependencies and possible complementarities between the various actors of agri-food systems from production to consumption, including intermediaries as well as public policies and civil society. It emphasizes the transition and governance aspects involved

This article discusses the economic dimensions of agroecological farming systems in Europe. It firstly theoretically elaborates the reasons why, and under what conditions, agroecological farming systems have the potential to produce higher incomes than farms that follow the conventional logic. This theoretical exposition is then followed by a presentation of empirical material from a wide range of European countries that shows the extent to which this potential is being realized. The empirical data draw upon different styles of farming that can be described as 'proto-agroecological': approaches to farming that are agroecological by nature, but which may not necessarily explicitly define themselves as agroecological. The empirical material that we present shows the huge potential and radical opportunities that Europe's, often silent, 'agroecological turn' offers to farmers that could (and should) be the basis for the future transformation of European agricultural policies, since agroecology not only allows for more sustainable production of healthier food but also considerably improves farmers' incomes. It equally carries the promise of re-enlarging productive agricultural (and related) employment and increasing the total income generated by the agricultural sector, at both regional and national levels. While we recognise that agroecology is a worldwide and multidimensional phenomenon we have chosen to limit this analysis to Europe and the economic dimension. This choice is made in order to refute current discourses that represent agroecology as unproductive and unprofitable and an option that would require massive subsidies.

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