Food: From Commodity to Commons

Rundgren, Gunnar

doi:10.1007/s10806-015-9590-7

Cited by 45 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 14 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…After an exhaustive scrutiny (see Vivero-Pol for a systematic review of scholarly literature [136]), only a few authors that consider food as a commons have been found [137,138]. Citizens and consumers accept as "normal" the social construct privileged by the elites that justifies the commodification of food, and thus, the manufacturing of consent emerges from a bottom-up normalization [14,139].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food as Commons or Commodity? Exploring the Links between Normative Valuations and Agency in Food Transition

Pol

2017

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:The food system, the most important driver of planetary transformation, is broken. Therefore, seeking a sustainable and socially-fair transition pathway out of this crisis becomes an issue of utmost priority. The consideration of food as a commodity, a social construct that played a central role in this crisis, remains the uncontested narrative to lead the different transition pathways, which seems rather contradictory. By exploring the normative values on food, this paper seeks to understand how relevant is the hegemonic narrative of food as commodity and its alternative of food as commons to determine transition trajectories and food policy beliefs. Applying the multi-level perspective framework and developing the ill-studied agency in transition, this research enquired food-related professionals that belong to an online community of practice (N = 95) to check whether the valuation of food is relevant to explain personal stances in transition. Results suggest that the view of food as commodity is positively correlated with a gradually-reforming attitude, whereas food as commons is positively correlated with the counter-hegemonic transformers, regardless of the self-defined position in the transition landscape (regime or niches). At a personal level, there are multiple loci of resistance with counter-hegemonic attitudes in varied institutions of the regime and the innovative niches, many of them holding this discourse of food as commons. Conversely, alter-hegemonic attitudes are not positively correlated with the alternative discourse, and they may inadvertently or purportedly reinforce the neoliberal narrative. Food as commons seems to be a relevant framework that could enrich the multiple transformative constituencies that challenge the industrial food system and therefore facilitate the convergence of movements that reject the commodification of food.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food as Commons or Commodity? Exploring the Links between Normative Valuations and Agency in Food Transition

Pol

2017

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This identity-oriented view not only coherently causes the evolution of the CA framework (and the related definition of sustainable freedom [5]) but also allows widening the goal of sustainability transition [71,82] to be pursued as a condition for the effective functionality of commons. Indeed, both singularity and sociality suggest in unison with the CA's concepts of potential functioning, achievements, and conversion factors that heterogeneities [77], processes, and interactions are relevant elements to the topic.…”

Section: Sustainability and Identitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, food does not exhaust its function once a certain amount of nutrients is delivered (food security; [1]) or the right to food access is fulfilled [71]. Rather, it involves a plurality of services, such as culture, awareness, lifestyle, dignity, and conviviality, which can enhance both the dimensions of identity.…”

Section: Commons and Identitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Identity, Commons and Sustainability: An Economic Perspective

Setti¹,

Garuti²

2018

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Commons represent a wide, heterogeneous class of resources but its composition is the subject of growing tensions. The question "What is a commons?" has become even more complex while the answer still remains elusive. Current research focuses on two main attributes of commons-nonexclusivity and rivalry-centered on regulatory and operational aspects, conveying the notion of usability. Instead, this study argues that the definition of commons should be derived from their function. It is proposed that identity, in its individual and collective integrated dimensions, is the ultimate goal of commons. Despite the pivotal function that commons can perform, availability of resources is indeed just one of the conditions for human development. Moreover, commons can deploy their identity-oriented functions only if a sustainability transition is pursued. Based on these considerations, the study analyzes the concept of sustainability, and addresses the question "What is to be sustained?" While the capability approach offers a coherent conceptualization of the diversity of individuals-a crucial issue for sustainability-some limitations arise when it is adopted as evaluative space of well-being. This study argues that the assumed notion of identity delivers a broader concept of sustainability and delineates the ultimate goal of sustainability (sustainable identity).

show abstract

“…The development of the conventional food regime (McMichael ; Holt Giménez and Shattuck ) rests upon an on‐going process of commodification of food and farming and of the relations between the subjects upon which food production is based. As argued by (Rundgren , p. 116), ‘the capitalist market economy transforms everything involved in food production into commodities. […] [L]and, forests, humans, animals and food, […] everything is reduced to the universal measure of value‐money, a process which also turns nature into a commodity to be consumed’.…”

Section: Commodificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Practices of Food Sovereignty in Italy and England: Short Food Supply Chains and the Promise of De‐Commodification

Matacena

Corvo

2019

Sociologia Ruralis

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Alternative food networks are organisations of consumers and food producers that oversee and promote the functioning of short food supply chains, with the aim of fostering a direct and local exchange between producers and consumers. New shortchain economic infrastructures provide food producers -especially small-scale farmers -with a whole new set of commercial opportunities, directed towards the construction of an alternative food economy. But how does value circulate within these innovative economic platforms? And what values are debated, negotiated and exchanged through these circuits? Employing the analytical lenses of de-commodification and embeddedness, this article discusses the modalities and outcomes of the processes of value-creation and value-appropriation that spring out of the direct exchange occurring between consumers and food producers in the alternative food economy. Based on empirical data collected through extensive qualitative field research in Italy and England, the article exposes the dynamics and limits of the on-going processes of de-commodification, proposing an analysis centred on the concept of 'partial' de-commodification. This conceptual tool is used to assess the differences that emerged between the Italian and English fields, and to provide conclusive remarks about the potential of place-and culture-specific configurations of practices to advance a transformation of the food system.

show abstract

Food: From Commodity to Commons

Cited by 45 publications

References 14 publications

Food as Commons or Commodity? Exploring the Links between Normative Valuations and Agency in Food Transition

Food as Commons or Commodity? Exploring the Links between Normative Valuations and Agency in Food Transition

Identity, Commons and Sustainability: An Economic Perspective

Practices of Food Sovereignty in Italy and England: Short Food Supply Chains and the Promise of De‐Commodification

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About