From coping strategy to hopeful everyday practice: Changing interpretations of food self‐provisioning

Abstract

While alternative food networks (AFNs) have become the leading conceptualisation of sustainable food systems, vibrant scholarship on food self‐provisioning (FSP) in Central and Eastern Europe has remained confined to the geopolitical region it investigates. This article brings these two bodies of thought closer together in two steps. First, we trace four framings of FSP deployed over the last three decades—coping strategy, cultural practice, hobby and source of good food and reading FSP as transformative practice—to demonstrate its progressive affinity with AFNs. Second, we follow the most recent framing in highlighting the material reality of local food production as a feature shared by both FSP and AFNs. From this perspective, FSP can be understood as a more radical variant of AFNs given its more substantial environmental and social impact (FSP is more widespread and socially inclusive and less dependent on market transactions). By uncovering the epistemological underpinnings of these different framings of FSP and exploring their implications for food practices on the ground, this article draws general lessons for scholarship aiming to advance food system transformation.

Assessing the Role of Market Share Development on Competitive Advantage in Dairy Companies

“…Planning includes setting goals and preparing a roadmap to achieve those goals, while goal setting involves identifying and prioritizing specific market segments or customer groups for focus. These findings are consistent with the results reported by other researchers (Ar et al, 2020;Bahari & Taheri rouzbahani, 2023;Daněk et al, 2022;Honarvar & Rezaee, 2019;Jafari et al, 2017;Sahafzadeh & Haghighi, 2023).…”

An insight into market and non-market alternative food networks in Czechia during Covid-19 and beyond

“…Additionally, to market-oriented AFNs, informal food networks and non-commercial food activities are considered to be part of AFNs too by some authors. As argued by Daněk et al (50), although AFNs is a concept dominantly developed in Western countries, many similarities can be observed with FSP, including the motivation of participants and material, social and environmental outcomes. FSP has strong roots in Europe, in the countryside as an integral part of life and in the cities especially since the 19th century as a way of ensuring food security for the growing working class (51).…”

“…While the concept of AFNs is associated with criticism that it appeals to consumers in cities with higher incomes and higher education ( 57 ), according to research to date, a diverse range of social groups participate in FSP. Although FSP was associated with the narrative of the so-called coping strategy, i.e., activities carried out due to the need to obtain enough food (unavailable due to lack of finance or lack of food on the market), this approach has been successfully overcome in research ( 50 ). Research of gardeners’ motivations supports this interpretative change, proving that having fresh and healthy food as well as a leisure activity are the main motivations for gardening, though financial motives cannot be fully dismissed ( 24 , 58 , 59 ).…”

“… 6 For more details about the relationship of FSP in Eastern and Western Europe, different interpretations of very similar activities and the importance of knowledge production see, e.g., Jehlička et al ( 74 ), Daněk et al ( 50 ) or Jehlička ( 75 ). …”

The end of postsocialism (as we knew it): Diverse economies and the East

“…Not only was material support such as privileged credit conditions or facilitated access to agricultural inputs reduced, but the revision of laws and regulations on cooperatives was left unaccomplished, resulting in a confusing and partially contradictory legal framework (Beishenaly and Namazova, 2012). In Czechia, the framing of FSP as an outdated coping strategy threatens FSP practised on publicly owned land in cities (Daněk et al, 2022). The flawed yet persistent association of urban allotments with the former regime is used as an argument for their abolition and the rezoning of the areas for development, which, in contrast, is seen as a tool of capitalist modernisation (Samec and Gibas, 2021).…”