Local food and civic food networks as a real utopias project

Abstract

Local food and civic food networks as a real utopias project DoI: 10.18030/socio.hu.2015en.22 Abstract For scholars and activists alike, local food is linked to visions of a more equitable, ethical and sustainable agro-food system. Notwithstanding an apparent unity, local food is mobilized for very different aims including environmental sustainability, the revitalization of rural economies, the reconnection of consumers to agriculture and nature and the promotion of land entitlements for marginalized populations. At the same time, local food has become a crucial element in protectionist and neo-ruralist ideologies that support bounded, defensive spatial strategies. These contradictions point to the limited heuristic value of the 'local food' concept, particularly when decoupled from an explicit attention to the political and power dimensions of the local.Building upon these considerations, in this article we explicitly focus on the political and transformative dimensions of different local food projects and propose to read local food as a 'real utopia' project whose aim is the transformation of the food economy in the direction of sustainability, social emancipation and social justice.Utilizing the framework developed by E.O. Wright, we look at local food as a diagnosis and critique of the present; as the prefiguration of a more sustainable, just and democratic future; and as a set of transformative strategies that aim at changing the system in the desired direction.Our analysis suggests that, differently from the oppositional movements of the Fordist era, the local food movement is characterized by its use of interstitial ("ignore the state") and symbiotic ("use the state") strategies. These strategies either seek to establish new economic and social relations at the margins of the neoliberal food economy, or partner with local institutions to consolidate new experiences with food democracy and food justice.By mobilizing non-ruptural strategies in the service of a real utopian project, local food initiatives are opening up new, enlarged spaces for non-capitalist or post-capitalist economies that constitute the basis for social learning and experimentation of a global more sustainable and just food system. A further step ahead could be constituted by the promotion of a reflexive, more democratic, socially empowering system of governance, able to lead the innovative potential of the food movement to its full expression.

Agri-Food Markets towards Agroecology: Tensions and Compromises Faced by Small-Scale Farmers in Brazil and Chile

“…The notion of "civic food networks" has been used to characterize markets that emerge from the engagement of civil society and emphasize new concepts of "citizenship and food democracy" [46]. These concepts "help examine whether pragmatic solutions could reduce social inequality and create food systems [and] [ .…”

“…implies that every citizen has an equitable contribution to make through participation" [47]. According to [48], these markets include a variety of actors that are involved in the local food system and that consider the food economy as a common good and a right. Thus, collective action to promote food democracy (especially with regard to access to healthy food) is at the forefront as an ethical principle.…”

“…In short, proximity markets are characterized by the deepening of social relations based on friendship, solidarity and trust. Furthermore, within these proximity markets, there is a strong ethical component to action [46,48], such that these markets are a bastion against the utilitarian logic of the corporate food regime. Even so, these civic markets often are sites of tension.…”

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

“…Innovative niches, once they grow and become successful enough to confront the regime, often follow two type of pathways: either be scaled up to system-wide proportions, therefore becoming a challenger for the dominant regime, or they may be co-opted/adopted by the dominant regime to provide a basis for a new socio-technical re-configuration of the modified regime. Niche innovations reach different results as to the degree of system transformation depending on pressures coming from the landscape variables and the capacity of the new social-technical solutions to resolve the economic and social contradictions of the dominant regime [121].…”

“…Contrarily to the reformist stance, the transformative discourse and praxis is profoundly emancipatory, and thus necessarily pluralistic [121,154] and reflexive [155]. And yet, although transformative practices in the agri-food system are more radical than the gradual reformist positions, for some authors they do not necessarily presume the abandonment of capitalism or economic growth as underlying paradigms [115].…”