Reluctant pioneers in the European periphery? Environmental activism, food consumption and “growing your own”

Abstract

East European food self-provisioning (FSP) has fascinated scholars of post-socialism ever since the early 1990s. In keeping with its predominantly economic and cultural conceptualisations, much of this research has been concerned with FSP's role in household economy and with the social profile of its practitioners. In contrast to western conceptualisations of FSP as an opportunity to expand food activism and foster social justice and environmental sustainability, post-socialist FSP has rarely been considered as such. In Czechia, FSP is practised by 43% of citizens and many of them do so in a relatively environmentally friendly way. Yet, most food-related campaigns run by environmental NGOs (ENGOs) pay little attention to FSP and focus on market-based ethical consumerism and alternative food networks instead. Using insights from actor-network theory, this paper discusses how Czech ENGO activists engage with FSP through discourse and in practice. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with leading activists, we show that FSP does figure in non-food-related campaigns and that the FSP practised by activists themselves or the FSP carried out by relatives and relatives' friends are not the same as the FSP on which they are reluctant to campaign. These differences, which include controllability and the time-consuming nature of practising FSP according to some of the activists' ideals, help this paper to come to an initial understanding of why Czech ENGOs do not run campaigns explicitly focused on FSP at the moment and shed some light on how this could change in the future. ARTICLE HISTORY

La agricultura periurbana como sostenibilidad silenciosa: desafiando el discurso del desarrollo urbano en Sogamoso, Colombia

“…Por lo tanto, reve-lar prácticas de sostenibilidad silenciosa contribuye a la apreciación de los modos de vida existentes, así como a la refutación de los discursos del subdesarrollo y el vaciamiento del espacio empleado por aquellos que presionan por la apropiación de la tierra para modelos de desarrollo moderno excluyentes, urbanos y occidentales (Feola et al, 2019). Desde este punto de vista, al igual que los agricultores de Europa Central y Oriental, los agricultores periurbanos de Sogamoso pueden ser vistos como pioneros de prácticas sostenibles preexistentes que están para ser visibilizadas y promovidas en lugar de ser reliquias de un pasado para olvidar, dando paso a formas de vida modernas, urbanas y desarrolladas (De Hoop;.…”

“…Este estudio conecta los debates actuales sobre la APU, la gobernanza de espacios periurbanos y el desarrollo sostenible con el concepto de sostenibilidad silenciosa. Este concepto ha sido especialmente aplicado para denotar prácticas alimentarias duraderas que parecen reducir significativamente los impactos ambientales (De Hoop;Daněk, 2017;Jehlička, 2013;Kostelecký;Jehlička, 2015;, pero que no son identificadas como ejemplos de sostenibilidad por las personas involucradas. Estas prácticas son silenciosas porque no están activamente etiquetadas o valoradas como ejemplos de desarrollo sostenible y porque tienen lugar en la geografía informal de hogares, redes sociales y relaciones.…”

Between Imitation and Embeddedness: Three Types of Polish Alternative Food Networks

“…However, concepts and methodology tools arising in a different context do not always capture the right vocabulary to analyse the activities specific to certain societies. Limiting our argument to CEE examples, researchers who use conceptual frameworks originating from the centre [46] devote much less time to studies of AFNs such as allotments [47,48], self-subsistence networks [4], informal networks of exchange with family or close friends [36], foraging [49], or top-down networks such as local brands.…”

Urban agriculture and place-making: Narratives about place and space in Ghent, Brno and Bristol

“…In the Czech Republic, food growing is considered as part of national identity, together with many different ways of preserving foods and all kinds of do-it-yourself house and garden improvements (Duffková, 2002, de Hoop andJehlička, 2017). The Kraví hora allotments are but one manifestation of this culture, including their particular aesthetic appearance.…”