Strengthening Alternative Agro-food Networks in the Eastern European Countryside

Goszczyński, Wojciech; Knieć, Wojciech

doi:10.2478/v10130-011-0001-4

Cited by 11 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…However, development and modernisation leave the mark on food chains. New organisational patterns are visible [58] and ICT technologies and social media are more present and shape food networks. Blogs and Instagram profiles of consumers are full of pictures and videos of recipes and processing practices of home dishes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

et al. 2019

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The purpose of this article is to present the specific character of Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) in Poland as one of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). We refer to the issue increasingly debated in the social sciences, that is, how to translate academic models embedded in specific social contexts to other contexts, as we trace the process of adapting ideas and patterns of AFNs developed in the West to the semi-peripheral context of CEE countries. Drawing on the theory of social practices, we divide the analysis into three essential areas: The ideas of the network, its materiality, and the activities within the network. We have done secondary analysis of the research material, including seven case studies the authors worked on in the past decade. We distinguish three network models—imitated, embedded and mixed—which allow us to establish a specific post-transformational AFN growth theory. Particular attention should be paid to the type of embedded networks, as they highlight the possibility of local and original forms of AFNs. Mixed networks show that ideas imported from abroad need to be considered in juxtaposition and connection with local circumstances.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

et al. 2019

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“…One of the reasons for scarcity of Polish and, in general, Central European perspectives in the existing literature (for exceptions, see Gorlach et al 2006, Goszczyński-Knieć 2011) is a relatively low number of initiatives resembling the forms described in the Western literature. In Poland, one of the reasons for such absence lies in the specific character of the agri-food system -understood as "the whole array of activities, ranging from input distribution through on-farm production to marketing and processing, involved in producing and distributing food to both urban and rural consumers" (Staatz 2000).…”

Section: Factors Influencing Food Purchases -The Polish Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enclaves of activism and taste: Consumer cooperatives in Poland as alternative food networks

Bilewicz¹,

Śpiewak²

2015

Socio.hu

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Alternative Food Network (AFN) is a broad term encompassing many initiatives connected by the aim to build an alternative to globalized industrial food production and distribution. AFN is a term that covers many ways of connecting producers and consumers on the local level, e.g. community supported agriculture (CSA), farmer markets or food cooperatives. In this article, the authors analyse the newly established consumer cooperatives all over Poland, as a local form of alternative food network. The authors describe the specific character of this type of AFN, both from the consumers' and producers' point of view, and reflect on the issue of how specific social and historical background influence their development. The authors also discuss the "enclave" character of the cooperatives, that is suggested to be specific to the Polish type of AFN. The cooperatives studied varied considerably, so the authors propose two distinct types: activist and consumeroriented. Polish food cooperatives possess characteristics that the authors have decided to label with a common term of "enclave" character.

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“…As such, and in contrast to social scientists considering western urban agriculture as reinforcing the neoliberal paradigm (McClintock 2014), FSP largely takes place outside the mainstream agri-food systems and can be much less easily viewed as strengthening the existing agri-food system than the foodrelated topics on which ENGOs have been identified to campaign. While the relationships between ENGOs and food with explicit reference to a post-socialist setting have received limited attention from researchers [but see Gorlach et al (2008) and Goszczyński and Knieć (2011) for preliminary considerations], there is a considerable body of work carried out in the 1990s which depicted post-socialist FSP in economic terms as a "survival" or "coping" strategy of the poor (e.g. Rose andTikhomirov 1993, Seeth et al 1998; but also see Alber and Kohler 2008 for a more recent account).…”

Section: Scholarship On Environmental Activism and Afnsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Hoop

Jehlička

2017

Local Environment

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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

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Strengthening Alternative Agro-food Networks in the Eastern European Countryside

Cited by 11 publications

References 10 publications

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

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

Enclaves of activism and taste: Consumer cooperatives in Poland as alternative food networks

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

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