Dissertations / Theses: 'AFN's (Alternative Food Networks)'

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DEMALDE', CHIARA AURORA. "Cibo e sostenibilità nei sistemi urbani. Il consumo alimentare sostenibile nella città di Milano." Doctoral thesis, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10281/52032.

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La sostenibilità alimentare è un tema centrale nel dibattito internazionale in quanto è uno degli ambiti più delicati e importanti per il futuro dell’umanità, considerato che l’attuale sistema alimentare risulta insostenibile sia dal punto di vista ambientale, che economico e sociale. L’urgenza di ulteriori studi e ricerche in questo ambito riguarda soprattutto i sistemi urbani in quanto le città del futuro saranno sempre più popolose e le risorse naturali ed energetiche limitate e più scarse. L’emergenza alimentare è quindi uno dei temi principali della futura low carbon society e il rapporto tra cibo e città è uno dei punti chiave su cui riflettere. Dal punto di vista teorico la tesi propone una visione interdisciplinare volta ad unire i concetti della sostenibilità alimentare con la dimensione urbana, per dare forma a una visione più completa. Viene illustrata l’importanza del cibo nell’influenzare la nostra vita e i luoghi che viviamo e la forza di cambiamento contenuta in esso. Particolare attenzione è dedicata, quindi, agli studi sulla scelta alimentare in quanto è necessario indagare in profondità le motivazioni e gli ostacoli che determinano le pratiche di consumo nutrizionale dei cittadini e in che modo essi agiscono sull’attuazione di stili di vita sostenibili. Si esaminano inoltre i nuovi canali di approvigionamento alimentare “alternativi” attraverso cui i cittadini possono attuare pratiche di consumo sostenibile nel campo dell’alimentazione, sempre più frequenti e stabili soprattutto nelle città. Se ne rilevano caratteristiche, vantaggi e limiti per far luce sui motivi che spingono i cittadini a cercare e creare nuove modalità di consumo alimentare e sugli ostacoli attuativi che possono incontrare. L’ultima parte della tesi presenta i risultati di un’indagine empirica condotta nella città di Milano, volta a cogliere i fattori che determinano la scelta di consumo alimentare sostenibile dei milanesi. Oltre a considerare l’influenza dei fattori socioeconomici, la ricerca si propone di valutare il grado di incidenza di altre condizioni strutturali e territoriali, in primis l’accessibilità. Lo studio prende in esame anche i fattori valoriali e indaga l’influenza della predisposizione personale e delle attitudini al consumo sostenibile, nonché il ruolo dell’infomazione e della comunicazione. La ricerca si articola in tre fasi: una survey on-line a cittadini e a membri dei GAS (Gruppi di Acquisto Solidale) milanesi, un’analisi spaziale della distribuzione di cibo sostenibile a Milano (effettuata tramite GIS) che permette di individuare le zone di analisi e passare all’ultima fase con le interviste in profondità effettuate a soggetti appartenenti a zone ad alta e bassa densità di cibo sostenibile. Questo permette di avere un quadro più esaustivo e di individuare drivers e barriere del consumo alimentare sostenibile nei sistemi urbani. Si riscontrano nuove evidenze empiriche e concettuali utili, sia a dare nuova linfa e orientamento in questo ambito di studi, sia a indirizzare le politiche locali verso una maggiore efficacia di azione.
Due to the current situation of economic crisis and environmental alarm together with the growing urbanization process at global level, it is becoming more and more urgent facing with problems that concern food sovereignty and urban sustainability. The result is a concrete necessity to elaborate new paradigms and methodology of research that can enlighten the situation from a theoretical and practical perspective. In the first part, an interdisciplinary approach is used to discuss the role of food and of eating practices in shaping our lives and the places we live, with reference to the literature on food sustainability and on urban food systems. A specific part is dedicated to sociological studies that show the cultural dimension of food and the evolving processes of eating habits. Moreover, it is presented the literature on ‘food choice’ that can help to understand better the rise of alternative food networks (AFN’s) which can orientate to a more sustainable way of living and buying. The last part of the thesis presents the results of an empirical research on the consumption of sustainable food in the city of Milan. The scope of the study is to identify which factors influence food choice, considering both contextual and personal factors. Thus, the focus is on the influence of spatial and economical accessibility to sustainable food but also on the incidence of values, attitudes and knowledge (including the role of information media). Three different research methods are used to investigate more effectively how sustainable food is distributed, perceived and known from milanese citizens: an on-line survey, a spatial analysis (with GIS) and qualitative interviews to residents in low and high density areas of sustainable food consumption. This research can reveal useful indications to manage new concepts and adopt a more complete view on the relationship between food and the city that includes also the sustainability issue. Furthermore, it highlights drivers and barriers on the path to enhance sustainable behaviour patterns that could be useful for researchers and to public actors in order to afford proper and effective strategies of intervention.

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Miller, Wendy M. "Allotments and alternative food networks : the case of Plymouth, UK." Thesis, University of Plymouth, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/2874.

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Alternative food networks (AFNs) are the focus of an ‘explosive growth’ of research in Europe (Goodman 2004), and the term covers a wide range of activities, from food banks, community gardens, and farmers’ markets, to community supported or organic agriculture. However, there is an impasse in differing positions over whether AFNs represent an exclusionary place-based ‘quality turn’ (Ilbery and Kneafsey 2000), or whether they contribute to inclusive local communities, sustainability and food security (Tregear 2011, Kirwan and Maye 2013). This research aimed to clarify these debates, through exploration of UK allotments as a benchmark for AFNs, using the case of Plymouth, SW England. A political ecology perspective of social-ecological systems (Ostrom 2008) was used to investigate the activities, relations and governance involved in allotments and AFNs, organised through the concepts of multidimensional capital assets (Bebbington 1999). This research demonstrates how activities on allotments involve human, social, cultural, natural and political capital assets, encompassing both basic food security and a quality turn towards ‘good food’ (Sage 2003). Taking the long view, it is seen that the relative importance of the different asset dimensions are contingent on wider socio-political settings. Relations on allotments illustrate the building of social capital, which extends to wider communities of interest, practice and place (Harrington et al. 2008), and which involves values of social justice that can be explained as diverse or care economies (Gibson-Graham 2008, Dowler et al. 2010). However, the politics and governance of allotments are largely influenced by neoliberal policies that favour oligopolistic and transnational food systems and restrict urban land allocations for place-based food initiatives. Present-day urban population densities are at levels far higher than envisaged for the original garden cities. Nevertheless, alliances at neighbourhood, city, regional, national and transnational scales are coalescing around the values represented in the original setting up of the UK allotment system: of self-reliance, human-scale settlements and the restorative value of the natural environment. Any realization of the potential contribution of allotments and AFNs to the sustainability and resilience of food supplies for urban populations (Armitage et al. 2008, Folke et al. 2010) ultimately depends on multilevel responses to a large range of challenges. Finally, the thesis contends that, in the present day, evidence is building up around the potential of allotments and many other AFN activities, or place-based food systems, to meet multiple policy objectives through aligned values.

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Canal, Vieira Leticia. "Creating sustainable and resilient urban food systems: A study of Australian alternative food networks." Thesis, Griffith University, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/392015.

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Food systems are vulnerable to the impacts of resource scarcity, climate change, and population growth, as well as the issues associated with unsustainable social, environmental and economic practices. These challenges have encouraged local food systems as an alternative to global supply chains. This thesis studies this trend at the urban level in order to explore issues and opportunities for change. It argues that urban food systems need to embrace both sustainability and resilience. A sustainable urban food system has an economy that serves social needs while safely operating within ecological limits. Resilience, on the other hand, includes the ability to recover from shocks such as extreme weather events, as well as the capacity to adapt and ultimately transform in response to the ongoing impacts of climate change. The main research question that this thesis investigates is “How can alternative food networks help to foster sustainable and resilient urban food systems considering climate change and increased urbanisation?” A comparative case study approach was used involving local initiatives in the Brisbane and greater Melbourne metropolitan regions (Australia). Both Australian urban areas have similar economic development; however, differences can be found in terms of institutional interest and the existence of food policies. The gathering of a diverse picture of alternative food networks was the strategy adopted for selecting the initiatives that participated in this research. The criteria that alternative food networks should attend were the existence of goals related to access to healthy food, fairer conditions for food workers, and reduction of environmental impacts. The thesis used multiple sources of data including primary (semi-structured interviews with founders or members of initiatives and field observation) and secondary data (publicly available documents such as annual reports). The findings of this research contribute to the conceptualisation and planning of sustainable and resilient urban food systems, as well as, to the knowledge on the role and limitations of alternative food networks in achieving this. The case study conducted in this thesis revealed how alternative food networks can contribute to the creation of food provision systems that are aligned with environmental sustainability and social justice. The thesis exposed the particularities of initiatives that, among other aspects, have minimal food loss and waste, supports agroecology, provides farmers with fair payment and makes organic food affordable. Alternative food networks demonstrated to have resilience building capacity, something that is not confined to its borders and can impact on the whole urban food system. Alternative food networks’ values travel and allow the replication and creation of new models, however, not in the pace necessary for a wider urban food system transformation. The main challenge exposed by this thesis for alternative food networks is the need for scaling up by influencing institutions and policies more broadly.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Environment and Sc
Science, Environment, Engineering and Technology
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Puranen, Niklas, and Markus Jansson. "Alternative Food Networks and Social Media in Marketing : A multiple case study exploring how Alternative Food Networks use social media in order to help small local food producers reach the market." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Företagsekonomi, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-131950.

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The food provision system of today has been argued to be unsustainable with large scale production, price-pressure and outbreaks of diseases. Many consumers in the EU and Sweden are reacting to these issues and are becoming increasingly interested in finding local food alternatives that they consider to be safer and of higher quality. However, the small local food producers due to scarce budgets and marketing skills have problems in reaching this target market. Partly due to this, there has been an emergence of Alternative Food Networks (AFN) within which producers come together to get assistance in marketing and sales. Social media has emerged as a phenomenon that is argued by marketing scholars to be a highly useful tool to spread information in a cost-efficient way. Therefore, this study seek to answer the explorative question: “How do Alternative Food Networks use social media in order to help small local food producers reach the market?” The main purpose of the thesis is to explore and develop an understanding of how the emerging AFNs use social media to promote small local agricultural producers and help them in reaching the market. This will be done by investigating AFNs as Small-Medium Enterprise (SME) marketing networks, and how these operate in terms of the theoretical areas external marketing communication, coordination of the SME marketing network, segmentation practices and sales promotion. The theoretical contribution is to see how AFNs work in terms of these areas, and the practical implications will be to give advice on how AFNs should use social media to improve these areas. The study is done in an exploratory manner, and the data collection has been performed in accordance with qualitative research. This has been done through seven semi-structured interviews with respondents from six different AFNs in Sweden that are active on social media. The conclusions of this study shows that AFNs value the use of social media, however they utilize this tool to a varied degree. The AFNs use it to inform and to interact with their customers. Social media does not seem to be very actively incorporated into network communication or monitoring. The AFNs have many ideas about who their customer groups are, and in some cases these have been identified specifically on social media, which has been used to some extent for targeted advertising. The AFNs position themselves as a “good” food alternative. In sales promotion the AFNs mainly promote their events on social media, and have also promoted discounts to some extent. The study provides new theoretical knowledge in the area of marketing through social media by SMEs like AFNs. Practical implications for the AFNs are discussed, which mainly involve increasing the time spent on social media as a mainly free and powerful marketing tool.

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Korcekova, Kristina. "The Serving and the Served: Relationship between suppliers and food hubs in Swedish Alternative Food Networks." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för geovetenskaper, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-324560.

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The Swedish alternative food networks landscape is underdeveloped compared to that of the US or the countries of Western Europe, however its development has sped up in recent years. The relationship between the farmer and the food hub is the first one to be built when an Alternative Food Network is being set up and therefore represents a valid starting point in the hitherto scarcely studied field of alternative food distribution in Sweden. The paper used a relationship-marketing framework with the addition of elements from Civic Food Networks conceptualization of Alternative Food Networks in order to explain the creation and maintenance, as a well as the quality and depth of supplier-distributor relationships in two cases of Swedish food hubs. Given the immaturity of the Swedish market, this paper tried to explore the possible variations existing in the landscape. In the case of student-led food cooperative Ultimat and its two studied suppliers, values and larger local food systems goals played the primary role in creating and maintaining the relationship, in spite of the poor economic performance of such a relationship in the eyes of the suppliers. The linkages forged between the two entities are strong due to shared values and common goals. In the case of Bygdens Saluhall, the values play a certain role, but the economic element remains crucial for the farmers. At the same time, the connection is closer and ownership of the project by the farmers more significant. Additionally, points of interest arose for future research, notably the diverging stance of Ultimat’s suppliers vs. Bygdens Saluhall’s suppliers in the question of pro-business food hubs and organization of alternative food networks in general.

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MATACENA, RAFFAELE. "Exploring the production side: Small scale food producers and alternative food networks in European urban contexts Raffaele Matacena." Doctoral thesis, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10281/241153.

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L’applicazione di modelli industriali intensivi alla produzione e alla distribuzione degli alimenti e la liberalizzazione degli scambi sui mercati internazionali hanno portato alla costituzione di un mercato globale del cibo ad alta intensità di capitale e fortemente concentrato, in cui evidenti squilibri di potere concedono enormi capacità direzionali e decisionali a un numero ristretto di grandi player internazionali. Ciò ha generato gravi esternalità che hanno provocato un impatto sulla vita umana, sociale ed ecosistemica, rendendo manifesta la necessità di un processo di re-interiorizzazione dei processi economici legati alla produzione, alla distribuzione e al consumo di cibo entro schemi sociali e ambientali in grado di proteggere le risorse (umane, culturali, sociali, economiche ed ecosistemiche) mobilizzate dalla filiera agro-alimentare. In questo quadro critico, assistiamo ormai da alcuni anni alla nascita e al consolidamento di strutture organizzative ‘dal basso’ che mirano alla re-incorporazione (intesa come ‘ri-socializzazione’ e ‘ri-localizzazione’) delle pratiche di produzione, distribuzione e consumo di cibo entro sistemi sostenibili e locali. Si tratta di quelli che nella letteratura internazionale sono denominati alternative food networks (AFNs), ossia schemi organizzativi di filiera alimentare che puntano alla creazione di circuiti corti di ri-valorizzazione delle produzioni locali, tradizionali e sostenibili, con la promessa di potenziare l’accesso a cibi sani, nutrizionalmente adeguati ed eticamente corretti, ed al contempo costruire un’alternativa viabile alle strutture produttiviste e predatorie del capitalismo attuale. Negli ultimi due decenni, un imponente sforzo di ricerca ha permesso la creazione di una robusta letteratura sui fenomeni di ri-localizzazione e sugli alternative food networks. Molte analisi hanno avuto ad oggetto la transizione dei modelli di consumo verso la riscoperta delle produzioni locali o etiche, o altrettanto si sono occupate dei presupposti valoriali, ideologici e relazionali di funzionamento dei network e delle economie alternative, analizzando queste reti in termini di innovazione sociale o driver di sviluppo rurale. Rimane tuttavia relativamente poco esplorata la componente produttiva, ossia l’arcipelago produttivo-imprenditoriale che viene mobilizzato da queste reti e che in esse trova un nuovo centro di gravità. Il mio studio vuole inserirsi proprio in questo solco, e tentare di avanzare la conoscenza del mondo sociale ed economico dei piccoli produttori alimentari che vendono i loro prodotti attraverso i circuiti commerciali stabiliti dagli AFN nella città di Milano e, in un’ottica comparativa, nelle città di Manchester e Lancaster nel Nord Ovest dell’Inghilterra. Attraverso metodi qualitativi, dunque, si cercherà di fornire un’interpretazione della realtà dei produttori ‘alternativi’ nei due territori. L’obiettivo è di mettere in evidenza le loro identità e le loro storie, le loro rappresentazioni dei problemi del sistema alimentare e le strategie per venirne a capo, i requisiti, le logiche e i meccanismi d’azione che definiscono e rendono possibile la partecipazione a un AFN, l’insieme di riferimenti valoriali e ideologici che ispirano la loro azione, le opportunità, i punti critici e gli ostacoli che minacciano il proprio sviluppo personale-imprenditoriale e quello degli AFN stessi. Indagando l’habitus di questo campo emergente e le operazioni dei suoi attori, dunque, si tenterà di oggettivare la presenza e le pratiche dei ‘nuovi’ produttori alimentari e le modalità di ‘demercificazione’ tramite le quali le loro attività sono reintegrate entro un sistema innovativo di relazioni sociali.
The food system crisis and the urgent need to develop a different socio-economic model for the organization of food production and consumption practices are analytical constructs about which a growing scientific consensus is coupled with increasing media attention. The application of intensive industrial models in food production and distribution together with ever growing liberalization of exchanges in international markets have spurred the development of a highly-concentrated and capital-intensive global food market, in which prominent power imbalances grant immense directional and decisional leadership to a restricted number of big international players. This type of food chain management has shown a marked incapacity to satisfy the requirements of sustainability, thus calling for a reform process which aims to re-internalize the economic processes linked to production, distribution and consumption of food within social and environmental frameworks able to protect the (human, cultural, social, economic, and ecosystem) resources which are mobilized by the agri-food chain. In this critical scenario, in the last years we have been witnessing the construction and consolidation of new ‘grassroots’ organizational structures, aiming at re-embedding (through processes of ‘re-socialization’ and ‘re-localization’) food production, distribution and consumption practices within the frame of local and sustainable systems. These initiatives have been labeled as alternative food networks (AFNs): they are food chain organizational schemes setting up and managing short circuits to re-valorize local, traditional and sustainable productions. They are seen as carrying a promise of facilitating access to healthy, nutritionally-adequate and ethically correct foods, while providing an opportunity to revive the local rural fabric by building a viable alternative to the productivist structures of current capitalism and to the predatory relationships inherent in them. In the last two decades, a great effort in research has brought about robust literature on the phenomena of re-localization and on AFNs. Many analysts have focused on the transition of consumption models towards the re-discovery of local or ethical production and others have concentrated on the values, ideologies and relations underlying the building and working of networks and alternative economies. However, the productive component of these networks remains relatively unexplored, i. e. the productive-entrepreneurial archipelago which is mobilized by these networks and which finds in them a new center of gravity. My study aims to occupy this field, and attempts to advance the knowledge of the social and economic world of small food producers selling their products through AFNs-related commercial circuits in and around the city of Milan and, in a comparative perspective, in the cities of Manchester, Lancaster and the whole region of the North-West of England. By employing qualitative methods, then, this thesis tries to provide an interpretation of the reality of ‘alternative' producers in these two cities. The objective is to bring out their identity and their story, their representations of the problems affecting the food system and their personal strategies to cope with them, plus the requirements, logics and mechanisms of action which define the participation to an AFN and make it possible. I tried to analyze the set of values and ideological references inspiring their actions, their opportunities, and the critical points and obstacles which threaten their development and that of the AFNs themselves. By investigating the habitus of this emerging field and the operations of its players, my attempt is to objectify the presence and practices of these ‘new’ food producers, along with the corresponding ‘de-commodification’ modalities with which their activities are re-integrated within an innovative system of social relations.

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Richards, Richard Roberto. "Short Food Supply Chains: Expectations and Reality." ScholarWorks @ UVM, 2015. http://scholarworks.uvm.edu/graddis/415.

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Alternative food systems (AFSs) are so defined because they purport to challenge a value or ameliorate a negative impact of the dominant conventional food system (CFS). Short food supply chains (SFSCs) are a type of AFS whose alterity is defined by socially proximal economic exchanges that are embedded in and regulated by social relationships. This relational closeness is argued to have benefits with respect to economic, environmental, and social sustainability. However, it would be a mistake to assume that AFSs and CFSs are paradigmatically differentiated or that their structures engender particular outcomes. The first article traces a misguided attempt to find indicators of success for farms participating in short food supply chains. The effort was misguided, because in designing the original study there was an assumption that producers participating in these AFSs shared similar goals, values, and definitions of success. The true diversity of these variables was discovered through the analysis of eighteen semi-structured interviews with Burlington and Montpelier area farmers who participate in SFSCs. This diversity motivated an exploration of the origins, common applications, and recent academic skepticism regarding assumptions of the relationship between certain food systems structures and broader food systems outcomes. The second article undertakes to develop a framework for exploring the actual motivations of SFSCs farmers and challenging common AFS assumptions. A framework that differentiates motivations guided by formal and substantive rationality is used to code the aforementioned data. Common themes amongst the responses are discussed demonstrating that producer motivations for participating in AFSs can be diverse, contradictory, and subject to change.

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Sidsaph, Henry W. "Understanding the role of social media in relation to Alternative Food Networks : a case of Chester and its region." Thesis, University of Chester, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10034/621471.

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Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) are a system of food provision which is considered as the embodiment of the Sustainable Development (SD) agenda. They typically operate counteractively to conventional food networks (CFNs) seeking to reconnect all members in the supply chain through ethical and sustainable engagements. They are grounded by the theoretical underpinnings of quality conventions (Murdoch, 2000; Thévenot, 2002) and embeddedness notions such as alterity, valorisation, and appropriation (Dansero & Puttilli, 2014; Kirwan, 2004). Many scholars have focused on exploring AFNs in various contexts, initially focusing on binary notions of dichotomy between AFNs and CFNs, then developing discourse in terms of assessing hybridity (Holloway et al., 2006; Maye, 2013; Ponte, 2016; Renting, Marsden, & Banks, 2003; Tregear, 2011). Recent studies have indicated the potential for further research concerning social media based AFNs (Bos & Owen, 2016; Reed & Keech, 2017; Wills & Arundel, 2017). Therefore a contribution in terms of further understanding this issue arises from this thesis. The research was conducted in the midst of the referendum for the UK to withdraw from the European Union, the subsequent ‘leave’ vote resulting in a level of uncertainty in terms of policy implications. One policy implication may be that the UK will have to readdress the way it engages and supports its food and agriculture sector post-Common Agricultural Policy, therefore this research comes at a timely juncture. This research adopts an interpretivistic epistemological stance, with a constructivist ontological position. Social network analysis (SNA) of Twitter connections was conducted in order to assess connectivity and density of the AFN that was present in Chester and its region. Content analysis of this network was then conducted in order to understand SD related terms and shortlist pertinent actors for further analysis. Interviews were conducted with nine actors from this network in order to critically evaluate their perceptions of SD from an online and offline perspective. The results of the SNA suggest that the AFN of Chester and its region was not particularly well connected in terms of density. However, the SNA was a useful data collection tool, especially concerning the replicability and transferability of participant selection strategy. Further results suggested that there was a need for more organisational structures to support AFNs in becoming more mainstream and collaborative. It was also clear that there was still a degree of opposition between CFNs and AFNs, despite hybridity. A final finding of the research is the consideration of smart localism. The implications of this research are discussed, along with suggestions for future research including; the need to better understand leadership, relations between AFNs and CFNs, the role played by intermediates, and the expansion of social media based research.

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Wilbur, Andrew Mahaffey. "Seeding alternatives : back-to-the-land migration and alternative agro-food networks in Northern Italy." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2012. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/3440/.

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This thesis explores ‘back-to-the-land’ migration in Northern Italy with reference to the social, political and economic networks that sustain it. ‘Back-to-the-land’ generally refers to the adoption of agriculture as a full-time vocation by people who have come from non-agricultural lifestyles. For categorical clarity in this project, research participants were limited to those from predominantly urban backgrounds, most of whom worked in service sector jobs before moving to the countryside. Many geographical studies have examined urban to rural migration but these have focused almost primarily on migrants who are not engaged in agriculture. This research traces theorisations of urban to rural migration within the discipline, situating back-to-the-land as part of broader counterculture practices originating in the 1960s. Many current expressions of back-to-the-land, however, reveal an attempt to address contemporary social, environmental and economic concerns, representing both a trajectory and an evolution from 1960s origins. Empirical research was conducted in four northern regions of Italy, looking specifically at urban to rural migrants engaged in organic or other ‘alternative’ forms of agriculture. Three simple questions informed the methodology and theoretical perspectives employed: 1) Why do people go back-to-the-land?; 2) How do they obtain the requisite skills to become competent farmers?; 3) How do they make this lifestyle economically sustainable? Answering these questions demands attention to how new farmers are inspired, supported and sustained by alternative agro-food networks (AAFNs). The research therefore explores the reciprocal relationships between back-to-the-landers and AAFNs, examining how new farmers can stimulate and influence AAFNs in addition to receiving their support. These issues are explored through interviews with back-to-the- landers and institutional representatives of AAFNs, as well participant observation in alternative agriculture projects. Particular attention is given to the organisations Slow Food, Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) and Associazione per Esperienze (APE), primarily with regard to their respective roles in enabling back-to-the-land migration.

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Sahlgren, Anna, and Viktor Hilber. "Motives for Engaging in Alternative Food Networks : A Case Study with Partner Companies to Regionalwert AG." Thesis, Malmö universitet, Institutionen för Urbana Studier (US), 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-45187.

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Modern society’s industrial food system has led to several environmental problems and is compromising the fundamental aspects of agriculture such as fertile soil, biodiversity, and ecosystem services. In addition to this, the food system contributes to economic and social difficulties for actors within the agricultural sector. Hence, the food system requires a deep socio-economic change. Regionalwert AG is among other alternative food networks, an initiative to enhance sustainable agriculture by operating at a regional level. In this study, interviews were conducted with partner companies of Regionalwert AG with the aim to examine what motivates people to engage in alternative food networks, using Regionalwert AG as an exemplary case. A further aim was to examine the partnership between the partner companies and Regionalwert AG. The results were analysed using the study's state of knowledge and the theoretical framework, consisting of alienation theory. The study shows that the informants had unique stories about how they engaged with the network and that the partnership was constructed in three different ways: investment partnership, licensed partnership, and supportive partnership. The motivations that emerged from the study were divided into three themes: (i) economic, social and ideological, (ii) critical approach towards the food system, and (iii) re-connecting people with agriculture. The informants expressed that they want to spread knowledge and awareness about food production and Regionalwert AG makes this financially possible as well as provides a platform to spread the message about the value of food.
Det moderna samhällets industriella livsmedelssystem har lett till flera miljöproblem och det kompromissar fundamentala aspekter inom jordbruket som bördig jord, biodiversitet och ekosystemtjänster. Utöver miljöproblemen bidrar livsmedelssystemet till ekonomiska och sociala svårigheter för aktörer inom jordbrukssektorn. Därav krävs en stor socioekonomisk förändring av livsmedelssystemet. Regionalwert AG är tillsammans med andra alternativa livsmedelsnätverk ett initiativ till att öka hållbart jordbruk genom att verka på en regional nivå. I den här studien, genomfördes intervjuer med partnerföretag till Regionalwert AG med syftet att undersöka vad som motiverar människor att gå med i alternativa livsmedelsnätverk, genom att använda Regionalwert AG som ett exemplifierande fall. Ett ytterligare syfte var att undersöka partnerskapet mellan partnerföretagen och Regionalwert AG. Resultatet analyserades med hjälp av studiens kunskapsläge och teoretiska ramverk, bestående av alienationsteori. Studien visar att informanterna hade unika berättelser om hur de anslöt sig till nätverket och att partnerskapet var konstruerat på tre olika sätt: investerings partnerskap, licensierat partnerskap och stödjande partnerskap. Motivationerna som kom fram genom studien föll under tre teman: (i) ekonomisk, social och ideologisk, (ii) kritisk inställning mot livsmedelssystemet och (iii) återknyta människor med jordbruket. Informanterna uttryckte att de vill sprida kunskap och medvetenhet om matproduktion och Regionalwert AG gör detta finansiellt möjligt samt utgör en plattform för att sprida budskapet om värdet bakom livsmedel.

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Ke, Jinghan. "ALTERNATIVE AGRI-FOOD NETWORKS AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT : THE CASE OF CHINA IN THE CONTEXT OF SANNONG." Kyoto University, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/2433/244506.

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PINNA, SALVATORE. "The role of alternative food networks in agricultural landscape conservation: some evidences from Italy and Spain." Doctoral thesis, Università degli Studi di Cagliari, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/11584/248720.

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Drawing on the vast literature about Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) and by utilizing the concepts of social, spatial and ecological embeddedness, this thesis studies the driving forces boosting the AFN farmers’ behaviours in the Community of Madrid and the AFN and conventional farmers in Sardinia, as well as the promotion of AFN practices within the rural parks of Rivas-Vaciamadrid (Spain) and Milan (Italy). The aim is to discover if, and to what extent, landscape and environmental protection goals are embedded in individual AFN and conventional practices, and how practices are promoted in spatial planning projects regarding alternative forms of production. The case studies are based on the qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews: 13 producers in Spain and 25 in Sardinia (including organic and conventional ones), and on the analysis of websites promoting farms belonging to the Soto del Grillo agro-ecological Park in Rivas-Vaciamadrid (7 websites) and the Parco Agricolo Sud in Milan (14 websites). Within the Grounded Theory (GT) framework, codification and saturation methods have been chosen to analyse texts and to determine the sample size. Sampling has been conducted by the non-statistic snowball sampling technique. Codification method allows deeply analysing textual contents and to build a theoretical model describing the case study, by disassembling texts into basic ideas and reassembling them in more general categories. The relationship among categories forms the final theory or model. In the study, the behaviours of Spanish and Sardinian farmers are described through “embeddedness styles” characterised by the way in which categories interplay. In both the case studies, economy and ecology play a different balance within the behaviours, completed by other categories that influence farmers’ insights and practices. Every producer has been included just in one category according to her/his main preference, which does not imply the absence of a positive attitude towards other categories. Websites contents have been analysed by drawing on geographical lores (or knowledges), which have been modified in order to adapt them to the case studies. Geographical lores allow classifying promotional material contents according to the concept of displacement, describing which type of information is used to influence purchasing decisions. Finally, a questionnaire based on the values promoted by the two rural parks has been provided to seven of the 18 Sardinian farmers, in order to discover their attitude towards planning regulations and restrictions related to rural development, rural landscape preservation and environmental protection. Results show how the three types of embeddedness (spatial, ecological and social) work in forming the farmers’ behaviours, and if and to what extent these are influenced by the territorial context where farmers live and work, as for example in the case of the Soto del Grillo Park in the Spanish case. Geographical lores from the websites stress the way of promoting the farms and the agricultural activities, indicating which values are considered more useful to influence consumers’ decisions.

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Brislen, Lilian. "IN THE BUTTERNUT BIG TIME: FOOD HUBS, FARMERS, AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNITY AGRO-FOOD ECONOMIES." UKnowledge, 2017. http://uknowledge.uky.edu/sociology_etds/34.

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Food hubs, a new model of values-based agro-food enterprise, are promoted by their advocates as a means to simultaneously improve the livelihoods of small and mid-sized farmers, increase the social and environmental sustainability of the food system, and supply the ever increasing consumer demand for health, local food. Noting the contradictions embedded in the promise of simultaneously generating both social values and economic value, this study explores how goals of promoting positive social, economic, or environmental change are achieved and/or inhibited when implemented though marketbased activities. Through a series of three in-depth case studies of food hubs in the Southeastern United States, the three papers compiled in this dissertation investigate how food hubs work to realize abstract non-financial goals (e.g. ‘helping family farmers’, ‘promoting sustainable food systems’) through the mundane work of food aggregation and distribution. Particular attention is paid to the experiences of mid-sized farmers who participate in food hubs, and the historic, material, and subjective processes that influence the development of food hubs and their many stakeholders. Highlighting the tensions and negotiations inherent to the hybrid social-and-monetary work of food hubs, I assert the need for an analytical framework that can account for the more-than-financial dimensions of economic and ethical praxis. To that end, I draw on the theories of J.K. Gibson-Graham to suggest that food hubs are best understood as a form of post-capitalist enterprise situated within a community agro-food economy, wherein reciprocal and interdependent relationships are forged between new economic subjects through deliberate and ongoing negotiation of care via the process and outcomes of diverse economic activity.

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Bellante, Laurel. "Building the local food movement in Chiapas, Mexico: rationales, benefits, and limitations." SPRINGER, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/623140.

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Alternative food networks (AFNs) have become a common response to the socioecological injustices generated by the industrialized food system. Using a political ecology framework, this paper evaluates the emergence of an AFN in Chiapas, Mexico. While the Mexican context presents a particular set of challenges, the case study also reveals the strength the alternative food movement derives from a diverse network of actors committed to building a “community economy” that reasserts the multifunctional values of organic agriculture and local commodity chains. Nonetheless, just as the AFN functions as an important livelihood strategy for otherwise disenfranchised producers it simultaneously encounters similar limitations as those observed in other market-driven approaches to sustainable food governance.

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Mead, Amber. "Assessing the Integration of Domestic Fair Trade into Consumer Food Cooperatives in the United States." OpenSIUC, 2011. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/585.

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The Domestic Fair Trade (DFT) movement is based on the idea that family farms and small-to -mid-scale farms in the global north are facing many of the same pressures that producers in the global south are facing. Therefore, those participating in food, fiber, and fuel systems in North American should also benefit from fair trade practices. Through the formation of the Domestic Fair Trade Association in the United States, there are now a variety of stakeholders that have come together to find a viable and progressive solution to issues related to fair prices and wages, human rights, environmentally harmful agricultural practices, and food safety and traceability through the framework of fair trade. This study examines how the Domestic Fair Trade movement has been realized in one of the participating groups of stakeholders; consumer food cooperatives. Five cooperatives are assessed to determine their experiences with integrating Domestic Fair Trade into their business practices. Research includes interviews with co-op managers, surveys taken by co-op shoppers, and document analysis of Domestic Fair Trade Association meetings. The research methods provide insight into how DFT intersects with this group of stakeholders and how their experiences relate to what is being discussed at the organizational level of DFT. The research reveals that with the help of the DFTA and the ongoing participation of its members, the United States DFT movement has the potential to create ethical linkages within the food system.

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ALESSANDRINI, MIRTA. "Small Farmers and the Short Food Supply Chain. The CAP and the Californian Alternative Food Movements as a source of potential insights." Doctoral thesis, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/10280/93598.

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Gli scenari agricoli europei rivelano un crescente interesse per le filiere corte come strumento di promozione dei sistemi alimentari locali. Nonostante i piccoli agricoltori siano la spina dorsale dell'agricoltura europea, gli interventi politici e legislativi che si sono susseguiti nei decenni non hanno sufficientemente tutelato ne promosso la loro attuale posizione in ambito socio-economico. Il presente lavoro mira a fornire un'approfondita analisi del ruolo delle filiere corte all'interno del quadro normativo europeo per comprendere se l’attuale legislazione sostiene o piuttosto inibisce questi sistemi alternativi di produzione e distribuzione alimentare. Muovendo dall'esame della pletora di definizioni attribuite alla filiera corta e soffermandosi su una revisione critica delle più significative riforme della PAC, in particolare alla luce della strategia 'Farm to Fork', vengono identificate nuove priorità che appaiono più favorevoli ai piccoli agricoltori. Lo studio è arrichito da un confronto tra l'approccio adottoato dell'UE - caratterizzato principalmente da strumenti di hard law e misure top-down -, e quello della California ‘socialmente auto-regolato’, in cui gli 'Alternative Food Movements' e le strategie bottom-up sono attori principali nella regolamentazione della filiere corte e del loro impatto sulla comunità. Lo scopo finale é quello di identificare potenziali elementi utili che, se adottati, potrebbero migliorare il modello europeo.
European agricultural landscapes are undergoing fundamental changes, revealing an increasing interest in Short Food Supply Chains as a tool to promote local food systems and products. Despite small farmers are the backbone of agriculture in the EU, both policy leadership and legal interventions have been not sufficiently fostering their position in the socio and economic today’s narrative. The study aims at providing an extensive analysis of the role of SFSCs within the EU legal framework to understand whether EU legislation supports or rather inhibits these alternative systems of production and supply. Moving from the examination of the plethora of SFSC definitions to a critical revision of the most significant CAP reforms, especially in the light of the ‘Farm to Fork’ strategy, new priorities that seem more favorable to small farmers are identified. The study is enriched by a comparison between the EU legal approach - mainly characterized by hard law instruments and top-down measures -, and the Californian ‘socially self-regulated’ approach, where Alternative Food Movements and bottom-up strategies act as the main player in regulating SFSCs and their impact on the community with the aim of identifying potential insights that could improve the EU model.

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Outhwaite, Samantha. "The social life of British organic biodynamic wheat : biopolitics, biopower and governance." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2017. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/the-social-life-of-british-organic-biodynamic-wheat-biopolitics-biopower-and-governance(01d36805-6def-4fb0-aa47-8bc0461c849e).html.

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This thesis unpacks the social life of an alternative food "thing". It is empirically grounded in an intensive ethnography and draws on the conceptual resources of Actor-Network Theory (ANT) to narrate alterity as it is manifest in an alternative food network (AFN). Following and tracing British Organic Biodynamic (BOB) wheat, the research weaves through the seed (from breeding to certification), the grain crop's cultivation, harvest and milling, and the final transformations from flour to real bread and its consumption. The storying of the BOB wheat's social life, its social relations and subsequent transformations reveals a persistent blurring of formal distinctions separating 'nature' and 'culture', humans and nonhumans, and production and consumption. Most importantly, it disrupts the traditional categorization of food networks as either 'conventional' or 'alternative'. The analysis of the BOB wheat's social life betrays the imagined purity of alterity of this supposed alternative food network, unveiling a heterogeneous web of hybrid actants and multiple performances of wheats. The analysis reveals a conflict within the BOB wheat network, by demonstrating how performances that are presented as deeply incommensurable are nevertheless inextricably and intimately connected. Consequently, 'conventional', and some 'more-than-conventional', performances threaten to undermine the BOB wheat networks' legitimacy as an AFN. Further, they intimate an ontological impurity that threatens the very possibility of alterity. Accordingly, my analysis narrates the BOB wheat network's efforts to stabilize alterity and expand the collective, through the purification of these incommensurable versions of the wheat. Ultimately, this process of purification works to persistently reconstitute modern ontological binaries, specifically the alternative-convention bifurcations of food networks. To conclude I suggest that this purification, the making and manifesting of alterity, is woven through the contemporary biopolitical dispositive - persistently circulating and remaking, Modern ontological framings of reality as well as the moral and ethical values therein.

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Kennedy, Rachael Eve. "Establishing Nourishing Food Networks in an Era of Global-local Tensions: An Interdisciplinary Ethnography in Turkey." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/85589.

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This dissertation ethnographically explores the social concerns related to the global, agro-industrial system's impact on many communities' potential for livelihood and health. At the core of this study is the desire to understand the complex and dynamic ways that communities strive to develop, and make sense of, networks that address these wicked problems and to understand how these strategies might aggregate to promote community resiliency. An investigation of alternative food networks (AFNs) was contextualized in one province in Western Turkey. The AFNs were articulated by an ethnographic design that utilized tools from different fields of study. Integrating actor-network theory, new social movements theory, and the nourishing networks framework allowed for robust triangulation of data. I conclude that AFNs in this province are nascent and remain fragmented. At present, AFNs have not been leveraged for community resiliency efforts. However, they hold the seeds of what may become a food sovereignty social movement. This ethnography reveals that the province has assets, including numerous affinity groups, and a durable connection to heritage with strong reverberations of a nature-culture. I illuminate the broad spectrum of submerged and visible actants and actors that prime the AFNs' development. The wide variance creates diffuse and contradictory cultural implications. Actors report they constantly negotiate cultural aspects related to AFNs. They conceptualize this work as a polymorphous phenomenon of fragmented communities and a culture of dependency; but they show fortitude by negotiating multi-phasic actions and multi-vocal resistance messaging. By way of this study I illustrate that their cultural politics take place where economy and identity interface. Actors seek legitimization. They speak of infusing heritage-based ideals into projects. They are firm that agricultural modernization must come from Turkish values. And, they are formulating and strengthening ideological-based discourses. I further clarify their development strategies by showing how AFNs are experimenting with new governance strategies and focusing on social embedding. Promotion of niche markets has begun. However, public and private resources are limited, which hinders the momentum of AFNs. Additional research is needed to better understand the processes for high functioning AFNs in Turkey.
Ph. D.

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Wight, Robert. "Community Supported Agriculture as Public Education: Networked Communities of Practice Building Alternative Agrifood Systems." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1427798047.

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Klotz, Ryan J. "Sustainable Rural Development Through Alternative Economic Networks: Redefining Relations in the Commodity Chain For Export Vegetables In Western Guatemala." FIU Digital Commons, 2012. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/683.

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The current research considers the capacity of a local organic food system for producer and consumer empowerment and sustainable development outcomes in western Guatemala. Many have argued that the forging of local agricultural networks linking farmers, consumers, and supporting institutions is an effective tool for challenging the negative economic, environmental, and sociopolitical impacts associated with industrial models of global food production. But does this work in the context of agrarian development in the developing world? Despite the fact that there is extensive literature concerning local food system formation in the global north, there remains a paucity of research covering how the principles of local food systems are being integrated into agricultural development projects in developing countries. My work critically examines claims to agricultural sustainability and actor empowerment in a local organic food system built around non-traditional agricultural crops in western Guatemala. Employing a mixed methods research design involving twenty months of participant observation, in-depth interviewing, surveying, and a self-administered questionnaire, the project evaluates the sustainability of this NGO-led development initiative and local food movement along several dimensions. Focusing on the unique economic and social networks of actors and institutions at each stage of the commodity chain, this research shows how the growth of an alternative food system continues to be shaped by context specific processes, politics, and structures of conventional food systems. Further, it shows how the specifics of context also produce new relationships of cooperation and power in the development process. Results indicate that structures surrounding agrarian development in the Guatemalan context give rise to a hybrid form of development that at the same time contests and reinforces conventional models of food production and consumption. Therefore, participation entails a host of compromises and tradeoffs that result in mixed successes and setbacks, as actors attempt to refashion conventional commodity chains through local food system formation.

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Snell, Johanna. "Sustainability in the Regional Food Supply Chain of Lahti." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för geovetenskaper, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-324189.

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Unsustainable food production and consumption patterns are threatening our living environment and our lives on earth. There is a need for profound transition in our ways to produce and consume food. Food, its production and consumption is a hot topic currently – as can be seen in media and in several projects run by various institutions. Circular economy and sustainable resource management address different actors as well. The City of Lahti joined the FISU-network and is taking steps towards sustainable resource management. This thesis contributes to the ongoing work of the City of Lahti in developing its food sustainability strategic work through its participation in the FISU-network. The study aims to investigate the state of the regional food supply chain of Lahti, Finland, and its path on sustainability transition. Further on, it examines how alternative food networks may impact different aspects of sustainable local development and what kind of a role actors of regional food supply chain play in promoting food sustainability. This study applied a case study approach and used qualitative research methods in the forms of workshop and semi-structured interviews. The results were examined applying the theoretical framework which included Activity theory, Co-Creation and Economy of Common Good. There are various policies and strategies on global, national and regional level aiming to sustain the food system, food production and consumption, as well as promoting the use of local food. Few of them were used to reveal the present state of the regional food supply chain together with the results gained at the workshop and interviews to find the desired way. Alternative food networks may shorten the food supply chain and allow everyone a chance to contribute to local food sustainability. They may have social meaning by bringing the food supply chain actors together and offering more value than purchasing goods. Consumers can act as co-creators having possibility to influence what is produced, where and how. Alternative food networks may not necessarily be ecological, but they may have wider implications for the regional and local communities on economic, social and cultural levels by offering jobs, interaction, as well as giving a face and a story to the food.

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Champion, Benjamin Lee. "The political economy of "local foods" in Eastern Kansas : opportunities and justice in emerging agro-food networks and markets." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2007. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:6f0586d3-7302-4650-9fe7-8254b1e7e1f0.

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Alternative agriculture and counter-cuisine movements have grown to a strong cultural current in Western European and North American societies. In recent years,these movements have begun to converge and coalesce around the concept of localizing agri-food relations and commodity chains as a way of redressing the deleterious environmental, social, and economic consequences of what are seen as dominant globalized food relations. This dissertation reports on a regional study in Eastern Kansas of the political economy of local food relations that has arisen through this producer and consumer response. It is an effort to recognize the regional interplay of disparate forces in constructing local food systems in the interest of framing more contextualized and nuanced questions about the environmental, social, and economic outcomes of alternative agri-food development. Network, conventions, and spatial analysis theories and methods were customized and put into practice in the service of these aims, using triangulation among them to mitigate each of their individual weaknesses in representing the variable embeddedness, politics, and spaces of local food in Eastern Kansas. It was found that local food generally represents a marketing niche in urban consumerism that is served primarily by regional rural producers. The distances, agricultural and food ecologies, forms of organization, and values underpinning local food linkages were all found to vary quite considerably throughout the region, creating a diverse combination of development agendas and impacts from local food networks and making food localization a highly contested concept. Local food development in its current form is thus highly dependent on urban/rural dialectics and projects of urbanization that lack open, transparent, and reflexive governance. Critical acknowledgement of these development interdependencies is important as a step toward encouraging social, economic, and environmental justice through local food development.

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Tranchina, Brent. "Growing Support: Localism, Nonprofits, and Food Access in Post-Katrina New Orleans." ScholarWorks@UNO, 2012. http://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1490.

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Problems with food insecurity, such as a lack of access to healthy and affordable food in low-income neighborhoods, has been an ongoing challenge in New Orleans. The damages inflicted by Hurricane Katrina and subsequent citywide flooding on the local food system reduced the numerical count of operational full-service supermarkets and grocery stores throughout the city. The result has been a widespread presence of food deserts and grocery gaps, particularly in low-income neighborhoods. This thesis explores the emergence of food localism practices by food advocacy professionals as a capacity-building tool for New Orleans residents to increase community food security and develop a sustainable local food economy. This paper finds although alternative agro-food networks have increased the availability of healthy and locally produced foods in New Orleans, it provide evidence demonstrating their limited capacity to regularly provide healthy or affordable food in a similar manner to grocery stores in low-income neighborhoods.

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Hasnain, Saher. "Food environments in Islamabad, Pakistan." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2016. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:10da5535-3e49-4a49-a3a9-908075ec886e.

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This dissertation examines how concerns about food system transformations affect how middle class consumers in Islamabad, Pakistan, perceive and approach food consumption in their everyday lives. The dissertation is situated in the context of risky food environments and food fears resulting from intensified, industrialised, and increasingly lengthened global food systems. Working within food geography and food environments paradigms, this dissertation explores how the transformation of food systems is associated with increasing anxiety about food security and safety for middle class urban consumers in Islamabad. Qualitative data gathered from semi-structured interviews and participant observation is used to illustrate the effects external influences, such as energy scarcity and violent events, have on everyday food environments. The dissertation examines the ways in which conceptualisations of 'good food', and trust relationships are negotiated in these dynamic food environments. The intensely geographical nature of these food environments and food systems, and the role of place-specific contexts on perceptions and adaptations related to food anxieties are emphasised. Situated in literatures on food anxiety and food consumption emerging from geography, food studies, and anthropology, this dissertation challenges dominant discourses on alternative and ethical consumption in a globalising food system. The results of this research not only contribute to literature on South Asia, but also contribute to consumption practices of a burgeoning middle class in developing countries.

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Haggärde, Emilia. "Hur fungerar samarbete mellan konkurrenter? : En studie om coopetition i det alternativa matnätverket REKO-ring." Thesis, Karlstads universitet, Handelshögskolan (from 2013), 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-82736.

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Intresset för närproducerad mat växer. Klimatdebatten ökar medvetenheten kring maten vi äter. Som ett resultat av detta startades REKO-ring 2013 i Finland. 2016 kom REKO-ring till Sverige och har ökat snabbt i popularitet. REKO står för rejäl konsumtion och konceptet går ut på att närproducerad mat säljs via Facebook-grupper, direkt från producent till konsument. Antalet producenter som säljer liknande produkter inom varje REKO-ring ökar vilket bidrar till att producenterna måste samarbeta och konkurrera samtidigt. Syftet med studien är att öka förståelsen för hur samarbete och konkurrens fungerar mellan producenter inom REKO-ring samt undersöka om begreppet coopetition kan utvecklas genom tillämpning i alternativa matnätverk. Tidigare forskning gällande fördelar och nackdelar inom alternativa matnätverk, samarbete och konkurrens inom alternativa matnätverk samt coopetition används för att uppnå syftet. Genom kvalitativa intervjuer med grönsaksproducenter som deltar i REKO-ring samlades empiri in för att söka svar på de forskningsfrågor som vägleder undersökningen. Resultatet visar bland annat att producenterna upplever relationen med konsument som en fördel och mängden administration som en nackdel. Samlingen av producenter är en positiv sida av samarbetet och behovet att vara strategisk nämns som ett resultat av konkurrensen. Utifrån coopetition visar det sig leda till bättre kvalitet och större utbud. Relationerna inom nätverket är god, men studien finner också tecken på att engagemanget ibland brister hos deltagande producenter. Studien finner även att producenter inom REKO-ring inte anser att en anställd ansvarig behövs i nätverket vilket visar på motsatsen mot tidigare studier som finner att ledarskap är viktigt där coopetitionbaserade relationer existerar.

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Cook, Brittany Eleanor. "PRODUCING TRADITION: INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS AND DEVELOPMENT IN JORDANIAN OLIVE OIL." UKnowledge, 2018. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/geography_etds/54.

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This dissertation project examines how value is changed and created through organic certification and the universalizing ideas of capacity building within the olive oil industry in Jordan and how these shifts affect the social and material processes of production. I approach organic olive oil production in Jordan as one method that producers use in accessing markets and capacity building. By shifting from looking strictly at organic certified farms to examining the larger context of capacity building and international standards, I identify how organic is just one strategy in a larger effort to diversify Jordanian agricultural production and to access global markets. However, more work needs to be done to elucidate how development shapes organic and other ‘alternative’ initiatives differently than in European and North American contexts. In order to do this, I incorporate postcolonial critiques of GPN and critical development studies to further our understanding how of these certifications and standards are taken up, challenged, and sometimes abandoned in favor of other production methods in local spaces of the Global South. The local embeddedness of olive oil production and the relative recent history of export provide a unique opportunity for examining how producers, organizations, governments, and universities create new export industries. In order to trace how these capacities are built, this dissertation examines the following questions: how is value redefined as producers try to access distant consumers? What are the material and social strategies? In answering these questions, I examine three types of value: taste/sensory, organic/environmental, and gendered tradition. Through the examination of these values, I found that they were each built through a mechanism: re-asetheticizing local taste, creating a new commodity network, and pushing domestic labor into the public sphere. Each mechanism has intended and unintended consequences for the social relations of production. In summary, this dissertation explores the use (and abandonment) of organic certification within the larger context of development and capacity building in Jordan. In order to explore how value is being created in new ways, the three empirical chapters examine extra virginity, organic certification, and women’s rural organizations. By looking beyond a singular commodity chain, this dissertation examines the processes through which institutional assemblages are formed and destabilized. Therefore, each of the three empirical chapters covers a different aspect of the institutions that are defining value within the larger network of the olive industry. This approach will further our understanding of how quality and conventions function in systems under transition. (Higgins, Dibden, and Cocklin 2008a). Together these findings provide a broad picture of efforts in Jordan to improve and expand the Jordanian olive oil industry. A large aspect of this effort is to produce exportable olive oil. While only a small percentage of producers are exporting, governmental and development networks want to build the capacity of the olive industry so that more farmers are producing to international standards. Through this broad initiative, traditional ideas of quality and the best practices of production are being challenged. These shifts create new networks and products through which rural producers try to capture value. While the overall ramifications of this shift for the average farmer are small now, with further government standardizing, production and its associated social relations could be significantly changed. The traditional farmers who were able to sell within their personal networks may lose their ability to sell flexibly, and simultaneously larger irrigated producers may flourish, having larger environmental impacts.

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Gagliotta, Carla <1992&gt. "Le nuove tendenze del consumo alimentare: consumo sostenibile e consumo critico. Alternative food networks: il case study del Distretto di Economia Solidale OltreConfin e il progetto Csa Veneto." Master's Degree Thesis, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10579/14762.

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L'obiettivo di tale elaborato è approfondire le esperienze di consumo critico e solidale, attraverso l’analisi della diffusione di alternative food network a Treviso e Provincia, tramite la presentazione di un caso studio. Partendo dall’analisi della letteratura sui modelli di consumo alimentare, vengono evidenziati i nuovi trend e le nuove esigenze dei consumatori, focalizzando poi l'attenzione sulle diverse realtà dell'economia solidale. Il lavoro presentato, infatti, è stato svolto con l’obiettivo di indagare i fattori e i valori che motivano la scelta del consumo critico e l’universo degli alternative food networks nel food. Dopo aver definito il Consumo Critico e Solidale e la sua evoluzione storica, sono stati analizzati alcuni degli aspetti che lo caratterizzano come l’agricoltura biologica, i prodotti tipici, il commercio equo-solidale, la filiera corta, per poi approfondire su alcune delle best practies dei food networks: gruppi di acquisto solidale, distretto di economia solidale, comunità che supporta l’agricoltura. Successivamente viene portato, dunque, come caso studio un approfondimento sul Distretto di Economia Solidale OltreConfin e il progetto Csa Veneto, i quali raggruppano al loro interno esponenti del consumo critico, come produttori e consumatori, delineandone storia, principi ispiratori, meccanismi operativi e struttura organizzativa.

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Davolio, F. "Produzione, consumo, qualità alimentare: il caso di Slow Food." Doctoral thesis, Università degli Studi di Milano, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/2434/161698.

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This dissertation explores the moralization of food economies, increasingly pursued by civil society organizations and groups in the context of global food markets. This subject is here framed in terms of collective disputes over the cultural politics of food quality. The research is based on the case study of Slow Food, an international Italy-based association that has established itself as a significant, effective and controversial actor on the scene of sustainable consumption advocacy. Drawing on qualitative (interviews with key representatives; publications and speeches; participant observation at organizational events) and quantitative sources (a survey on the demographics and initiatives of the Italian association), this work shows how an economic institution and cultural intermediary such as Slow Food acts towards the moralization of food production and consumption by promoting cultural innovations on alternative food markets on one side, and by mobilizing a specific approach to the concept of food quality – one that relies on environmental, social and sensory virtues – on the public arena on the other. Potential, limits, implications of the Slow Food approach to the cultural economy of food circuits and to the ethics of consumption are determined.

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Sargentoni, Tommaso. "La sostenibilità economica della filiera corta agroalimentare." Doctoral thesis, Università Politecnica delle Marche, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/11566/242045.

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Il recente sviluppo di diverse tipologie di filiere corte, tra cui la vendita diretta, risponde all’esigenza dell’imprenditore agricolo di creare reddito valorizzando le produzioni locali. Non di meno la filiera corta concretizza il concetto teorico di sostenibilità sia in termini economici, ambientali e sociali, dando vita alla multifunzionalità in agricoltura. La seconda metà del ventesimo secolo ha visto il verificarsi di profondi cambiamenti nella filiera agroalimentare dominata dalla Grande Distribuzione. Ciò ha comportato un indebolimento dei legami che esistono tra il consumatore e i produttore e l’asimmetria informativa relativamente alle caratteristiche degli alimenti, alla loro origine e alla metodologia di produzione. Ciò è stato causato dal crescente sviluppo dell’agricoltura intensiva, della trasformazione industriale dei prodotti alimentari e di abitudini di consumo, che hanno stimolato l’innovazione tecnologica nei confronti dei convenience foods. L’obiettivo generale del lavoro di tesi è duplice ed è rivolto, da una parte a determinare la convenienza economica per una azienda agricola a realizzare il percorso di filiera corta e dall’altra valutare le problematiche esistenti per i produttori i consumatori che acquistano in filiera corta. L’analisi è stata condotta su due casi di studio condotti nel territorio della regione Marche attraverso un’indagine diretta con questionario ad hoc. Il primo, ha analizzato la filiera corta dell’olio extravergine di oliva in una regione del Centro Italia (Marche), dimostrando che, stante le diverse condizioni economiche e strutturali dell’azienda, può essere conveniente attuare tale percorso. Il secondo, ha determinato, attraverso una indagine socio-economica, le caratteristiche e le problematiche esistenti per le aziende agricole che effettuano la vendita in filiera corta, nonché le caratteristiche dei consumatori che acquistano in filiera corta e in filiera lunga (GDO). Dalle indagini è emerso che, nell’ambito dell’attività agricola, dove i costi di produzione sono molto spesso elevati e difficilmente garantiscono una redditività adeguata con la tradizionale forma di vendita, la filiera corta può rappresentare una strategia di impresa capace di creare un vantaggio competitivo.
The recent development of different types of short food supply chains (SFCSs) meets the need of the farmer to generate revenue emphasizing local production. Nevertheless the short food supply chain achieves the theoretical concept of sustainability in terms of economic, environmental and social, giving rise to multifunctionality in agriculture. The second half of the twentieth century witnessed dramatic changes in the production, distribution and consumption of food. The result has been a weakening links between the consumer and the producer and the asymmetry of information relating to the characteristics of the food, its origin and method of production. This was caused by the increasing development of intensive agriculture, the industrial processing of food and consumer habits which have stimulated technological innovation towards convenience foods. At the same time the farmer in recent years has faced a number of difficulties related to the inputs increase, the volatility of prices and international competition, which are leading to a dramatic decrease in income. In this context, the short food supply chain is one of the possible solutions to the economic sustainability of farm. The aim of the present work is twofold and one is to investigate the economic sustainability for a farmers to realize the short food supply chain and the other assessing the existing problems for producers and consumers who buy in SFCS. In doing so, the analysis was conducted on two case studies carried out in the territory of the Marche region through a direct survey with questionnaire. The first analyzed the short food supply chain extra virgin olive oil in a region of central Italy. The results showing that selling the extra virgin olive oil in short supply chains is sustainably profitable for farmers. In doing so, the costs of the extra virgin olive oil supply chain are estimated and allocated. Furthermore, building on the comparison of profitability indicators of farmers selling the raw material and farmers selling the processed product, it is demonstrated that selling the final product directly to consumers is potentially an economically viable option for producers. The second through a socio-economic survey, we investigated the characteristics and problems for farms and consumers who buy in the SFCS.

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Souza, Julia Zarpelon Coelho de. "Comércio solidário na prática : o Núcleo Litoral Solidário da Rede Ecovida de Agroecologia." reponame:Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da UFRGS, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10183/15362.

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A dissociação entre ação econômica e ação ecológica, assim como o desenraizamento dos fatores sociais inerentes à economia, levaram à construção de sociedades marcadas por desigualdades sociais e por problemas distributivos. É neste contexto que se consolida o projeto político do desenvolvimentismo econômico com base produtivista. Ao mesmo tempo, historicamente, também se formam ‘resistências’ aos modelos hegemônicos. Aqui, tratamos destas resistências através das expressões contemporâneas da Agroecologia e da Economia Solidária – cujos paradigmas se direcionam para a construção de uma sociedade (ou de sociedades) justas e equilibradas. E é no Litoral Norte do Rio Grande do Sul, onde agricultores e consumidores agrupam-se no Núcleo Litoral Solidário da Rede Ecovida de Agroecologia, conformando um ciclo local de produção e consumo de alimentos agroecológicos, que esta pesquisa se desenvolve. Objetivamos, através da realização de uma observação participante, identificar como se dá a autonomia – entendida como a autogestão dos grupos que conformam a Rede e, também, em relação à dependência dos mercados ‘hegemônicos’ – através da articulação de grupos organizados em rede. Para tanto, identificam-se os atores deste núcleo, caracterizando-os, e analisando as interdependências que se estabelecem através das relações que se estabelecem. Sendo que a cooperação é uma característica inseparável dos processos de desenvolvimento social, procuramos verificar se a participação na rede está motivada por respostas sociais, ambientais e culturais, e não somente por questões econômicas (no sentido utilitarista) e, também, se tais ações, entendidas sob a ênfase da economia solidária, depende de arranjos institucionais mediados para se constituírem, ao mesmo tempo que sua continuidade necessita da apropriação dos atores envolvidos. A existência de uma rede com estas características supõe a articulação de uma economia plural, ou seja, relações sociais que se estabelecem, nestas cadeias produtivas, dotados de significações mais amplas sobre o fazer econômico. Observamos que tais circuitos alternativos se caracterizam por diversas formas de autonomia, como a suficiência e a qualidade alimentar, e que diversos elementos não monetários motivam as ações econômicas. A associação entre a práxis da economia solidária e da agroecologia torna-se tanto evidente quanto importante para novas pesquisas e para corroborar com a formulação de políticas públicas no sentido do desenvolvimento rural sustentável.
The dissociation between economic and ecological action, as well as the un-embeddedness of social factors that are inherent from economy has led to the organization of societies marked by social inequalities and distribution problems. In this context, the political project of economical development with a productivity basis gets consolidated. Historically, at the same time, there can also be found resistances to these hegemonic models. This work discusses these types of resistances through the reviewing of contemporary expressions on agroecology and solidarity economy – whose paradigms point to wealth and just societies. It is in the Northern Coast of Rio Grande do Sul where small farmers and consumers has formed a nuclear group called Núcleo Litoral Solidário da Rede Ecovida de Agroecologia, establishing a local cycle of production and consumptions of agroecological food. The aim of this research is to identify, through means of a participant observation, how does autonomy takes place in the groups that are organized inside this net. Autonomy here is understood as the selfmanagement of the groups that are part of a greater net, and also, their dependency to hegemonic markets. The actors of this nucleus were identified, as well as the established relations of interdependency were characterized and analyzed. Taking into consideration that cooperation is an inseparable characteristic of the processes of social development, this investigation tries to find out if people’s participation in the net is motivated by social, environmental and cultural responses, and not only by economic questions (having a utilitarian sense). Moreover, it also is investigated if such actions, understood under the light of solidarity economy, depends on institutional arrangements that are mediated to be constituted, and at the same time that its continuity needs the appropriation of the involved actors. The existence of a net with these characteristics supposes the articulation of a plural economy, which means that the social relations that are established in theses production chains provide several different meanings to the economical practice. It was observed that alternative circuits are characterized by different forms of autonomy, such as sufficiency and food quality, and that different elements that are not monetary motivate such actions. The association between solidarity economy and agroecology becomes as much evident as important to new researches and to corroborate the formulation of public politics that defend a sustainable rural development.

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Thornburg, Gina K. "Who benefits?: the intersection of governance and agency in farmers’ engagement with the Oklahoma Farm to School Program." Diss., Kansas State University, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/2097/34636.

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Doctor of Philosophy
Department of Geography
Bimal Kanti Paul
Farm-to-school (FTS) programs are promoted as direct-marketing opportunities for farmers. As such, they are regarded by advocates and state and federal agencies as a pathway to rural economic development. The implementation of FTS food procurement poses significant challenges, however. Farmers make decisions regarding whether or not to market products to schools after learning about the program and considering an array of signals from multiscalar policies and governance structures. Research to date has left a gap in understanding farmers’ agency as it relates to governance structures and policy signals. This research on farmers’ engagement with the Oklahoma FTS Program contributes evidence to bridge this gap by examining the experiences not only of producers who participated in a FTS program but also of those who ceased participation or who chose not to participate. Employing a phronetic approach to social science, this explanatory, sequential, mixed-methods case study obtained quantitative and textual data from a mail survey, as well as data from two stints of qualitative fieldwork, in fall 2011 and fall 2012, which involved semistructured interviews and participant observation. Archival research completed the study methods used to gain a deeper understanding of farmers’ perspectives, practices, values, and experiences that informed their decisions to participate or not in a top-down-administered FTS program. Data collection was driven by the concept of farmers’ engagement. As such, eight categories of farmers’ engagement with the Oklahoma Farm to School Program emerged. This research answers these value-rational questions (Flyvbjerg, 2001): (1) Which farmers gain, and which farmers lose, by which mechanisms of power? (2) Is this desirable? (3) What should be done? Results provide evidence of geographically uneven development of a FTS program and incompatibilities between small- to midscale farming and the structure and governance of federal child-nutrition programs.

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Cassol, Abel Perinazzo. "Redes agroalimentares alternativas : mercados, interação social e a construção da confiança." reponame:Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da UFRGS, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10183/79442.

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Esta dissertação de mestrado trata do tema da construção social de mercados alimentares alternativos no contexto das novas relações de produção e consumo contemporâneas. Especificamente, seu objetivo é demonstrar como o mercado alimentar da Feira do Pequeno Produtor de Passo Fundo/RS foi construído e problematizar questões em torno da qualidade, do papel do consumo e de como as relações de confiança são forjadas pelos atores sociais no interior deste espaço. Neste sentido, demonstra-se como agricultores familiares e consumidores do município compartilham valores sociais e culturais que orientam suas práticas econômicas e produtivas, através de referências e vínculos estabelecidos sobre um passado rural comum, justificando a busca pelos produtos da Feira pela sua origem “da roça” e construindo estratégias de atuação apoiadas na valorização de modos de vida tradicionais/coloniais. Por sua vez, demonstra-se que a construção da qualidade dos alimentos vendidos neste espaço, está associada a valores culturais que reconhecem e valorizam meios e modos de vida “simples”, que dispensam maior atenção e “cuidado” na produção de alimentos “frescos” e saudáveis.
This dissertation addresses the issue of the social construction of alternative food markets in the context of the new contemporary relations of production and consumption. Specifically, its objective is to demonstrate how the food market of the Feira do Pequeno Produtor de Passo Fundo/RS (Small Farmer Fair) was built and problematize issues around quality, the role of consumption and how the trust relationships are forged by social actors within this space. In this sense, it is shown as family farmers and consumers of the municipality share social and cultural values that guide its economic and productive actions by providing references and links established through a common rural past, justifying the search for products Fair by reference of its farmers’ origin and building operation strategies supported in the valuation of traditional/colonial ways of life. In turn, we show that the construction quality of food sold in this space, is associated with cultural values that recognize and value means and “simple” ways of life, which dispense greater attention and "care" in food production “fresh” and healthy.

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Pedrosa, Ana Paula Piedade. "Redes agroalimentares alternativas e suas implicações para a política social: as motivações dos consumidores das Comunidades que Sustentam a Agricultura no Brasil." Master's thesis, Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/18405.

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Dissertação de Mestrado em Política Social
Este trabalho abordará a Comunidade que Sustenta a Agricultura – CSA, tecnologia social em que consumidores tornam-se coagricultores ao financiarem a produção de um agricultor local, compartilhando os riscos da produção de alimentos limpos. O objetivo da pesquisa é compreender as motivações dos consumidores ao aderirem a CSA e as implicações dessa participação para as políticas sociais. Utilizando-se de métodos qualitativos, foram realizadas 11 entrevistas semiestruturadas com coagricultores participantes de CSAs de Brasília/DF por meio de plataformas digitais. Os resultados indicam que iniciativas alternativas ligadas ao consumo e produção de bens alimentares podem criar mercados mais justos, impactar diretamente na segurança alimentar e nutricional – SAN da comunidade e atuar como um movimento de resistência ao modo convencional de produção e acesso a alimentos. Também contribuem para o desenvolvimento sustentável ao atenderem às particularidades de cada território, fortalecendo a comunidade. Ainda é necessário, entretanto, ampliar o acesso as CSAs, tornando a participação mais heterogênea. As redes agroalimentares alternativas possuem implicações para as políticas sociais ao promoverem o desenvolvimento rural, o fortalecimento da agricultura familiar, a preservação do ambiente e, sobretudo ao contribuírem para a saúde e para a SAN. Essas redes devem ser consideradas pelos governos como uma sinalização da sociedade para adoção de uma abordagem ecológica das políticas sociais. Por possuírem potencial para enfrentar os novos desafios de SAN do Brasil e indicarem soluções para a demanda ambiental do mundo atual, o Estado deve estar atento ao papel de governança dessas redes e ampliar o diálogo por meio de instâncias participativas da sociedade civil afim de absorver demandas e iniciativas.
This work will address the Community Supported Agriculture - CSA, social technology in which consumers financing a local farmer production, sharing the risks of clean food production. The objective of this research is to understand the motivations of consumers to join the CSA and the implications of this participation for social policies. Using qualitative methods, 11 semistructured interviews were conducted with consumers participating in CSAs in Brasília/DF through digital platforms. The results indicate that alternative initiatives related to food consumption and production can create fairer markets, directly impact on food and nutritional security of the community and act as a resistance movement to the conventional way of production and access to food. They also contribute to sustainable development by addressing the particularities of each territory, strengthening the community . It is still necessary, however, to increase access to CSAs, making participation more heterogeneous. Alternative agrifood networks have implications for social policies by promoting rural development, strengthening family farming, preserving the environment and contributing to health and food security. These networks should be considered by governments as a sign of society for adopting an ecological approach to social policies. Because they have the potential to face the new challenges of food security in Brazil and indicate solutions for the environmental demand of the today’s world, the State must be attentive to the governance role of these networks and broaden the dialogue through participatory instances of civil society in order to absorb demands and initiatives.
N/A

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Hoenninger, Jonathan, Lucas Costamilan, and Miyuki Ochiai. "Community Supported Agriculture : Towards a Flourishing Movement in Europe." Thesis, Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, Institutionen för strategisk hållbar utveckling, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:bth-18336.

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As a response to the growing global sustainability challenges related to industrial agriculture, alternative approaches of food production and distribution are emerging. One approach that fosters direct consumer-producer relationships and sustainable local food production is known as Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). This study explored how the CSA movement can be supported strategically towards a flourishing movement in Europe. A qualitative research approach was chosen with a comparative element of the two countries with contrastive characteristics in terms of the degree of successfulness of the movement; with France being successful and Sweden having less success in terms of the number of CSAs. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 CSA farmers, network members and researchers. The results revealed barriers and enablers for a flourishing movement under five overarching themes: (1) Definition, structure and operation (2) The direction of the movement (3) Social aspects (4) Knowledge and communication, and (5) Country-/region-specific aspects. Crucial factors and contrastive features between countries were identified and discussed in relation to how they hinder or enable a flourishing movement. Based on the findings, strategic guidelines were developed with the aim of contributing to CSA practitioners and leaders in Europe.

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Sureau, Solène. "On what to assess when bridging sustainability pillars in S-LCA: Exploring the role of chain governance and value distribution in product social sustainability." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/312512.

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Les chaines d’approvisionnement contemporaines sont source de problèmes environnementaux, mais aussi d’impacts pour les communautés des abords des activités de production, consommateurs, ou encore travailleurs. Pour évaluer ces impacts, l’analyse sociale du cycle de vie (ACV-S) est développée depuis quinze ans en complément de l’ACV-E, qui traite, elle, des impacts environnementaux le long du cycle de vie des produits. Cette thèse vise à répondre à certains des défis méthodologiques pour sa conception et son application, par une évaluation de produits de systèmes alimentaires alternatifs belges (SAA), et à ces deux questions: i) que devrait évaluer l’ACV-S et ii) comment intégrer les chaines de causes à effet dans l’analyse, comme en ACV-E. Sur base de trois états de l’art (des cadres d’ACV-S, des études incluant les chaines de cause à effet, et des évaluations de produits alimentaires), nous développons et mettons en œuvre des propositions qui plaident pour i) une approche participative pour définir les critères; ii) une évaluation d’impact pour comprendre les pratiques des entreprises plutôt que leur simple rapportage, à travers l’articulation des indicateurs sur la base de théories existantes, comme l’approche de Global Commodity Chain: celle-ci place la gouvernance des chaines et la répartition de la valeur ajoutée entre les acteurs comme des facteurs explicatifs potentiels des problèmes socio-économiques présents dans les chaines; iii) une approche ‘imbriquée’ de la durabilité (ou ‘nested’), qui implique la considération des aspects économiques et de gouvernance des chaines, à côté des aspects managériaux et ‘sociaux’, et leur mise en relation. Nous cherchons ainsi à contribuer à faire de l’ACV-S un outil analytique qui vise l’amélioration des principaux problèmes dans les chaines d’approvisionnement, en analysant leurs causes profondes. Nos évaluations de produits de SAA, y. c. circuits courts et commerce équitable ‘Nord-Nord’, révèlent des rémunérations trop faibles et des conditions d’emploi précaires dans les fermes, rejetant ainsi notre hypothèse d’une durabilité plus élevée de ces produits, par rapport aux chaines dominantes. Ces faibles performances résulteraient d’une reproduction des mécanismes utilisés par les chaines dominantes (rapports de force déséquilibrés, faible engagement entre les acteurs, prix inéquitables). Ceci tendrait à confirmer notre autre hypothèse selon laquelle la gouvernance des chaines et les modalités de transaction impactent les conditions socioéconomiques des travailleurs au sein de ces chaines, d’où l’intérêt de considérer ces aspects en ACV-S. Aussi, d’autres éléments semblent jouer: la règlementation du travail en vigueur, qui encouragerait les contrats précaires, ou le contexte de marché qui influencerait fortement les prix pratiqués dans les SAA, d’où l’importance de se pencher sur les chaines dominantes pour améliorer la durabilité des produits alimentaires dans leur ensemble. Notre recherche confirme l’applicabilité et la pertinence de nos propositions, qui mériteraient d’autres applications pour une validation et des développements méthodologiques supplémentaires.
Today’s supply chains entail numerous and serious issues, concerning the environment but also regarding people, including communities’ surrounding production activities, final consumers and workers. In order to assess those latter social and socio-economic impacts on people, Social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) is a tool being currently developed to complement E-LCA, which assesses potential environmental impacts along the life cycle of products and services. This PhD aims to address some of the outstanding methodological challenges faced by S-LCA, with the support of an application on products from Belgian alternative food network (AFNs). The thesis focuses on three related main questions: i) what should S-LCA assess (topics, level of assessment, i.e. company’s practices, impacts on people, other) and ii) how to include impact pathways or cause-effect chains in the analysis, as it is done in E-LCA; iii) how should the assessment be carried out, so that it goes beyond a mere reporting? On the basis of three distinct states-of-the-art (on S-LCA frameworks, studies considering impact pathways and S-LCA studies in the food sector), we put forward and apply specific methodological proposals that argue for i) the use of a participatory approach to select assessment criteria; ii) the use of an impact assessment approach that allows to understand company’s practices rather than their mere reporting, through an articulation of assessment criteria and indicators based on existing theories, including in social sciences. In this regard, the Global commodity chain approach that identify chain governance and value distribution among chain actors as potential stressors or root causes of social and socio-economic problems in supply chains, seems particularly relevant; iii) the use of a nested approach to sustainability in which also economic and governance aspects are taken into account, in addition to managerial and “social” aspects of supply chains, which are usually included. With this work we aim to contribute for S-LCA to become an analytical tool contributing the improvement of main problems in supply chains, e.g. income, employment and working conditions, by analyzing their root causes. Our assessments of products traded under various alternative chains, including short food chains and a local Fair trade chain, reveal low income and poor employment conditions on farms. This rejects our assumption of better social sustainability performances of AFN products, when compared to those of mainstream chains. Those poor performances would originate in the mechanisms used (e.g. unbalanced power relations, low commitment between VCAs, unfair prices), which are similar in mainstream chains. This would tend to confirm our assumption that chain governance and transaction modalities (i.e. business practices of chain actors) impact on socioeconomic conditions of workers in supply chains (or for the social sustainability of products), this is why we think it is of interest to consider those aspects in S-LCA. Also, other, more contextual, elements seem to come into play, such as labor regulations in force, that would encourage the use of non-standard forms of employment, and broader market context that influences AFNs quite strongly, including on prices. This is why it seems also important to work on mainstream food chains to improve overall product sustainability. Our research confirms the applicability and relevance of our methodological proposals, however further applications could be useful for further validation and methodological developments.
Doctorat en Sciences
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

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Ferreira, Isis Leite. "Redes alternativas de produ??o e consumo de alimentos: estudo de caso do Movimento de Integra??o Campo-Cidade (MICC/SP)." Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, 2015. https://tede.ufrrj.br/jspui/handle/jspui/1481.

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Submitted by Sandra Pereira (srpereira@ufrrj.br) on 2017-03-24T12:51:48Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2015 - Isis Leite Ferreira.pdf: 3031489 bytes, checksum: fecbfa5d860bdc4ec1dfbe07ecf912ff (MD5)
Made available in DSpace on 2017-03-24T12:51:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2015 - Isis Leite Ferreira.pdf: 3031489 bytes, checksum: fecbfa5d860bdc4ec1dfbe07ecf912ff (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-10-02
Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient?fico e Tecnol?gico - CNPq
The current debate about the food regimes seeks to reflect, in general, the transformation of the food system over time and space. This concept allows to place, historicizing and identify the main actors and stabilizing elements of each historical context, while allowing point periods of instability, which, in turn, drive changes towards overcoming a regime with another. Among the different approaches to the emergence of so-called 3? regime, one issue was highlighted in this research: the politicization of consumption and the emergence and expansion of alternative food networks. In this process, different types of organization, and food market are established at the same time that consumers is centrality. In Brazil, the process of formation of alternative food networks culminated in the construction of the National Network of Responsible Consumer Groups, that did emerge different paths, processes and dynamics of various groups. Among them, we analyze the case of the Rural-Urban Integration Movement ? MICC ? which since the 80s, has been articulating small farmers and working classes of consumers of S?o Paulo east zone around the marketing of organic food and non-organic, also called conventional food. The study examined the performance of the MICC from the concepts of governance, market and embeddedness. As a result pointed that MICC experience is specific because is related to the classic struggles of reducing inequality and social injustice because the emergence of the movement is closely related to the work of the Catholic Church in the context of political mobilization for land reform. However, on the initiative of another actor, the Kairos Institute, MICC expands agenda and form of action, adopting the narrative responsible consumption
O atual debate acerca dos regimes alimentares busca refletir, de maneira geral, as transforma??es do sistema agroalimentar ao longo do tempo e do espa?o. Este conceito permite situar, historicizar e identificar os principais atores e elementos estabilizadores de cada contexto hist?rico, ao mesmo tempo em que permite apontar os per?odos de instabilidade, que, por sua vez, impulsionam transforma??es em dire??o ? supera??o de um regime por outro. Dentre os diversos enfoques sobre a emerg?ncia do chamado 3? regime alimentar, uma quest?o mereceu destaque nesta pesquisa: a politiza??o do consumo e o surgimento e expans?o de redes alimentares alternativas. Neste processo, diferentes formas de organiza??o, rela??o e comercializa??o de alimentos s?o estabelecidas, ao mesmo tempo em que o consumidor ganha centralidade. No Brasil, o processo de forma??o de redes alimentares alternativas culminou na constru??o da Rede Nacional de Grupos de Consumo Respons?vel, que fez emergir diferentes trajet?rias, processos e din?micas de diversos grupos. Dentre eles, analisamos o caso do Movimento de Integra??o Campo-Cidade (MICC) que, desde a d?cada de 80, vem articulando pequenos produtores e consumidores de classes populares da Zona Leste de S?o Paulo em torno da comercializa??o de alimentos org?nicos e n?o org?nicos, chamados tamb?m de alimentos convencionais. O trabalho analisou a atua??o do MICC a partir dos conceitos de governan?a, mercado e enraizamento. Como resultado, apontou que a experi?ncia do MICC guarda especificidades por estar relacionada ?s lutas cl?ssicas de redu??o da desigualdade e da injusti?a social, pois seu surgimento est? fortemente relacionado ? atua??o da Igreja cat?lica em um contexto de mobiliza??o pol?tica pela reforma agr?ria. No entanto, a partir da iniciativa de outro ator, o Instituto Kair?s, o MICC amplia sua agenda e forma de a??o, passando a adotar a narrativa do consumo respons?vel

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Stephens, Raphaël. "Circuits alimentaires alternatifs et transition du régime de "provision". Etude sociotechnique dans le contexte francilien." Thesis, Paris, Institut agronomique, vétérinaire et forestier de France, 2020. http://www.theses.fr/2020IAVF0002.

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Le système alimentaire peut-il changer ? Critiques à l’égard du régime dominant la provision, des phénomènes alternatifs proposent, depuis plus d’une vingtaine d’années, d’améliorer la durabilité, la qualité et la transparence de la provision alimentaire en raccourcissant les liens entre producteurs et consommateurs. Les discours, les pratiques et les innovations de ces Alternative Food Networks (« AFN ») génèrent, à travers leurs multiples oppositions aux logiques du régime de provision alimentaire industriel, des frictions chez celui-ci. A l’aune de l’essor spectaculaire d’une variété assez hétéroclite d’AFN ces dernières années, ce régime développe crescendo des questionnements et des prises sur l’alimentation locale. La théorisation de ces frictions peut bénéficier avantageusement de l'approche multi-niveaux (Multi Level Perspective, ou « MLP »), cadre théorique et méthodologique de recherche en étude des transitions qui permet une lecture évolutionniste des régimes sociotechniques, notamment dans leurs rapports avec les niches d’innovations alternatives. Avec l’appui d’analyses sociohistoriques robustes et un travail de terrain, il est alors possible de réfléchir les modalités d’une transition du régime de provision alimentaire par le raccourcissement des relations entre producteurs et mangeurs.La thèse propose alors deux focales d’analyse : le régime de provision alimentaire ; et les réseaux alimentaires alternatifs. Elle fait appel à une méthodologie composite adressant des données de natures hétérogènes tirées de terrains distribués : analyse discursive par lexicométrie, analyse de traces numériques, étude d’agencements institutionnels, entretiens approfondis, observations de type ethnographique. A la recherche d’une théorisation de moyenne portée, la thèse cible, dans leurs questionnements locaux, des acteurs-clés représentatifs de plusieurs compétences du régime de provision : distribution ; filière fruits et légumes ; salons alimentaires. Les objets alternatifs étudiés rendent compte d’une multiplicité de formes d’existence. Parce-que ces alternatives sont partiellement imbriquées avec certains dispositifs du régime dominant, cela conduit la thèse vers l’étude approfondie de l’une d’entre elles, très particulière du fait :(i) de son architecture se trouvant à la croisée des alternatives alimentaires et de réseaux numériques-matériels portés par des plateformes technologiques, et (ii) d’une qualité de données assez inédite.A partir de cette approche empirique distribuée, la thèse contribue à la caractérisation d’une transition vers un régime de provision numérique-matériel axé sur la prosumption par customisation transparente. Présentant la fin des années 2000 comme point d’inflexion du régime, la conjonction d’une crise de modèle de provision avec l’explosion du numérique accompagné d'un foisonnement continu de revendications et de pratiques alternatives, semblent en mesure d’accélérer un chemin de transition par reconfiguration du régime. Les prémices de cette reconfiguration se manifestent à travers de multiples évolutions discursives observées au sein du régime, ainsi que dans l’incorporation et l’agencement, en son sein, de phénomènes alternatifs qui participent crescendo à la caractérisation de nouvelles priorités qui redéfinissent les spécifications des aliments, les pratiques de provision, et les flux de provision. La valeur accrue de produits alimentaires enrichis de nouvelles spécifications alternatives véhiculées au travers de nouvelles proximités virtuelles et matérielles intiment ainsi au régime des interrogations sur le potentiel que présente le raccourcissement. Effectuant une confluence de trois champs d’études (transitions ; alternatives alimentaires ; prosumption) relativement peu liés jusque lors, la thèse ouvre ainsi des perspectives de recherche sur les capacités de tels marchés raccourcis à capter l’attention de prosumers alimentaires eux-aussi en plein essor
Can the food system change ? As they formulate criticisms toward the regime which dominates food provision, alternative phenomena have, for over twenty years now, suggested that the sustainability, quality, and transparency of food provisioning could improve by shortening relations between producers and consumers. The discourses, practices, and innovations of such Alternative Food Networks (“AFN”) generate, through multiple oppositions to the industrial food provision regime, frictions among the latter. Having witnessed spectacular developments these past few years bringing quite a heterogeneous variety of AFN to the fore, this regime has begun to undergo a series of internal questionings and takes on local food. The theorization of these frictions can benefit advantageously from the Multi Level Perspective (“MLP”), a theoretical and methodological framework for research in transitions studies, which enables an evolutionist read on sociotechnical regimes, in particular regarding their relations with alternative, innovative niches. With the help of robust sociohistoric analysis and fieldwork, it then becomes possible to reflect upon the modalities which could bring about a food provision regime transition through the shortening of links between producers and eaters.The thesis thus proposes two analytical foci: the food provision regime; and Alternative Food Networks. It calls upon a composite methodology to address data which are very heterogeneous in nature and stem from distributed empirical fields: discourse analysis through lexicometrics, the analysis of digital traces, the study of institutional displays, in-depth interviews, and ethnography-inspired observations. Aiming at meso-level theorizations, the thesis targets – as they question themselves on local food issues – key actors representative of several competencies, which fulfill major functions in the provision regime: retail; fruit and vegetable supply; institutional food fairs. The alternative objects report, through their study, a multiplicity of forms of existence. Because these alternatives are partially intertwined with certain devices from the dominant regime, this leads the thesis toward the in-depth study of one of these AFN, which is very particular in that (i) its architecture stems from a hybrid between food alternatives and digital-material networks enabled through technological platforms, and (ii) the dataset which it offers is of unusually high standard.Through this distributed empirical approach, the thesis contributes to the characterization of a transition toward a digital-material provision regime based on prosumption through transparent customization. Dating the regime’s inflection point to the late 2000s, the conjunction of a crisis in the provision model with the explosion of digital flows as well as the continuous expansion of claims and practices in the realm of alternatives, appear to be able to quicken the pace of a transition pathway through a reconfiguration of the regime. The premise of this reconfiguration manifests itself through multiple evolutions in discourse which can be scrutinized within the regime, as well as the incorporation and the redisplay, in the realm of the regime, of alternative phenomena which participate increasingly in the characterization of new priorities which now redefine food specifications, provision practices, and provision flows. The accrued value of food products enriched with new alternative specifications which are conveyed through new virtual and material proximities thus intimate the regime to interrogate itself on the potential offered by the shortening of provision. Bridging three investigative fields (transitions; Alternative Food Networks; prosumption) which are, as of yet, relatively disconnected, the thesis thus opens research perspectives on the capacities through which such shortened markets may be able to capture the attention of food prosumers who likewise, are very much thriving

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Madeline, Mills, and 梅佳穎. "Organic Roots: Alternative Food Networks and Development in Atayal Indigenous Communities, Taiwan." Thesis, 2016. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/69ckrx.

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碩士
國立政治大學
亞太研究英語碩士學位學程(IMAS)
104
Taiwan’s Indigenous Peoples, Austronesian speakers with cultural ties to other Pacific Islanders, have encountered waves of outside political, cultural and economic forces. While their political situation has markedly improved with Taiwan’s democratization, their social and economic marginalization remains an issue. Reflecting recent shifts in Taiwan towards more human-centered, post-modern development policies, Atayal People of Jianshi Township have started a movement promoting community values and the transition to organic farming. This paper explores this transition and the work of the Jianshi “Farmers’ Academy.” Their aims are to collectivize organic agricultural production, transportation and marketing, promote and share traditional crops and knowledge as well as connect spread-out villages through shared culture, education and development. Situated in the broader contexts of Alternative Food Networks and Alternative Economic Spaces, which are typically explored in Western contexts, and Alternative Development (typically explored in the developing world), this qualitative research examines these marginalized communities’ efforts to formulate a grassroots model of culturally and environmentally sustainable development. The findings suggest that the people in the research area are choosing organic farming for various economic and non-material factors as many of their livelihood goals are culturally bound, outside the purview of conventional macroeconomic theories and critical of mainstream capitalist practices, thus supporting a more locally informed, pluralistic concept of economic development.

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Felicetti, Michela. "L'innovazione sociale come sfida alla governance : le alternative food networks in Europa." Thesis, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10955/266.

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Dottorato di ricerca in Scienza, tecnologia e società, XXI ciclo. A.a. 2008-2009
Questo lavoro di ricerca si propone si contribuire al dibattito sulle Alternative Food Networks, da una parte, esaminando i profili di sostenibilità di tali pratiche ai fini del rinnovamento delle aree rurali, dall’altra, evidenziando quali sono le condizioni che favoriscono il loro consolidamento e la loro istituzionalizzazione. A tal fine, attraverso l’indagine empirica delle reti alternative, si vogliono raggiungere due obbiettivi: il primo è confutare la teoria che rappresenta le Alternative Food Networks come alleanze escludenti rispetto ai soggetti svantaggiati della società e rivolte a quelli privilegiati. Il secondo obbiettivo è quello di vedere come l’azione collettiva abbia innovato e sfidato il sistema agroalimentare mantenendo la propria indipendenza dalle politiche governative. L’approccio della regolazione e quello della governance, come sua declinazione più recente, sono serviti per tratteggiare il contesto politico istituzionale e culturale nel quale le reti alternative sono embedded, mentre le teorie dei networks hanno costituito la base per analizzare il comportamento dei soggettiche costituiscono le reti e di quelli che fanno parte delle associazioni del settore volontario. Dalla ricerca è emerso che le Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) o filiere corte, concretizzano delle forme innovative di organizzazione sociale volte a costituire spazi di produzione e consumo di cibo, collegati in modo stringente da un punto di vista fisico, economico e sociale.Le Alternative Food Networks, si pongono,dunque, come pratiche di azione sociale capaci di costituire un’alternativa alla struttura organizzativa del complesso agro-industriale ed ai problemi di sostenibilità da esso generati. In quanto tali, le Alternative Food Networks, rappresentano una relazionalità nongestibile dalla progettualità governativa nelle azioni per lo sviluppo locale. Al contrario, l’innovazione da esse prodotta, ha innescato un processo di istituzionalizzazione su due livelli quello delle associazioni e quello del governo. La comparazione tra le modalità con cui si sono sviluppate le Alternative Food Network in Italia e nel Regno Unito ha richiesto un’analisi della governance alimentare, per comprendere il quadro macro-regolatorio in cui tali pratiche si sono sviluppate, ed una analisi actor-oriented, per esaminare le strategie locali di costituzione e consolidamento delle Alternative Food Networks. Lo studio comparativo ha messo in luce che la capacità di agency alla base delle pratiche alternative analizzate nel Regno Unito si è rivelata più dirompente, sia in relazione alle politiche alimentari governative, sia in relazione al modello organizzativo attualizzato. Qui il sodalizio tra agricoltori e consumatori è risultato più equilibrato, si è caratterizzato con una forte valenza “civica” e si è intrecciato con il settore volontario consolidando in modo più evidente l’innovazione sociale.This research work seeks on one hand, to contribute to the debate on the Alternative Food Networks, examining the sustainability profiles of such practices that have the aim of renewing rural areas, and on the other hand, highlighting which are the conditions that favour their consolidation and institutionalisation. To such an end, through the use of alternative networks' empirical research, two objectives are sought to be reached: the first is to refute the theory that depicts the Alternative Food Networks as confederations that exclude disadvantaged members of society and apply only to those more privileged members. The second objective is that of seeing how collective action has innovated and challenged the food farming system maintaining its independence from government policies. The approach used both in its regulation and governance, as in the case of its most recent declination, has served to outline the institutional and cultural political context in which the alternative networks are embedded, while the networks theories have constituted the basis for analyzing the behaviour of subjects that make up the networks and those that partake in voluntary associations. From the research it has emerged that the Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) or short supply-chain are realising innovative forms of social organisation aimed at constituting food production and consumption spaces which are closely linked from a physical, economic and social perspective. The Alternative Food Networks present themselves as social action practices capable of constituting an alternative to the organization of the agro-industrial complex and to the problems of sustainability generated by it. As such, the Alternative Food Networks represent a relationality unmanageable by government planning in local development actions. On the contrary, theinnovation produced by these has triggered a process of institutionalisation on two levels, that of the associations and that of the government. The comparison between the modalities with which the Alternative Food Network in Italy and the United Kingdom were developed has required an analysis of food governance in order to understand the macro-regulatory framework in which such practices have been developed, and an actor-orientated analysis to examine the local strategies of organisation and consolidation of the Alternative Food Networks. The comparative study has brought to light that the agency's ability at the foundation of alternative practices analysed in the UK has proved to be the most revolutionary, both in relation to food governance policies, and in relation to the organisational model put into place. Here the association between farmers and consumers has revealed itself to be more balanced, characterised by a strong “civic” value and intertwined with the voluntary sector, consolidating its social innovation in a more evident way.
Unione europea

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Abrahams, Caryn. "Illegitimate voices, peripheral debates, valid alternatives: A developing world articulation of alternative food networks." Thesis, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10539/4616.

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ABSTRACT The theoretical argument that emerges from my empirical study argues that food provisioning systems in Johannesburg, as a potential lens to further investigation of food supply systems in the developing south cannot be classified within a traditional-modern dichotomy. This dissertation proposes a new conceptual device – a food provisioning continuum – which should inform research on African food supply systems in the future. The process of locating this rich case within a broader theoretical paradigm to validate it and to provide it discursive space, however, is not objective or without friction. I argue that it is possible to choose to locate rich empirical material in different conceptual frameworks, related not only to its applicability, but also to how the research may be valued and seen to extend knowledge. The expectation of the research community and the epistemological demand of new research, for a Masters dissertation is that the scholarly work will build on and extend existing knowledge. It is assumed that thorough research will challenge the boundaries of knowledge and that the candidate, after having undergone this academic rite of passage, will graduate from being a student to being a colleague within a research community. However, the process of creating new theory and advancing existing theory is not quite an objective or frictionless process as it first appears. Research in the south is validated more highly if it is located within, or builds upon international/northern theory even by research forums in the south like the NRF. The pressure for researchers from the south to locate their research in conceptual frameworks from the north – in order to be validated – appears to be one of the rules of the game. While this is validation as part of an academic exercise may be necessary, the practise entrenches spatial or geographical hierarchies within academia and academic discourse. The epistemological process of forging new theoretical frontiers is thus a constructed, unnatural space fraught with less critical valuing systems than are expected to be present within academia, no less within the discipline of geography.

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Shih, Yi Fan, and 施依凡. "Develop of Industry Certification and Alternative Agro-Food Networks in JhuShan -Using Sweet Potato and Cedar Lin Xi Tea as examples." Thesis, 2011. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/74868750609965649287.

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Goers, Christian John. "The amplification of sustainable food initiatives: A look at the role of intermediary networks." Master's thesis, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10071/20995.

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Food is an increasingly important topic that finds itself at a nexus in the debates of sustainability and plays a key role in answering to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. As a response to the high price volatility, resource extensive, and long-distance food supply chains, sustainable food initiatives have formed. These initiatives are seen in recent literature as possible pathways towards a more sustainable food system. Intermediaries in particular are actors in these initiatives that have been overlooked and can be seen for their potential to work as an in-between and bring initiatives together. This study looks to understand the role that intermediaries play as actors in the diffusion of sustainable food initiatives. The work was realized by using a typology of transition intermediaries to map their types and a typology of amplification processes to deepen the understanding of how the intermediaries facilitate diffusion. The study found that stabilizing, speeding-up, scaling-up and scaling-deep were 4 processes that the intermediaries influenced. Additionally, it expanded on how the type of intermediary each network is has a certain level of influence on how they meet their goals. Finally, the study expanded on the importance of viewing the relationships of cause and effect that different amplification processes have on one another and the potential intermediaries have to work together to realize their goals. This all comes with a hope to bring more information to actors and decision makers in the sustainable transition of food systems.
A alimentação é um tópico cada vez mais importante que encontra-se nos debates sobre sustentabilidade e desempenha um papel fundamental para os Objetivos de Desenvolvimento Sustentável das Nações Unidas. Como resposta à alta volatilidade dos preços, extensos recursos e cadeias de abastecimento de alimentos de longa distância, foram formadas iniciativas alimentares sustentáveis. Essas iniciativas são vistas na literatura atual como possíveis caminhos para um sistema alimentar mais sustentável. Os intermediários de redes, em particular, são os atores nessas iniciativas que foram negligenciadas e, os mesmos, podem ser reconhecidos pelo seu potencial de funcionar como via intermediária na reunião de diferentes iniciativas sustentáveis. Este estudo busca compreender o papel que esses intermediários de redes desempenham como atores na difusão de iniciativas alimentares sustentáveis. O presente trabalho foi realizado utilizando duas tipologias. Uma tipologia de intermediários de transição para mapear os seus tipos e outra tipologia de processos de amplificação para aprofundar o entendimento de como os intermediários facilitam a difusão de iniciativas. No presente estudo, foi descoberto que stabilizing, speeding-up, scaling-up and scaling-deep foram os quatro processos influenciados pelos intermediários de redes. Além disso, foi possível expandir o conhecimento sobre como o tipo de intermediário que cada rede possui, exerce uma influência em como essas redes atendem seus objetivos. Finalmente, o estudo também expandiu a importância de ver as relações de causa e efeito que diferentes processos de amplificação têm uns sobre os outros, tais como a forma como os potenciais intermediários precisam trabalhar juntos para a realização dos seus objetivos.

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Glatt, Kora Liegh. "The challenges farmers face at Vancouver Island’s farmers’ markets." Thesis, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/1828/13399.

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Farmers’ markets are often thought to be the hallmark of the local food movement. However, there appears to be relatively little research which considers farmers’ experiences there. Drawing on 12 open-ended interviews with 16 farmers on Vancouver Island, BC, I explore how farmers’ markets support small-scale farmers, although they are losing farmer focus. I explore three key themes in this research: mainstream economic assessments of farmers’ markets, how consumer culture affects small-scale farmers, and whether organic certification works for small-scale farmers. The intent of my research is not only to consider farmers’ experiences at farmers’ markets, but to show how to improve their current organization on Vancouver Island and elsewhere. As such, this refocuses farmers’ markets back to local food, small-scale ecological farming, and food sovereignty.
Graduate

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Mason, Robert J. "Critical factors in the development and performance of food and wine trails in Australia." Thesis, 2010. https://vuir.vu.edu.au/16039/.

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Food and wine trails are a new and exciting part of culinary tourism in Australia. Such attractions are now an integral part of tourism in all the main food and wine production states. While trails join multiple food and wine venues into linked destinations for tourists and have grown in number, they are not widely understood. There has been very little research on them in Australia or overseas. This qualitative research was undertaken in the three states of South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria. The research objectives incorporated: • establishing the principal factors involved in the development and performance of food and wine trails in Australia. • understanding the economic importance of food and wine trails, • comprehending and elaborating upon critical components, • developing an awareness of the demography and expectation of tourist-consumers on food and wine trails. Finally, a principal aim was to develop a theoretical framework through which food and wine trails can be understood.

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Syrovátková, Marie. "Alternativní potravinové sítě v postkomunistickém kontextu: Farmářské trhy a farmářské obchody v Česku." Doctoral thesis, 2016. http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-353564.

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Alternative food networks in a post-communist context:: Farmers' markets and farm shops in Czechia Marie Syrovátková ABSTRACT The emergence of farmers' markets (FMs) and farm shops (FSs) in Czechia is a follow-up of the expansion of alternative food networks (AFNs) from Western Europe and North America where they have been developing for several decades. AFNs are an up-to-date topic as they respond to the growing concerns about the negative effects of the globalized conventional food system on social, economic and environmental aspects of food production, distribution and consumption. Each form of AFNs emphasizes a different aspect of the food system sustainability. FMs and FSs should primarily enable direct selling of quality local products made by small producers to support local economy, rural development, environmental protection and to improve quality of life. Based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, the aim of the dissertation is to explore the emergence and development of AFNs in Central Europe. Using the example of Czechia, considering the communist past of the region, the work evaluates the contribution of AFNs to build a more sustainable system of food production and consumption and the weak points of the phenomenon in Czechia and, using a comparison of the AFN evolution...

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Bilewicz, Aleksandra. "W stronę gospodarki społecznie zanurzonej? Kooperatywy spożywcze w Polsce." Doctoral thesis, 2015. https://depotuw.ceon.pl/handle/item/1261.

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Przedmiotem badań w niniejszej pracy są powstające w Polsce od 2010 roku kooperatywy spożywcze, nieformalne grupy konsumentów, nawiązujące do tradycji dawnej polskiej spółdzielczości. Kooperatywy powstają w największych i średnich miastach, głównie w środowiskach młodych aktywistów społecznych. Ich celem jest bezpośredni zakup wysokiej jakości żywności od rolników, ale także budowanie społeczności opartej na współdziałaniu i solidarności. Badając kooperatywy spożywcze w Polsce, posługuję się kategoriami antropologii ekonomicznej, przede wszystkim pojęciem zanurzenia społecznego wypracowanego przez Karla Polanyi’ego (Polanyi 1967, 1977, 2010). Polanyi przeciwstawiał czysto liberalną gospodarkę rynkową, w której instytucje społeczne dostosowują się do reguły maksymalizacji zysku, gospodarce zanurzonej społecznie, w której instytucje społeczne i normy kulturowe determinują, a przynajmniej silnie wpływają na kształt gospodarki. Według tzw. teorii ruchu dwukierunkowego (Polanyi 2010), w sytuacji liberalizacji gospodarki społeczeństwa bronią się, domagając się większego protekcjonizmu i starając się ponownie zanurzyć gospodarkę (pojęcie samoobrony społeczeństwa). Za jeden z przejawów samoobrony społeczeństwa w XIX wiecznej Wielkiej Brytanii Polanyi uznał spółdzielnie spożywcze. Podążając za sugestią Polanyi’ego, traktuję polskie kooperatywy spożywcze, w kontekście sytuacji po transformacji i kryzysie gospodarczym, jako próbę, na niewielką skalę, ponownego zanurzenia gospodarki, a więc także „samoobrony społeczeństwa”. Zgodnie z modyfikacją pojęcia zanurzenia, jakiej dokonali badacze tzw. alternative food networks (alternatywnych sieci żywnościowych, w skrócie: AFN) na Zachodzie, rozumiem zanurzenie społeczne jako pewien stopniowalny proces, opierający się w dużej mierze na przypisywaniu znaczeń ludzkim działaniom i definiowaniu przestrzeni przez daną społeczność (por. Winters 2003, Sonnino 2006). Za wyznaczniki gospodarki zanurzonej społecznie w kooperatywach uznałam lokalność sprzedawanej tam żywności, istnienie bezpośredniej więzi między producentami a konsumentami, oraz wewnętrzną organizację kooperatywnej wspólnoty, opartej na wzajemności i redystrybucji. Omawiając rolę żywności w działalności kooperatyw, staram się prześledzić, w jaki sposób zanurzenie jest w kooperatywach konstruowane i negocjowane. Analizując rolę żywności, dochodzę do wniosku, że kooperatywy są swoistymi enklawami gospodarki zanurzonej społecznie, których rozwój będzie utrudniony przez wiele czynników. Kooperatywy są bowiem organizacjami ekskluzywnymi, w których dużą rolę odgrywa kapitał kulturowy posiadany przez członków (por. Zarycki 2008). W kooperatywach, które nazywam aktywistycznymi, główną rolę odgrywa zaangażowana, lewicowa inteligencja, przywiązana do określonego światopoglądu i stylu życia. Kooperatyści niezaangażowani politycznie, nazywani niekiedy normalsami, czują się zmarginalizowani, często rezygnują z aktywnego uczestnictwa we wspólnocie. Z kolei w tzw. kooperatywach zorientowanych na konsumpcję dominuje grupa o charakterystyce typowej dla klasy średniej – według H. Domańskiego (2002) – profesjonalistów. Sprzedawana tam żywność jest droga i ekskluzywna. Kooperatywy spożywcze nie nawiązują zatem w praktyce do pierwotnych idei spółdzielczości, związanych z emancypacją klas niższych, raczej stają się narzędziem dystynkcji i konsolidacji wąskich środowisk. Do ograniczeń projektu społecznego zanurzenia przyczyniają się także wewnętrzne problemy kooperatyw. Nieformalna, „niehierarchiczna” struktura, wzorowana na zachodnich nowych ruchach społecznych inspirowanych ideami anarchistycznymi, okazuje się krucha, chaotyczna, podatna na kryzys i załamanie. Większość członków ma trudność z aktywnym zaangażowaniem się w prace kooperatywy, które spoczywają na barkach najbardziej zaangażowanych aktywistów. Współdziałanie i solidarność w ramach kooperatyw utrudnia kultura indywidualizmu i nieumiejętność współpracy, charakterystyczna dla późnokapitalistycznych społeczeństw, choć także wzmocniona przez indywidualizację i kryzys zaufania do sformalizowanych instytucji w Polsce. Niektóre kooperatywy próbują walczyć z kryzysem, formalizując swoją działalność i np. próbując zakładać sklepy spółdzielcze, co zbliża je na powrót do tradycji spółdzielczości. Na razie jednak kooperatywy spożywcze pozostają ekskluzywnymi enklawami gospodarki zanurzonej społecznie, a więc ich rola w „samoobronie społeczeństwa” jest ograniczona. Praca powstała na podstawie kilkudziesięciu wywiadów z członkami kooperatyw spożywczych oraz obserwacji uczestniczącej i analizie danych zastanych. SUMMARY “Towards embedded economy? new consumer cooperatives in Poland” Aleksandra Bilewicz The aim of this work is to analyze the development of consumer cooperatives that have been established in Poland since 2010. The new cooperatives are informal groups of consumers, inspired by Polish prewar cooperative tradition, that emerge in Poland’s larger cities, mainly among young social activists. Their aim is to purchase high quality food directly from farmers as well as establishing a community based on cooperation and solidarity. This work discusses consumer cooperatives through the lens of economic anthropology, mainly Karl Polanyi’s notion of embeddedness. According to Polanyi, economy was embedded in social relations until the rise of free market (disembedded economy). In its ideal, utopian form, social institutions are completely submitted to the market rule of profit maximization (Dale 2013). On the contrary, in embedded economies, economy is submerged in social and cultural institutions. The Polanyian double movement theorem implies that in the situation of liberalizing the economy, societies defend themselves, demanding stronger protection from the market and trying to reembed the economy (the process is called countermovement). Polanyi claimed that consumer cooperatives in 19th century Britain are an important part of society’s countermovement. Following Polanyi’s suggestion, I treat new Polish cooperatives as an attempt to reembed the economy on a small, grassroots scale in the context of economic transition in Poland and recent economic crisis. According to the modification of the embeddedness concept made by alternative food networks (AFNs) researchers (see e.g. Winters 2003, Sonnino 2006) I understand embeddedness as a gradual process, based mostly on subjectives factors, such as ascribing meanings to human activities and defining space: socially constructed food localness, bonds between producers and consumer as well as inner organization of the cooperative community based on reciprocity and redistribution. Analyzing the role of food in the cooperative activity, I try to trace the construction and negotiation of embeddedness in cooperatives. While analyzing the role of food, I claim that Polish cooperatives are small and well-guarded enclaves of embedded economy and their growth will therefore be limited. Cooperatives are exclusives organizations that require possession of specific cultural capital (see Bourdieu 1984, Zarycki 2008). One type of cooperatives, which I call “activist” is dominated by leftwing intelligentsia, sticking to a particular worldview and alternative lifestyle. Cooperative members which are not politically engaged are sometimes called the “normals” (“normalsi”) and may feel marginalized. The second type of cooperatives, which I call “consumer-oriented”, is dominated by wealthy new middle class, mostly professionals (Domański 2002). Food sold in this type of cooperatives is expensive and exclusive. Therefore, the new cooperatives divert from the initial cooperative ideas that consumer cooperatives should be a tool for emancipation of the lower classes. The limits of the embeddedness project are also set by inner problems in many cooperatives. Their informal, “non-hierarchical” structure appears to be fragile and chaotic, prone to crisis and breakdown. Most of the members fail to engage in cooperative practices in a sustainable way. Most work is done by a small group of activits. Cooperation and solidarity is weakened by individualistic culture (Jacyno 2007) and lack of cooperative skills (Sennett 2013) which are characteristic for late capitalist societies but seem to be also strengthened by local social problems, such as social atomization and loss of trust for formal institutions in Poland. Some cooperatives try to fight the crisis by legalizing their activities and establishing cooperative stores, which brings them closer to the cooperative tradition. For now, cooperatives remain exclusive enclaves of embedded economy, therefore their role in countermovement is limited. The research project was based on in-depth interviews with cooperative members as well as participant observation and written data analysis.

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47

Fendrychová, Lenka. ""Jiná" geografie alternativních potravinových sítí: farmářské trhy jako cestující koncept." Doctoral thesis, 2015. http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-334623.

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Boom of the farmers' markets in 2010 represented a brand new phenomenon in the so far rather calm development of the Czech alternative food networks (AFNs). Unprecedented was the extent of political support at the local and state level as well as the interest of media and consumers. My PhD project originates in the desire to understand this phenomenon. I realized qualitative research of practice and discourse of the farmers' markets in the territory of Prague metropolitan area (PMA) during the years 2011 and 2012. The main research methods included interviews with organizers, observation at the markets, and the content analysis of the mass media. In the course of the research it became obvious that the current academic discourse, rooted primarily in the Anglo-American context, cannot be applied to the Czech reality. Also, the specific features of the farmers' markets in the PMA could only partially be explained by the differences between the Czech post-socialist context and "the West". An interpretation of the boom of farmers' markets in the PMA, consistent with the results of my research, was only enabled by an innovative approach which combines the concept of the travelling theory, postcolonial sensitivity to the mutual relations between source and target contexts, and the findings of the studies...

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Fialho, Luís Pedro Subtil. "Como contribuir para a sustentabilidade sendo economicamente viável: Estudo de casos dos sistemas alimentares alternativos." Master's thesis, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10071/21808.

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As alterações climáticas e o empobrecimento dos agricultores são problemas que têm sido apontados aos sistemas alimentares convencionais. Para responder a estes desafios, surgiram formas alternativas de produzir e distribuir alimentos. Assim, esta investigação recorreu ao fenómeno dos sistemas alimentares alternativos para perceber os possíveis contributos que têm para a sustentabilidade e a viabilidade económica dos agricultores. Através da revisão de literatura, definiu-se sustentabilidade nos seus três pilares: ambiental, económica e social. Aprofundou-se as perspetivas teóricas dos sistemas alimentares alternativos. O estudo focou-se em Portugal, com análise de três organizações agrícolas com fins lucrativos, através da metodologia de estudos de caso. Os resultados foram avaliados a partir das diferentes dimensões da sustentabilidade. Estas organizações, parte dos sistemas alimentares alternativos, contribuem para a sustentabilidade de diversas formas, ao mesmo tempo que conseguem o aumento dos seus rendimentos através da relação direta ou indireta com os consumidores, sendo essencial para a viabilidade económica dos seus projetos. A nível social, estas organizações contribuem para a geração de emprego, o combate ao desperdíçio alimentar e a diversficiação da oferta educacional. A nível ambiental, destaca-se a redução de utilização de combustíveis fósseis, a mitigação de agroquímicos e o baixo uso de plásticos para embalamentos dos seus produtos. O estudo reúne um conjunto de recomendações para futuros estudos no setor da agricultura e dos sistemas alimentares, visando um maior envolvimento de diferentes áreas neste tema, de forma a contribuir para um aumento de conhecimento sobre o fenómeno estudado.
Climate change and impoverishment of farmers are problems that have been continuously pointed out in conventional food systems. To face these challenges, alternative ways of producing and distributing food have emerged. Thus, this research focused on the alternative food networks phenomenon to understand the possible contributions they have to sustainability and economic viability of farmers. After a literature review, sustainability was defined in its three pillars: environmental, economic, and social. The theoretical perspectives of alternative food networks were intensely studied. Portugal was the geographic research focus, and three for-profit agricultural organisations were analysed and reviewed, following a case study methodology. The results were evaluated from the different dimensions of sustainability. In conclusion, these alternative food networks organisations contribute in several elements to sustainability, whereas all of them have increased their income through direct or indirect consumer’s relationship, which is crucial for the economic viability of their projects. Socially, these organisations promote new employment opportunities, combat food waste and offer alternative educational opportunities. At the environmental level, the decreased use of fossil fuels stands out, as well as the mitigation of agrochemicals and the low plastic application for the packaging of their products. This study finishes with a set of recommendations for future studies in the agriculture sector and food systems, aiming at a greater involvement of different fields in this topic, in order to generate further knowledge about the phenomenon studied.

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'AFN's (Alternative Food Networks)'

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