Food Sovereignty in Everyday Life: Toward a People-centered Approach to Food Systems

Abstract

This paper proposes a theoretical approach that de-centers ‘food’ in food-related research, placing social life as the point of departure for a critical analysis of food systems and the search for alternatives. Using a relational conception of food as a nexus of multiple, intersecting social-historical processes, a ‘people-centered’ approach illuminates the social elements that can inform resonant and locally inflected strategies for food sovereignty, particularly for urban communities in the USA. Building on theoretical concepts of primitive accumulation, articulation, and everyday life, as well as empirical work with the Chicago-based Healthy Food Hub, this paper explores the relationship between everyday food practices and historical processes of proletarianization as they are produced, reproduced, and contested at multiple conjunctures. In these spaces of contestation, the capacity for diverse communities to re-articulate social relations through everyday food practices could provide a potentially powerful pathway not just to food sovereignty, but an alternative to life under capitalism.     

The essence of being connected: the lived experience of mothers with young children in newer residential areas

Parenthood is a significant life transition and a time of increased social support need. In newer residential areas, a lag in social infrastructure and family relocation can influence potential isolation of families with young children. This qualitative study explored the lived experiences of being connected to local communities for mothers with children aged 0–5 years. Family insights were obtained through in-depth interviews with 12 mothers who were primary caregivers, homeowners and living in newer residential areas in outer suburban Perth, Western Australia. For mothers with young children, being connected to the local community appears to be shaped from their past and present lived experience as well as future aspirations. Connectedness evolves and may develop more slowly in newer communities where social relationships and networks are often recently formed. ‘Interaction’, ‘knowing what's going on’ and ‘help is nearby if you need it’ were identified as the essential themes of connectedness for mothers and families in this study. Belonging was identified as an incidental theme as not all mothers who felt connected felt like they belonged. The findings provide insight for professionals and agencies working with families with young children as well as planners of newer residential areas.     

Urban Social Movements and the Right to the City: An Introduction to the Special Issue on Urban Mobilization

This paper introduces the special issue and explains the diversity as well as common features of mobilization practices present in cities around the world. The paper starts with presenting the specificity and history of urban movements worldwide, as well as the development of ‘right to the city’ frame. Drawing on the existing literature, it focuses on presenting different forms of urban activism and interpretations of ‘right to the city’ slogan. This paper strives to fuse the framework of social movements as networks (Diani, in: Diani, McAdam (eds) Social movements and networks, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 299–318, 2003) of challengers (Gamson in The strategy of social protest, Wadsworth Publishing, Belmont, 1990) with the concepts of diffusion and translation of ideas, borrowed from Finnemore and Sikkink (Int Org 52(4):887–917, 1998). It also illustrates the application of the theoretical concepts of incumbents and challengers (Gamson 1990), organizational platform and norm life cycle (Finnemore and Sikkink 1998) as well as the development on movement networks within and between localities (Diani in The cement of civil society: studying networks in localities, Cambridge University Press, New York, 2015). The theoretical model helps to explain the rapid global spread of the notion of the ‘right to the city.’ The paper concludes with a discussion of the urban context, both ‘glocal’ and global, as an arena of social mobilization around different aspects of the ‘right to the city.’     

Youth studies in transition: theoretical explorations

In youth studies, a clear distinction is made between theories on youth in transition and theories of youth culture. Whereas theories and research on youth transitions often use quantitative data – (and therefore need to operationalize their ‘variables’) – cultural studies uses various qualitative methods, alongside a more elastic definition of, and conceptual approach to, young people’s socio-material living conditions. The argument made in the present article is that we need a theoretical renewal in youth studies that will enable us to thoroughly explore class, gender and ethnicity in light of the intersections between social and cultural positions. At the same time, we also need to elaborate our conceptual tools to capture contemporary transformations of social identity among youth and in society and culture. The aim is to reintroduce three central concepts in the renewal of youth studies, that of identity, subculture and resistance. Furthermore, it is imperative that connect and create links between these concepts and theories of youth in transition.     

Settlement evolution in the Arena society in the urban field

Post-modern spatial relationships at the outer edge of Toronto's urban field are interpreted within the context of the Arena Society and urban field concepts. Custom census tabulations of commuting and migration show that although there are strong migration ties between Toronto and communities in the south Georgian Bay study area, most work trips are short and link settlements to the next place up the local settlement hierarchy. Migration from rural townships to urban areas, and between communities in the study area is also significant. A case study of Thornbury demonstrates that it is an ‘Amenity/Affinity/Niche’ community as suggested by the two concepts. It has developed a strong retail/service sector in response to the post-modern conditions facilitating economic links to Toronto and the ‘Golden Horseshoe’, but has also attracted tourists and residents because of its accessible location and appealing amenity characteristics. Local diversification as suggested by the Arena Society concept has combined with the economic interaction proposed by the urban field literature to stimulate settlements in the study area. The Arena Society and urban field concepts are mirror images and should be employed together when interpreting post-industrial settlement evolution.     

Communities within communities: Changing ‘residential’ areas at Cultus Lake,British Columbia

Research focusing upon rural Canada continues to highlight the complex outcomes arising from rural-urban interactions within particular geographic settings. In the ‘city's countryside’, amenity landscapes located near the urban fringe are developed as the domain of vacation- and recreation-seeking urban residents. Yet, these recreation amenity sites are also set within an existing rural landscape. The land uses and social patterns found within this setting represent an outcome of the interactions between these competing landscapes. This paper examines residential change within the rural-recreational areas around Cultus Lake, British Columbia. Comparison of the local population to those living permanently within the cottaging areas is made across selected socio-economic characteristics and household activity patterns. These comparisons are extended to the group level by examining social and spatial constructions of local community ‘institutions’. Together, these comparisons suggest a ‘shared but separate’ geographic space.     

Book Review

This article is concerned with current understandings of the relevance of urban community studies within sociology. It starts by revisiting some of the major critiques made of community studies in the 1960s and 1970s, and briefly reviews whether network analysis, and in particular a focus on ‘personal communities’, provided a satisfactory alternative approach. The main part of the article argues that despite the criticisms there have been there is still much to be gained from a focus on people's attachments to locality, including the networks to which they are linked. Taking processes of globalization and migration as its major themes, the article explores how research has demonstrated the continuing relevance of ‘locality’ and ‘community’ for understanding the ways that contemporary social and economic transformations shape people's experiences. As well as considering different aspects of social exclusion, the article reviews how recent studies have explored the increasingly complex interplay of locality and identity.     

Locality and community: coming to terms with place

The paper seeks to examine how social science has attempted to combine the uniqueness of place with general social processes. Two concepts which have traditionally been used to this end are examined; these are ‘locality’ and ‘community’. It is argued that although community has fallen out of favour, problems associated with the use of ‘locality’ could lead to a revival in the use of the former concept. Case study material from rural Wales is presented to show how the two approaches might usefully be combined.     

Human beings as receivers,doers and judges. The anthropological foundations of sustainable public action in the capability approach

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we argue that the capability approach can suggest avenues to reform social policies in the direction of a more valuable and sustainable conciliation between people's different engagements in community, work and family. We thus develop a theoretical framework for assessing the extent to which social policies support the freedom to lead a valuable life and to choose how to combine in a sustainable way employment, family life and active citizenship. With this aim, we study the anthropological conception at the core of the capability approach and its implications for social policy. We argue that in the capability approach human beings are seen as receivers (i.e. vulnerable beings in need of support), doers (i.e. actors able to contribute to society) and judges (i.e. political beings with aspirations, values and desires). By the same token, the capability approach sheds light on three prerequisites for developing a sustainable community, work and family interface: a) recognizing the multiple dimensions of human beings (and not seeing them only as ‘doers’ or ‘human capital’ for the economy), b) including all human beings, with their strengths and weaknesses, and allowing them to lead valuable lives (and not excluding those that cannot abide by the ‘doer’ standards), and c) insisting that the development of such an interface is the joint responsibility of the individual and the community (and not only of the individual).     

Social work stories: situated views and larger visions in disciplinary scholarship and education

ABSTRACT

This paper is about the changing imaginations of social work in an increasingly entangled world. It is also about the ways in which literatures shared across time and space encourage us to identify with larger collectivities. My central argument is that if social work is to find a larger vision in the wake of the failure of a range of modern progress narratives, we must engage differently with the challenge posed by multiplying and sometimes conflicting knowledge communities. Thinking with contemporary debates in transdisciplinary critical social theory, I nominate and explore a number of alternative heuristics—‘generational problematic,’ ‘translational space,’ and ‘imagined communities’—in support of future work on the uneven temporal and spatial communities of affiliation that reproduce and change what social work is, or could be, about. I conclude with theoretical suggestions, and some thoughts toward how social work education might better support incoming generations to locate themselves within the broader life-course of the discipline and profession.     

Finding common ground: how superdiversity is unsettling social work education

For social work education in the Netherlands, the rapid transition towards superdiversity means that its capacity to adapt to this new reality and to adjust to diverse students’ backgrounds is fiercely challenged. The key aim of this article is to discuss how social work educators are dealing with the unsettling challenges of increasing diversity, based on the research outcomes of an explorative study amongst Turkish–Dutch and Moroccan–Dutch female professionals. Two different groups of educators were asked to comment on the outcomes of this study. One of the dilemmas for educators is to determine what can be considered supportive and inclusive and as reducing inequality in education. The authors used two key theoretical concepts, ‘superdiversity’ and ‘the capability approach’. These theoretical perspectives were used to deconstruct the rather massive concepts of diversity and social justice, by emphasising contextual approaches. Both perspectives stress the urgent need to involve students as ‘active agents of change’, by building a social work community to stimulate and facilitate an on-going dialogue. To successfully fulfil a pivotal role in the upward mobility or emancipation of ethnic minority students, social work education needs to be adjusted to accommodate diverse student groups.     

Pneumatologie und die Konstituierung soziospiritueller Gemeinschaften

This chapter brings together approaches from social anthropology and sociology in order to explore with a view to ethnographic research data from southern Africa (Zambia) the relationship between the life-world effects of Pentecostal theologies relating to the Holy Spirit (pneuma) on the one hand, and Pentecostal modalities of constituting translocal communities on the other. This focus allows to question conventional understandings of religious sociality as well as to carve out three different ways of establishing what I call ‘socio-spiritual communities’: In the mode of the ‘logistics of the spirit’, a given Pentecostal community expands in the socio-spatial logic of a network, meaning that the spatial movements of the Holy Spirit run parallel to the spatial movements of its human vessels; in the mode of the Holy Spirit’s ‘self-multiplication’, Pentecostal sociality takes the form of a scattering in which autonomous enclaves of spiritualization are connected to each other; finally, ‘spiritual scaling’ represents a mode of spiritual omnipresence in socio-religious space that is affected by changes in the Holy Spirit’s scalar morphology.     

Using Social Network Analysis to Explore Social Movements: A Relational Approach

This paper uses a ‘relational’ approach to network analysis to demonstrate the linkages between different types of environmental organizations in London. A ‘relational’ approach was used to avoid problems associated with ‘positional’ approaches such as structural determinism, subjectively defined and misleadingly labelled blocks of ‘approximately’ equivalent actors, and reification of the action/issue basis of networks. The paper also explores definitions of social/environmental movements. Whilst broadly agreeing with Diani's consensual definition of a social movement, it argues that we need to be much more precise about the type and intensity of networking required; it must be more than informal or cursory, and should bind individuals and organizations into collaborative networks. Evidence from a survey of 149 environmental organizations and qualitative interviews with key campaigners suggests that whilst many organizations might share information, it is often stockpiled or ignored, hardly creating the kinds of network links that might lead to shared movement identity. The kinds of links that do bind movements are collaborative. In practice, in the environmental movement in London, conservationists tend neither to share information nor to engage in the collective action events of reformist or radical organizations, suggesting that conservationists should perhaps not be considered part of the movement.     

GPs in cyberspace: the sociology of a 'virtual community'

It has been argued that on-line networked communication can enable the establishment of ‘virtual communities’. Empirical data from an electronic discussion group for general medical practitioners (GPs) are used to evaluate these claims, and to explore the similarities and discrepancies between on-line and face-to-face interactions. A distinct social order for this ‘community’ is reported, and the strategies to establish this order in a textual environment are discussed. Participants went through a cycle of integration into membership, and some generated distinctive virtual identities or personae. The notion of a ‘virtual community’ is critically discussed. Participants interacted as if they were part of a community, but it is suggested that the interactions on the list are best understood as extensions of the wider social relations of general practice. The study of virtual communities may thus have relevance for wider issues of social inclusion and citizenship. The paper also includes reflections on ‘cyberethnography’, and suggestions for further research are offered.     

城市社区公共空间构筑与基层社会的动员整合——基于上海市G社区的案例分析

城市社区公共空间既是一种物理空间,又是一种制度与文化空间。上海G社区探索楼道公共客厅与楼道居民自治,通过楼道公共空间的拓展与构筑,增强居民归属感,构建居民交流、共商机制,改善社区认同,让社区从一个生活的共同体演变成一种信念的共同体,维护了社区的和谐和稳定,推进基层社会的动员整合。这种社区自治性的成长不仅是社会力量内部整合的基础,也构成了社区共治的基础。由此,未来社区治理的方向是如何建立起社区事务协商参与的多级公共空间,形成共治、自治衔接的有效机制,从而真正实现基层社区国家与社会良性互动、政府行政管理与居民群众自治相衔接的基层社会管理的新格局。     

Planning for community: understanding diversity in resident experiences and expectations of social connections in a new urban fringe housing estate,Australia

Master-planned estates are a major source of new housing for growing cities. Much research finds these residential developments lack genuine social connections between residents despite marketing of ‘close-knit’ community. Selandra Rise is a new residential development on the urban fringe of Melbourne, Australia. The estate was planned with a focus on community infrastructure and resident well-being. The resident population was younger and more culturally diverse than most other master-planned community case studies. A longitudinal research design was used to explore resident understanding, experiences and needs relating to place-based community. Interviews were conducted with residents before moving to the estate and 9–18 months after moving. Some residents considered community as an amenity provided by the master-planned environment that did not require their social participation. Others aspired to make social connections with neighbours but had varying levels of success. Past experiences which contributed to aspirations for connecting with local community, and the ways that these aims were realised or hindered, are discussed. Understanding diverse resident expectations of community and insights from their lived experience are used to make recommendations for planning new neighbourhoods and designing community development programmes.     

Learning from tradition: the planning of residential neighborhoods in a changing world

This paper analyses the community values of residential neighborhoods in the southwestern region of Saudi Arabia as an approach to a new theory in urbanism. The indigenous masterbuilders and tribemen incorporated planning decisions pertinent to climatic, cultural, social, economic and religious factors when designing physical elements in their built environment. This is what makes every traditional settlement in the southwest region of Saudi Arabia unique in terms of urban form and social structure. As a step to examining and evaluating the process of residential neighborhood development, three stages of practiced urbanism are discussed. These stages are labelled “vernacular”, “transitional” and “new vernacularism”. These are planning concepts used worldwide in the development of residential neighborhoods throughout history until the present. “New Vernacularism” is envisioned in this investigation as a design/planning objective implemented in most recently planned neighborhoods in Al-Horaidhah, Southwest Saudi Arabia. The achievement of successful urbanism underlies the political goals of urban planning practice. The Al-Horaidhah planning concept is conceived in the light of preservation of community values in neighborhood design/planning as a critical issue.The paper aims to investigate and reconcile the conflicts in the planning of residential neighborhoods in a changing world. The conflicts are restricted between retaining traditions of architecture, urban design and planning with the necessary social, economic, and technological changes in urban formation, mainly, the vernacular and modern. The paper illustrates the concept “New Vernacularism” by presenting Al-Horaidhah scheme as a model for community development in three administrative regions along the Red Sea coastline. “New Vernacularism” as a planning concept looks at the community development in Al-Horaidhah in the light of Sharicah, the Islamic Law and Customary norms by emphasizing the importance of the involvement of local residents in the planning process and gives suggestions of how this might best be achieved and later implemented into new communities.     

What about biodiversity? Redefining urban sustainable management to incorporate endemic fauna with particular reference to Australia

An estimated 50 % of the world’s population live in urban areas and this is expected to rise to 70 % by 2050. Urban developments will thus continue to encroach on non-urban landscapes and native biodiversity (flora and fauna). Although much has been written on sustainable urban development, the biodiversity component has been largely ignored. Consequently, sustainable development of biodiversity is poorly understood within urban confines by planners and designers, community developers and social planners, activists and social movements, and even academics and consultants. When native flora and fauna are incorporated deliberately or ad hoc, for example due to landscaping fashions, the outcome may create on-going issues for authorities which could be minimised with sustainable management. For example, green urban infrastructure including parks and gardens, ‘backyards’, remnant bushland and even wastelands can be more effectively developed to sustainably support biodiversity, typically at reduced on-going cost. However, due to the lack of understanding of this aspect of sustainable development and on-going issues of ‘pest management’, the focus has been on only a small sub-set of the overall biodiversity. In addition, these changes in species’ dynamics often lead to the decline of local amenity for humans, and endemic species (e.g., small-bodied birds). Other taxa are typically neglected because they are cryptic, innocuous, dangerous, a nuisance, feral, or just not ‘sexy’.     

What rural restructuring?

This paper emerges from a growing sense of disquiet over the regularity and often loosely utilised appearance of the concept ‘rural restructuring’ in the literature. The paper examines rural restructuring from two perspectives — as an analytical approach that emphasizes the need for a holistic view of change processes, and as a statement on the character of change in the countryside. The argument put forward is that restructuring ideas have much to commend them as an approach, even if theoretical improvement will require more diversity in ‘starting’ theoretical perspectives and a stronger willingness to engage with other theoretical stances when the weaknesses of a ‘starting’ perspective are revealed. This will entail approaching questions of rural restructuring from a broader range of perspectives than currently dominant visions, which are grounded in political economy. In exploring restructuring ideas as ‘facts’, the paper focuses on England, as this is a country in which rural restructuring is commonly reported to have occurred or be occurring. The paper argues that this vision of the English countryside is too poorly articulated and that support for this vision is far from convincing. It cautions that restructuring processes are less widespread than is often implied. Moreover, there are grounds for seeing restructuring processes are reifying the past, not heralding a new social dynamic.     

Renegotiating family gender identities in a disadvantaged Atlantic Canadian working-class community: young adults' perspectives

Within a climate of reduced social welfare support, disadvantaged working-class communities in Canada are in transition as they consider their futures without the industries that were once the staples of their economies. In this paper, I examine how a group of young women and men living in Industrial Cape Breton – a disadvantaged Atlantic Canadian working-class community – negotiate the traditional gendered identities ascribed to them through local history with twenty-first-century conceptions of family and gender. Young adults in this study suggest that class-based and gender-based capital plays a significant role in how these changes are experienced by individuals, families, and communities. Furthermore, the social, economic, and psychological expenses for individuals attempting to secure economic comfort and gendered respectability in their disadvantaged communities leave little time and energy to critically reflect on the systemic social and economic conditions that enable class-based gender inequalities to thrive. As a result, traditional concepts of the masculine family ‘breadwinner’ and the feminine family ‘caregiver’ survive even as the societal basis for these roles is eroded by global capitalism.