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Are vegetables political? The traces of the Copenhagen Food Coop

Hoff, Jens and Islar, Mine LU (2019)
Abstract
The Copenhagen Food Coop (CFC) is an alternative food community in Copenhagen that provides locally grown organic vegetables and fruits to its members. It also disseminates knowledge on organic and sustainable food production, distribution, and consumption and aims to develop a participatory and inclusive community organisation. Some scholars see such alternative food networks as having great potential for creating environmentally and economically sustainable societies, while others see them as a way of ‘de-politicising’ the local. We intervene in this debate, using in particular Bang’s distinction between mode 1 (traditional) and mode 2 politics (network politics) and an actor-network methodology. We find that rather than being... (More)
The Copenhagen Food Coop (CFC) is an alternative food community in Copenhagen that provides locally grown organic vegetables and fruits to its members. It also disseminates knowledge on organic and sustainable food production, distribution, and consumption and aims to develop a participatory and inclusive community organisation. Some scholars see such alternative food networks as having great potential for creating environmentally and economically sustainable societies, while others see them as a way of ‘de-politicising’ the local. We intervene in this debate, using in particular Bang’s distinction between mode 1 (traditional) and mode 2 politics (network politics) and an actor-network methodology. We find that rather than being ‘apolitical’, CFC is ‘double political’ in the sense that members are involved in mode 1 as well as mode 2 politics. So, vegetables are indeed political. However, they need not be. For some stakeholders the story of the CFC is synonymous with community or health, which implies that the organisation is non-political. However, we have chosen to tell the story of CFC as a political topos, a story that allows us to demonstrate not only the political, but also some of the organisation’s economic, cultural, and discursive traces. (Less)
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author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
host publication
The Role of Non-state Actors in the Green Transition : Building a sustainable future - Building a sustainable future
editor
Hoff, Jens ; Gausset, Quentin and Lex, Simon
pages
22 pages
publisher
Routledge
external identifiers
  • scopus:85084910010
ISBN
978-0-429-28039-9
978-0-367-23559-8
DOI
10.4324/9780429280399-5
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
947fa739-4c64-4d6b-9d3c-3391e28ae77c
date added to LUP
2019-11-19 09:38:46
date last changed
2024-03-20 00:37:06
@inbook{947fa739-4c64-4d6b-9d3c-3391e28ae77c,
  abstract     = {{The Copenhagen Food Coop (CFC) is an alternative food community in Copenhagen that provides locally grown organic vegetables and fruits to its members. It also disseminates knowledge on organic and sustainable food production, distribution, and consumption and aims to develop a participatory and inclusive community organisation. Some scholars see such alternative food networks as having great potential for creating environmentally and economically sustainable societies, while others see them as a way of ‘de-politicising’ the local. We intervene in this debate, using in particular Bang’s distinction between mode 1 (traditional) and mode 2 politics (network politics) and an actor-network methodology. We find that rather than being ‘apolitical’, CFC is ‘double political’ in the sense that members are involved in mode 1 as well as mode 2 politics. So, vegetables are indeed political. However, they need not be. For some stakeholders the story of the CFC is synonymous with community or health, which implies that the organisation is non-political. However, we have chosen to tell the story of CFC as a political topos, a story that allows us to demonstrate not only the political, but also some of the organisation’s economic, cultural, and discursive traces.}},
  author       = {{Hoff, Jens and Islar, Mine}},
  booktitle    = {{The Role of Non-state Actors in the Green Transition : Building a sustainable future}},
  editor       = {{Hoff, Jens and Gausset, Quentin and Lex, Simon}},
  isbn         = {{978-0-429-28039-9}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Routledge}},
  title        = {{Are vegetables political? The traces of the Copenhagen Food Coop}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780429280399-5}},
  doi          = {{10.4324/9780429280399-5}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}