Abstract. A considerable literature addresses worker deskilling in manufacturing and the related loss of control over production processes experienced by farmers and others working in the agri-food industry. Much less attention has been directed at a parallel process of consumer deskilling in the food system, which has been no less important. Consumer deskilling in its various dimensions carries enormous consequences for the restructuring of agro-food systems and for consumer sovereignty, diets, and health. The prevalence of packaged, processed, and industrially transformed foodstuffs is often explained in terms of consumer preference for convenience. A closer look at the social construction of ''consumers'' reveals that the agro-food industry has waged a double disinformation campaign to manipulate and to re-educate consumers while appearing to respond to consumer demand. Many consumers have lost the knowledge necessary to make discerning decisions about the multiple dimensions of quality, including the contributions a well-chosen diet can make to health, planetary sustainability, and community economic development. They have also lost the skills needed to make use of basic commodities in a manner that allows them to eat a high quality diet while also eating lower on the food chain and on a lower budget. This process has a significant gender dimension, as it is the autonomy of those primarily responsible for purchasing and preparing foodstuffs that has been systematically undermined. Too often, food industry professionals and regulatory agencies have been accessories to this process by misdirecting attention to the less important dimensions of quality.Key words: Consumer deskilling, Consumerism, Food system, Gendered relations of consumption, McDonaldization, North America, Provisioning JoAnn Jaffe teaches rural, environmental, and development sociology, the sociology of gender, and theory in the Department of Sociology and Social Studies of the University of Regina.Michael Gertler teaches rural sociology, the sociology of communities, and the sociology of agriculture in the Department of Sociology at the University of Saskatchewan. He holds a cross appointment in the Centre for the Study of Co-operatives.
Social cohesion has become a magic bullet that policy makers imagine will rescue communities from the ravages of the market. Behind the apparent cohesiveness of rural community, however, lies another reality. This article examines characteristics of social cohesion in two rural communities in Saskatchewan. Although new forms of cohesion are emerging, these communities are riven with cleavages along multiple axes. Some of these local divisions appear to be deepening with global and regional processes of socioeconomic transformation. Long-term crises lead to strategies and solutions that precipitate new problems. Ongoing practices of inclusion and exclusion affect the possibilities of development in these communities.
There is a large gap between attitude and action when it comes to consumer purchases of ethical food. Amongst the various aspects of this gap, this paper focuses on the difficulty in knowing enough about the various dimensions of food production, distribution and consumption to make an ethical food purchasing decision. There is neither one universal definition of ethical food. We suggest that it is possible to support consumers in operationalizing their own ethics of food with the use of appropriate Information and Communication Technology (ICT). We consider eggs as an example because locally produced options are available to many people on every continent. We consider the dimensions upon which food ethics may be constructed, then discuss the information required to assess it and the tools that can support it. We then present an overview of opportunities for design of a new software tool. Finally, we offer some points for discussion and future work.
Social inequities are made possible by and compounded by knowledge inequity. Accordingly, new and more vehicles are needed in which different and transformative knowledges can chart new possibilities, practices, and meanings for rural people. One way forward is to work toward an ecology of knowledges in which the need for many types of knowledge is recognized and different knowledges are respected. Drawing on case study and “photo‐voice” research with women in rural Ethiopia, this article uses a practice theory approach to explore the possibilities of knowledge dialogue among different types of knowledge and skill. Recognizing the wide spectrum of deep knowledge and skill employed in local practice, and understanding how all knowledges are rooted in social context, actors can find common ground to dialogue through methods of praxis and narrative.
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