Food self-provisioning as an answer to the metabolic rift: The case of ‘Dacha Resilience’ in Estonia

Pungas, Lilian

doi:10.1016/j.jrurstud.2019.02.010

Cited by 53 publications

(55 citation statements)

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“…The socialist drive to the national or Soviet-bloc level food security and autarky meant that almost all products where produced within the region, although sometimes at high financial cost (such as the livestock production in northern Russia) or environmental costs (such as the cotton production around the Aral Sea in Central Asia). 6 Fourth, as discussed above, smallholders play a crucial role in all of those countries, by producing a substantial share of agricultural output and, as this issue's articles demonstrate, contributing strongly to food security, and particularly food sovereignty, in those countries (Pungas 2019;Visser et al 2015).…”

Section: Common Characteristics Of Post-socialist Smallholdersmentioning

confidence: 88%

Post-socialist smallholders: silence, resistance and alternatives

Виссер

Dorondel

Jehlička

et al. 2019

Canadian Journal of Development Studies / Revue canadienne d'ét

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The majority of the world's smallholders live in countries that experience(d) socialism, but they largely remain invisible in agrarian studies. This special issue puts the spotlight on postsocialist smallholders, asking whether, and how, they (1) fulfil important functions in society; (2) engage in resistance (against the state or corporate actors); and (3) constitute an alternative to the industrial agri-food system. We find that post-socialist smallholders rarely confront the mainstream agri-food system head-on, but that they make a larger contribution to sustainability, community and food sovereignty than do smallholders or alternative agriculture in the "West". RÉSUMÉLa majorité des petits exploitants du monde vivent dans des pays socialistes ou qui en ont fait l'expérience. Ils restent cependant largement invisibles dans les études agraires. Ce numéro spécial met en lumière les petits exploitants post-socialistes et soulève les questions suivantes : (1) remplissent-ils des fonctions importantes dans la société, et si oui, comment? (2) Sont-ils engagés dans des dynamiques de résistance (envers l'État ou les entreprises)? (3) Constituent-ils une alternative au système agroalimentaire industriel? Nous constatons que les petits exploitants postsocialistes adoptent rarement une attitude de confrontation directe envers le système agroalimentaire dominant, mais qu'ils contribuent d'avantage à la durabilité, à la communauté et à la souveraineté alimentaire que les petits exploitants ou que l'agriculture alternative « Occidentale ». ARTICLE HISTORY

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Section: Common Characteristics Of Post-socialist Smallholdersmentioning

confidence: 88%

Post-socialist smallholders: silence, resistance and alternatives

Виссер

Dorondel

Jehlička

et al. 2019

Canadian Journal of Development Studies / Revue canadienne d'ét

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“…Studies from CEE provide a similar picture: having a meaningful hobby and producing fresh and healthy food motivate allotment gardeners in Prague [56]. The intertwined dimensions of self-fulfilment, social life, the connection to nature and tasty food with transparent origins are appreciated by gardeners in Estonia [42]. A systematic comparison of these and other studies from CEE and Western Europe is required to further explore the similarities and differences in the meanings of (allotment) gardening, and possibly also in its material performances.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, instead of being theorised through concepts of empowerment such as food sovereignty [16], local economic development [26] or community food security [17], food self-provisioning in CEE is often described with negative undertones as a sign of underdevelopment, soon to be replaced by market mechanisms. Such path-dependent depictions have been challenged in a growing body of research that shows that purely economic motivations are rare amongst gardeners in CEE [40][41][42].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While the term we use-food self-provisioning-is more common in literature on CEE, we aim to reclaim it, employing it to refer not to scarcity-driven subsistence, but to efforts to grow food and eat from one's garden [41,42]. By comparing how urban gardens serve as sources of food in both Western Europe and CEE, we seek to move beyond stereotypical accounts of urban gardening as either a trendy hobby practised by urban food activists or a traditional subsistence practice driven by economic need.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Neither Poor nor Cool: Practising Food Self-Provisioning in Allotment Gardens in the Netherlands and Czechia

Sovová

Veen

2020

Sustainability

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While urban gardening and food provisioning have become well-established subjects of academic inquiry, these practices are given different meanings depending on where they are performed. In this paper, we scrutinise different framings used in the literature on food self-provisioning in Eastern and Western Europe. In the Western context, food self-provisioning is often mentioned alongside other alternative food networks and implicitly framed as an activist practice. In comparison, food self-provisioning in Central and Eastern Europe has until recently been portrayed as a coping strategy motivated by economic needs and underdeveloped markets. Our research used two case studies of allotment gardening from both Western and Eastern Europe to investigate the legitimacy of the diverse framings these practices have received in the literature. Drawing on social practice theory, we examined the meanings of food self-provisioning for allotment gardeners in Czechia and the Netherlands, as well as the material manifestations of this practice. We conclude that, despite minor differences, allotment gardeners in both countries are essentially ‘doing the same thing.’ We thus argue that assuming differences based on different contexts is too simplistic, as are the binary categories of ‘activist alternative’ versus ‘economic need.’

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“…An analysis based on understanding space as a heterogeneous and power-laden multiplicity explains why rural development policies emanating from the West have been privileged in Eastern Europe in their effort to "catch up" to the West. Scholars have critiqued the catching up narrative and the concept of a linear, stageist transition (Burawoy and Verdery 1999), and they have provided evidence that alternative food production, procurement and marketing practices provide possible sustainable development pathways (Ančić et al 2019;Blumberg and Mincyte 2019a;Blumberg 2018;Pungas 2019;Smith and Jehlička 2013;Spilková and Vágner 2018;Yotova 2018). For example, writing about permaculture gardens in Bulgaria, Brawner argues that because of its flexibility and its resemblance to traditional Bulgarian gardening practices, permaculture offers a contrast to "Western-centric notion of progress, creating oppositional frameworks for development" (2015: 441).…”

Section: The Political Ecology Of Food Systems In Eastern Europementioning

confidence: 99%

For food space: theorizing alternative food networks beyond alterity

Blumberg

Leitner

Cadieux

2020

Journal of Political Ecology

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In response to calls by scholars to deepen theoretical engagement in research on Alternative Food Networks (AFNs), in this article we critically discuss and assess major theoretical approaches deployed in the study of AFNs. After highlighting the strengths and limitations of each theoretical approach, we provide an alternative framework – which we refer to as the Geographical Political Ecology of Food Systems – that integrates the contributions that have emerged in the study of the alternative geographies of food with an understanding of capitalist processes in the food system. We do this by bringing together literature on the political ecology of food systems and multiple spatialities, including Doreen Massey's understanding of space as a heterogeneous multiplicity and Eric Sheppard's conceptualization of sociospatial positionality. We utilize research on agrarian change and AFNs in Eastern Europe to elaborate this approach. We argue that this new perspective helps navigate tensions in AFN scholarship, and provides new avenues for research and action. We focus particularly on the ability of AFNs to provide a sustainable livelihood for participating farmers, thus far a neglected topic in AFN research in Europe.Keywords: Alternative Food Networks, Eastern Europe, spatialities, positionality, livelihoods

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Food self-provisioning as an answer to the metabolic rift: The case of ‘Dacha Resilience’ in Estonia

Cited by 53 publications

References 55 publications

Post-socialist smallholders: silence, resistance and alternatives

Post-socialist smallholders: silence, resistance and alternatives

Neither Poor nor Cool: Practising Food Self-Provisioning in Allotment Gardens in the Netherlands and Czechia

For food space: theorizing alternative food networks beyond alterity

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