The “awkwardnesses” of aid and exchange

Abstract

Self-help and mutual aid have been at the heart of the consumer cooperative movement and its response to food insecurity since its inception. Yet how these terms are conceptualized and practiced in contemporary food co-ops often has more to do with their individual histories, ideologies, and the values of those involved than it does the history of the cooperative movement. Drawing on ethnographic examples from two London-based food co-ops with different backgrounds, this article explores how each enacts ideals of aid and exchange. It argues that the context of austerity creates “awkwardnesses” between and within personal values and organizational structures in the face of inequality, leading to blurred boundaries between different models of aid and exchange and the forms of moral accounting that these entail.

“It’s a Co-op in Spirit, That’s What It Is”: Fostering Collaboration, Collectivity, and Egalitarianism in Food Cooperatives

“…Shoppers are also expected to play their part, weighing out and tallying up their goods before telling volunteers how much they owe. This reconfigures these economic transactions along less consumerist lines while fostering a more cooperative sense of shared responsibility and sociality (Plender 2021). In line with the anarchist and cooperativist principles on which it was founded, this speaks to ideals of social and economic transformation.…”