Towards the socio-ecological transformation of the agri-food sector: Role and potential of alternative business networks

Abstract der Sitzung

Planetary futures will largely depend on the way we produce, process, trade and consume food. Experts agree that a swift and substantial ecological and social food transformation is necessary to achieve SDGs (Rockström et al. 2020). Alternative Food Networks or AFN (Renting et al. 2003; Rosol/Barbosa Jr 2021; Rosol 2020; Watts et al. 2018) play an important role in this. AFN are usually understood as networks between agricultural producers and end consumers.

In this session, we would like to address explicitly the contribution of vertical and horizontal alternative business networks to the needed agricultural and food system transformation. Our focus will be on the governance and internal power relations of these formal or informal networks, their regional embeddedness as well as the ways in which they can support alternative economic practices (Gibson-Graham 2008; Gritzas/Kavoulakos 2016; Krueger et al. 2017; North 2016).

We invite theoretical-conceptual, methodological and/or empirical contributions, preferably in English, that engage with but are not limited to one or more of the following questions:

• What examples of formalized or informal, horizontal or vertical business networks exist in the alternative food sector?
• How do these networks differ in terms of their initiation and internal governance (e.g., regarding their democratic control)? For example, how is the appropriation and distribution of value organized and how are decisions made? Which support and solidarity mechanisms exist within the networks, what competitive situations? What power relations can be identified?
• Embeddedness: How can the development of the networks be explained historically and geographically? Which favourable, possibly regionally specific factors outside of the actual networks can be identified (e.g. political support, regulation, demand…)? What are obstacles they are facing? What relationships exist between these business networks and civil society organizations/ social (food) movements?
• What role do diverse/ alternative economic practices (in terms of work, financing, property, transactions, enterprise form) play in these networks? What conflicts emerge, if any, between them?
• Aspirations and impact: What problem definitions, visions, and theories of change around alternative practice are employed in these ‘alternative’ business networks? How can such alternative businesses networks mitigate the economic pressures which often cause organizations to abandon regenerative practices?
• What theoretical and methodological approaches are suitable for examining the networks, their economic practices as well as their transformative potential? What kind of criteria for inclusion/ exclusion can be employed?

General session language will be English, however, we welcome contributions in English or German.