Jehlicka, Petr; Kostelecký, Tomáš and Smith, Joe
(2013).
Food self-provisioning in Czechia: beyond coping strategy of the poor: a response to Alber and Kohler's 'Informal Food Production in the Enlarged European Union' (2008).
Social Indicators Research, 111(1)
pp. 219–234.
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Abstract
Food systems are of increasing interest in both research and policy communities. Surveys of post-socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) show high rates of food self-provisioning. These practices have been explained in terms of being ‘coping strategies of the poor’. Alber and Kohler’s ‘Informal Food Production in the Enlarged European Union’ (2008) offers a prominent account of this argument, supported by quantitative data. However, evidence from our case study of food self-provisioning in one CEE state - Czechia - contradicts their findings. Newly commissioned survey data, as well as a fresh look at the data they were working from, demonstrate that rather than being motivated by poverty, these widespread practices serve as a hobby and as a way of accessing ‘healthy food’. With food self-provisioning becoming an increasingly prominent subject in advanced industrial countries, in terms of both health and environmental policy, we propose that much greater care is taken in researching and interpreting the reasons for differences in food systems. Our findings are that environmentally sustainable and healthy self-provisioning in Czechia is motivated by a range of reasons, and practised by a significant proportion of the population across all social groups. This conclusion questions linear narratives of progress that figure ‘western’ practices as advanced or complete or automatically desirable, and contributes in a modest way to a decentring of narratives of progress.
| Item Type: |
Journal Article
|
| Copyright Holders: |
2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V. |
| ISSN: |
1573-0921 |
| Funders: |
OpenSpace Research Centre, Open University, Czech Science Foundation via grant No. 404/10/0521 |
| Keywords: |
food self-provisioning; food systems; Czechia; coping strategy; informal food production; post-socialism |
| Academic Unit/Department: |
Social Sciences > Geography |
| Interdisciplinary Research Centre: |
OpenSpace Research Centre (OSRC) |
| Item ID: |
32736 |
| Depositing User: |
Petr Jehlicka
|
| Date Deposited: |
23 Feb 2012 17:24 |
| Last Modified: |
08 Feb 2013 09:43 |
| URI: |
http://oro.open.ac.uk/id/eprint/32736 |
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