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Growing the Beautiful Anthropocene: Ethics of Care in East European Food Gardens

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  • Lucie Sovová

    (Rural Sociology Group, Department of Social Sciences, Wageningen University, 6706 KN Wageningen, The Netherlands
    Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, 611 37 Brno, Czechia)

  • Petr Jehlička

    (Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, 611 37 Brno, Czechia
    Department of Ecological Anthropology, Institute of Ethnology, Czech Academy of Sciences, 110 00 Prague, Czechia)

  • Petr Daněk

    (Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, 611 37 Brno, Czechia)

Abstract

This study contributes to research proposing the ethics of care framework as a way of imagining a food system that cares for Others. We expand this exploration to the everyday practice of home gardening and the related social relationships and material flows. This area complements current scholarship, which mostly focuses on food-related care as a form of activism driven by intentionality and knowledge about the effects of consumption choices. Combining a survey of a representative sample of the population and an in-depth qualitative study, our paper highlights the importance of inconspicuous but materially significant food self-provisioning and sharing practices as caring behaviors that do not rely on educational campaigns but draw on the desire to produce healthy food for human Others. Home grown food is distributed in the generalized reciprocity mode within wide food-sharing networks. The desire to produce healthy food further translates into the adoption of caring methods of cultivation that benefit non-human Others involved in the garden ecosystems.

Suggested Citation

  • Lucie Sovová & Petr Jehlička & Petr Daněk, 2021. "Growing the Beautiful Anthropocene: Ethics of Care in East European Food Gardens," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-17, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:9:p:5193-:d:549725
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Guntra A. Aistara, 2015. "Good, Clean, Fair … and Illegal: Paradoxes of Food Ethics in Post-Socialist Latvia," Journal of Baltic Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(3), pages 283-298, July.
    2. Holly Jean Buck, 2015. "On the Possibilities of a Charming Anthropocene," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 105(2), pages 369-377, March.
    3. Lucie Sovová & Esther J. Veen, 2020. "Neither Poor nor Cool: Practising Food Self-Provisioning in Allotment Gardens in the Netherlands and Czechia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-18, June.
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