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‘Workable utopias’ for social change through inclusion and empowerment? Community supported agriculture (CSA) in Wales as social innovation

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  • Tezcan Mert-Cakal

    (Cardiff University Alumna, School of Geography and Planning)

  • Mara Miele

    (Cardiff University)

Abstract

The focus of this article is community supported agriculture (CSA) as an alternative food movement and a bottom-up response to the problems of the dominant food systems. By utilizing social innovation approach that explores the relationship between causes for human needs and emergence of socially innovative food initiatives, the article examines how the CSA projects emerge and why, what is their innovative role as part of the social economy and what is their transformative potential. Based on qualitative data from four different models of CSA case studies in different regions of Wales, UK, and by using concepts from an alternative model for social innovation (ALMOLIN) as analytical tool, the article demonstrates that the Welsh CSA cases play distinctive roles as part of the social economy. They satisfy the needs for ecologically sound and ethically produced food, grown within communities of like-minded people and they empower individuals and communities at micro level, while at the same time experiment with how to be economically sustainable and resilient on a small scale. The paper argues that in order to become ‘workable utopias’, the CSA initiatives need to overcome the barriers that prevent them from replicating, participating in policies and decision-making at macro level, and scaling up.

Suggested Citation

  • Tezcan Mert-Cakal & Mara Miele, 2020. "‘Workable utopias’ for social change through inclusion and empowerment? Community supported agriculture (CSA) in Wales as social innovation," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(4), pages 1241-1260, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:37:y:2020:i:4:d:10.1007_s10460-020-10141-6
    DOI: 10.1007/s10460-020-10141-6
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    2. Yahya Dabaghi & Shahla Choobchian & Hassan Sadighi & Hossein Azadi, 2022. "Consumers’ attitude toward participation in community-supported aquaculture: a case of Kurdistan province in the west of Iran," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 12(4), pages 870-889, December.
    3. Stephanie Walton, 2024. "Transforming the food system in ‘unprotected space’: the case of diverse grain networks in England," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 41(3), pages 989-1006, September.
    4. William Lacy, 2023. "Local food systems, citizen and public science, empowered communities, and democracy: hopes deserving to live," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 40(1), pages 1-17, March.
    5. Gustavo Magalh?es de Oliveira & Gaetano Martino & Chiara Riganelli & Michela Ascani, 2022. "Sustainable transition and food democracy: The role of decision making process in Solidarity Purchasing Groups," Economia agro-alimentare, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 24(2), pages 1-34.
    6. de Oliveira, Gustavo Magalhães & Martino, Gaetano & Riganelli, Chiara & Ascani, Michela, 2022. "Sustainable transition and food democracy: The role of decision making process in Solidarity Purchasing Groups," Economia agro-alimentare / Food Economy, Italian Society of Agri-food Economics/Società Italiana di Economia Agro-Alimentare (SIEA), vol. 24(2), September.
    7. Lya Cynthia Porto Oliveira & Emmanuel Raufflet & Mário Aquino Alves, 2022. "Urban agriculture in São Paulo: an analysis from the sociology of public action," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 14(6), pages 1537-1552, December.
    8. Bernd Bonfert, 2022. "Community-Supported Agriculture Networks in Wales and Central Germany: Scaling Up, Out, and Deep through Local Collaboration," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-18, June.

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