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Ecological Citizenship and Sustainable Consumption: Examining Local Organic Food Networks

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Sustainable consumption is gaining in currency as a new environmental policy objective. This paper presents new research findings from a mixed-method empirical study of a local organic food network to interrogate the theories of both sustainable consumption and ecological citizenship. It describes a mainstream policy model of sustainable consumption, and contrasts this with an alternative model derived from green or ‘new economics’ theories. Then the role of localised, organic food networks is discussed to locate them within the alternative model. It then tests the hypothesis that ecological citizenship is a driving force for ‘alternative’ sustainable consumption, via expression through consumer behaviour such as purchasing local organic food. The empirical study found that both the organisation and their consumers were expressing ecological citizenship values in their activities in a number of clearly identifiable ways, and that the initiative was actively promoting the growth of ecological citizenship, as well as providing a meaningful social context for its expression. Furthermore, the initiative was able to overcome the structural limitations of mainstream sustainable consumption practices. Thus, the initiative was found to be a valuable tool for practising alternative sustainable consumption. The paper concludes with a discussion of how ecological citizenship may be a powerful motivating force for sustainable consumption behaviour, and the policy and research implications of this.
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... The number of publications increased during the second phase (infant growth), starting with 28 articles in 2002 and ending with 30 articles in 2008. The increase was mainly due to the standard definition of Since that year, several developed nations have become concerned with aligning themselves with sustainable consumption policies [73]. Remarkably, the United Kingdom has enacted regulations regarding the clarity of food labeling, educated the citizens to be more environmentally conscious and initiated the implementation of green taxes [74]. ...
... Remarkably, the United Kingdom has enacted regulations regarding the clarity of food labeling, educated the citizens to be more environmentally conscious and initiated the implementation of green taxes [74]. Since that year, several developed nations have become concerned with aligning themselves with sustainable consumption policies [73]. Remarkably, the United Kingdom has enacted regulations regarding the clarity of food labeling, educated the citizens to be more environmentally conscious and initiated the implementation of green taxes [74]. ...
... Indeed, research on local food as a type of SFC was less popular than research on organic food. Local food was frequently associated with a competitive advantage as a tourist attraction, because it sells authenticity and is expected to have a smaller carbon footprint than imported food products, and it can additionally boost the local economy [19,73,78,95,97,157]. Environmentally friendly production without chemicals cannot be guaranteed in local food, unlike organic food, which has received a certification for its environmentally friendly production process. ...
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The major goal of this study is to trace the emergence of SFC-related research across time, using a thematic map and a list of corresponding publications. In addition, this study aims to determine the author who has made the most significant contribution to this particular field. This study provides a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of the historical development and current trends in sustainable food consumption research, examining 2265 articles published between 1990 and 2023. Using the bibliometrics package of R Studio software version 4.2.1 and its Biblioshiny package, articles from the Scopus and Web of Science databases are examined. In the field of sustainable food consumption, we identify five distinct research phases: initial stagnation, infant growth, post-economic crisis, expanding phase and COVID-19 and post-pandemic. While research on broader sustainability topics can be traced back to the early 20th century, a very limited number of articles on sustainable food consumption was published in the 1990s. However, the number of publications increased incrementally over time, with a notable uptick in interest around 2015, and the subject was still being discussed in 2022. The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic marked the beginning of the most recent phase of research, which analyzed the consumption patterns of consumers before and after the pandemic. Our study highlights key authors, documents and sources related to sustainable food consumption. The United States, Italy and the United Kingdom emerged as the most active contributors to the research on sustainable food consumption and were additionally the countries with the largest global market shares for organic products. Major sub-themes including organic food, food waste, sustainable development and food security, together with consumer behavior and organic products appeared as being the most researched sub-themes of recent times. The results of this study suggest that more research is related to sustainable food consumption in countries with a low organic food market share. In addition, the investigation of actual data on food waste, carbon footprints and greenhouse gas emissions resulting from food production and consumption is essential to gain holistic insights.
... In the mainstream understanding of sustainability, sustainability gains are intrinsically associated with and dependent on the processes characterized by multiple and diverse meanings of positively valorized notions of novelty and creativity. These include future-oriented capacity building, ecomodernist technological innovation, civic participation and mobilization based on learned intentionality, and utilizing digitally enhanced communication and networking (Pandey et al. 2022;Seyfang 2006;Ferenčuhová 2021; Van der Straeten 2022)-processes whose combined power is deemed capable of sparking and facilitating the implicitly future-oriented transition to sustainability (Prost et al. 2023). ...
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... Intrinsic and transcendent motivations, as well as hedonic aspirations, can positively influence the consumption of sustainable food. Some studies on local organic agri-food networks present evidence that conscious consumers are guided by altruistic motivations, social values, attachment to the territory or the search for more supportive, ethical, and sustainable production foodsystems (Zoll et al., 2018;Seyfang, 2006Seyfang, , 2007. Recent studies on grassroots food initiatives show that perceived high-quality of organic food, environmental concern, and the desire to strengthen the local economy represent the main motivations for people to purchase organic, "kilometre zero" food or Slow Food products (Vita et al., 2020;Zoll et al., 2018;Papaoikonomou, 2013). ...
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Chapter
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This paper examines the social implications of sustainable consumption through an empirical study of a local organic food initiative. It sets out an analytical framework based upon Douglas's Cultural Theory to categorise the range of competing value perspectives on sustainable consumption into ‘hierarchical', ‘individualistic’ and ‘egalitarian’ worldviews, and considers how these various worldviews might each adopt locally-grown organic food as a sustainable consumption initiative. Tensions between the paradigms are evident when attention is turned to a case study of a local organic food producers’ cooperative. Research with both producers and consumers reveals that the values embedded in its practice are both partisan and pluralistic, but are principally ‘Egalitarian'. Its interactions with policy regimes and social and economic institutions are examined, to illustrate the value conflicts inherent, and understand the barriers it faces in operation and the institutional factors inhibiting the growth of grassroots ‘bottom-up’ sustainable food initiatives of this kind. In addition to addressing these barriers, the policy implications of these findings for sustainable consumption policy and practice are discussed.
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Chapter
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