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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 principles and foundation stone of EC align [15][16][17] closely with participatory governance models, frameworks that look to emphasise collaborative decision-making processes involving multiple stakeholders. Stakeholders include policymakers, businesses, civil society organisations, and local communities [18]. ...
... The foundation of EC is built upon the principle of shared responsibility for ecological well-being, recognising that environmental challenges require collective social responses across multiple scales rather than purely individualistic or market-driven solutions. This perspective diverges from traditional citizenship models, which typically emphasise statebased rights [15]. Instead, EC aligns with deliberative democracy frameworks that prioritise active participation, dialogue, and co-creation in decision-making [19], as well as environmental justice theories, which argue that the costs and benefits of environmental policies must be equitably distributed [20]. ...
... Community-led projects within the HMW session showcased EC as a bridge between environmental action and social justice movements. These initiatives demonstrated how participatory governance can address both ecological and social inequalities, reinforcing the idea that sustainability must be embedded within broader systems of justice [15]. As one workshop attendee noted, "EC across the longer term can generate action to promote social justice and create a transitional system". ...
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... This does not have to be something reprehensible; on the contrary, it is necessary to demand such behaviors from people to the extent that we need to improve our relationship with the global environment and rethink our relationship with Nature. As the author points out, "civic republicanism" notes the duties of citizens for the common good, among which are undoubtedly the duties towards Nature, or environmental duties, must include what in the West we understand as the private and public spheres (Seyfang, 2006); and this cannot be understood from the more traditional constructions that are marked by gender prejudice and ethnocentrism, as usually occurs with the common concept of citizenship. In this sense, ecological citizenship must overcome the distinction between public and private, as well as such prejudices, to become a liberating and decidedly intercultural notion, or to put it another way, one that is capable of enabling interculturality. ...
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Objective: the article refers to the preliminary results of an intervention process carried out in a community in the north of the city of Sincelejo, capital of the Department of Sucre, Colombia, whose purpose was the construction of ecological citizenship and the establishment of organizational meta-contingencies that would improve the collective intelligence of the community, raising its self-management capacities. It was a university social responsibility program led by the Corporación Universitaria del Caribe CECAR, for the improvement of the integral management of solid waste and the cultural dynamics related to the coexistence present there. Methods: the methodology of knowledge production focused on the ethnographic systematization of community development experiences applied to the strategies of collective co-creation, urban intervention (construction of an ecopark) and cultural transformation. The process linked the work of an interdisciplinary team of researchers and students of architecture, social work, natural sciences, anthropology and economics, the community and some government and business entities. Results: the results suggest the possibility of establishing meta-contingencies of an organizational nature that initiate a process of transformation if the necessary care is taken in the constitution of the organizational instances of the communities, and that they, once constituted, can drive these transformations if they are constituted as authentic entities, that the change in social habits can be promoted from such instances, that in the process the mobilization of the inhabitants is possible with programs of “ecological art” and that the urban intervention can operate as a scenario of immersion that reinforces the change of collective attitude.
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Chapter
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... they suggest food systems based on 'shortened distances' between the rural and the urban-in terms of both geographical and cognitive distances between producers and consumers. Scholars have studied the advantages of food localisation (Lamine, 2015;Seyfang, 2006), the 'reconnection' of cities to their hinterlands (Blay-Palmer et al., 2018), (peri-) urban agriculture (Pungas, 2019) or self-sufficient small-town communities (Leahy, 2021). Indeed, while not all alternative food initiatives that aim at transforming the rural-urban relations of the capitalist food system are anchored to the local scale (e.g. ...
... The integration of green economy principles with sustainable farming underscores the critical relationship between nutrition, environmental sustainability, and the vitality of local economies [5] . Sustainable farming approaches prioritize minimal soil disturbance, permanent organic soil cover, crop diversity, and livestock integration, offering a pathway to both environmental and nutritional benefits. ...
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