The "awkwardnesses" of aid and exchange

Food cooperative practices in austerity Britain

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2616468
AutoresC Plender (0000-0003-4754-0381, University of Exeter, autor de correspondencia)
Año2024
Volumen2024
Número98
Páginas86-99
Fecha de publicación2024-03-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaFocaal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0920-1297 • E-ISSN: 1558-5263
EditorialBerghahn Books (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.3167/fcl.2021.082301
OpenAlexW3207263069
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas13

Self-help and mutual aid have been at the heart of the consumer cooperative movement and its response to food insecurity since its inception. Yet how these terms are conceptualized and practiced in contemporary food co-ops often has more to do with their individual histories, ideologies, and the values of those involved than it does the history of the cooperative movement. Drawing on ethnographic examples from two London-based food co-ops with different backgrounds, this article explores how each enacts ideals of aid and exchange. It argues that the context of austerity creates "awkwardnesses" between and within personal values and organizational structures in the face of inequality, leading to blurred boundaries between different models of aid and exchange and the forms of moral accounting that these entail

Political science · Tourism, Volunteerism, and Development