The "awkwardnesses" of aid and exchange

Food cooperative practices in austerity Britain

Bibliographic Data

ID2616468
AuthorsC Plender (0000-0003-4754-0381, University of Exeter, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume2024
Issue98
Pages86-99
Publication date2024-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFocaal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0920-1297 • E-ISSN: 1558-5263
PublisherBerghahn Books (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.3167/fcl.2021.082301
OpenAlexW3207263069
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited13

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