TY - JOUR

T1 - Organising food differently

T2 - towards a more-than-human ethics of care for the Anthropocene

AU - Beacham, Jonathan

N1 - The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Organization, 25 (4), 2018, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2018 by SAGE Publications Ltd at the Organization page: http://journals.sagepub.com/home/ORG on SAGE Journals Online: http://journals.sagepub.com/

PY - 2018/7/1

Y1 - 2018/7/1

N2 - In this article, I consider how organisations within ‘Alternative’ Food Networks (AFNs) might help us to enact a more-than-human ethic of care in the Anthropocene. Drawing on the diverse economies framework of J.K. Gibson-Graham (2006a; 2006b) as well as readings in the feminist ethics of care literature, I explore an ethnographic study of three Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) schemes in the North West of England. Whilst there has been surprisingly little scholarly work linking food and the Anthropocene, much more has been made of the relationship between the food system and Anthropogenic processes of climate change. The orthodoxresponses to the problems that climate change may bring about are undergirded by Hobbesian visions and the perceived viability of instrumental, technocratic ‘fixes’ that are, for many reasons, worthy of critique. Broadening our viewpoint, and recognising that the Anthropocene and climate change require different responses, I argue that AFNs can provide a more hopeful perspective in how we might understand our existence within a more-than-human world. Rather than reading AFNs through analytical binaries as either reformist or radical entities merely confronting the ills of the food system, I develop an account that instead understands them as open-ended and tantalisingly different forms of organisation (Stock et al., 2015b) that can play a central role in fostering a more-than-human ethics of care for the Anthropocene.

AB - In this article, I consider how organisations within ‘Alternative’ Food Networks (AFNs) might help us to enact a more-than-human ethic of care in the Anthropocene. Drawing on the diverse economies framework of J.K. Gibson-Graham (2006a; 2006b) as well as readings in the feminist ethics of care literature, I explore an ethnographic study of three Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) schemes in the North West of England. Whilst there has been surprisingly little scholarly work linking food and the Anthropocene, much more has been made of the relationship between the food system and Anthropogenic processes of climate change. The orthodoxresponses to the problems that climate change may bring about are undergirded by Hobbesian visions and the perceived viability of instrumental, technocratic ‘fixes’ that are, for many reasons, worthy of critique. Broadening our viewpoint, and recognising that the Anthropocene and climate change require different responses, I argue that AFNs can provide a more hopeful perspective in how we might understand our existence within a more-than-human world. Rather than reading AFNs through analytical binaries as either reformist or radical entities merely confronting the ills of the food system, I develop an account that instead understands them as open-ended and tantalisingly different forms of organisation (Stock et al., 2015b) that can play a central role in fostering a more-than-human ethics of care for the Anthropocene.

KW - Anthropocene

KW - food

KW - ethics of care

KW - diverse economies

KW - more-than-human

KW - agency

U2 - 10.1177/1350508418777893

DO - 10.1177/1350508418777893

M3 - Journal article

VL - 25

SP - 533

EP - 549

JO - Organization

JF - Organization

SN - 1350-5084

IS - 4

ER -