Working the fields: The organization of labour in community supported agriculture

Watson, David ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7199-2866 (2020) Working the fields: The organization of labour in community supported agriculture. Organization, 27 (2). pp. 291-313. ISSN 1350-5084

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Abstract

Community supported agriculture schemes are a prominent example of localized alternatives to the global food system. They are presented as alternative nodes of food production, where the consumer experiences a much closer relationship to the produce they are consuming and to the labour involved in producing it. They lift the commodity veil by inviting the consumer into the world of production – of labour. However, there has been little analysis of labour undertaken in the setting of community supported agriculture, particularly the labour of community supported agriculture consumers, or members. Marxian analysis of the food system at the macro level has underpinned powerful critiques of its shortcomings and highlighted inequalities of land and labour, but has rarely been employed to understand the possibilities of alternative food networks at a more micro level. In this article, I draw on Marx’s concept of alienation to explore the experience and organization of labour within a community supported agriculture scheme in the United Kingdom. In doing so, I present a case study of how labour in a community supported agriculture scheme counteracts experiences of alienation created by capitalism and consider how this might inform (re)organization of labour in the food system, more generally.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: alienation,alternative food,community supported agriculture (csa),labour,local food,organization,alienation,food systems,csa,local food,cooperatives,urban agriculture,initiatives,economies,rethinking,motivations,business, management and accounting(all),management of technology and innovation,strategy and management,sdg 2 - zero hunger ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1400
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Social Sciences > Norwich Business School
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Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 19 Nov 2019 09:30
Last Modified: 18 Oct 2024 23:51
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/72996
DOI: 10.1177/1350508419888898

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