The dark side of the bun: endo and exogenous class exclusions in Polish alternative food network

ABSTRACT

The aim of this article is to analyze class divisions and exclusions limiting the potential of Polish Alternative Food Networks (AFNs). The authors discuss the tensions arising from the continuing class division in Polish society. Elements determining class stratification – such as values, motivations, capitals, space of relations, and imaginaries are considered. This paper is based on a qualitative research conducted in 2019 in six various types of AFNs in Poland. The authors conclude that alternative networks operating in Poland are currently separating and polarizing. Given their increasing diversification in terms of the economic capital and other resources, their class-related cultural practices and specific imaginary, a clear distinction emerges between what can be recognized as élite (exclusive) initiatives and mass-scale (albeit less evident) alternative food practices. The well-embedded and largely invisible networks based on seemingly trivial daily practices are revealed as a distinctive category of AFNs marked by the lowest potential to generate class exclusions.

KEYWORDS:

• Alternative food-networks
• social exclusions
• production and consumption
• social class
• poland

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank for help in carrying out a research Dominika Zwęglinska- Gałecka, Joanna Suchomska; Cristina Grasseni for helping to refine the model.The article was written, among other things, as a result of a research fellowship held by Dr Wojciech Goszczyński in 2021 at the Ruralia Institute, University of Helsinki.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Centre, Poland (NCN) under the grant agreement 2017/26/D/HS6/00869. The NCN had no involvement in the preparation of this article.

Notes on contributors

Wojciech Goszczyński

Wojciech Goszczyński: holds PhD in social science. He works at Institute of Sociology, Nicolaus Copernicus University. A radically inconsistent and inconsistently radical sociologist. A shy lover of intellectual, spatial and cultural peripherality. At the moment he focuses on the study of alternative food networks, the construction of rurality, the specificity of Central and Eastern Europe, and engaged currents in sociology. Principal investigator of national and international research projects. Additionally a trainer, animator, talking head working for such organizations as: Polish Humanitarian Action, Rural Forum, Partnership for Environment Foundation, Open Door Association, Local Action Group Podgrodzie Toruńskie.

Ruta Śpiewak

Ruta Śpiewak, holds PhD in social sciences. She works at Polish Academy Of Sciences, Institute of Rural and Agriculture Development. She focuses on the meaning of high quality food in rural development as well as the role of alternative food networks in changing the food system. Coauthor of the European report: Towards a Sustainable Food System. Written under the European Mechanism of Scientific Advisers (SAM), as well as many other articles published in Polish and foreign journals (including Sociologia Ruralis). She had been visiting scholar in Ruralia Institute (Finladnia) and Ostrom Workshop (Indiana, USA).