Stotten Rike
Department of Sociology, University of Innsbruck, Universitätsstrasse 15, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
Rev Agric Food Environ Stud. 2024;105(2-3):251-274. doi: 10.1007/s41130-024-00207-y. Epub 2024 Mar 20.
This study empirically illuminates the contemporary food regime in Switzerland to understand the organisation of food production, distribution, and consumption. From the perspective of food regime theory, it highlights in detail the (inter)relationships in the food regime between the food from nowhere, somewhere, and here sub-regimes using empirical means. Heterogeneous structures, processes, and relations that coexist within an umbrella food regime are examined. To address the criticisms of food regime theory ignoring social agency, this study further reveals collective agency and addresses the role of alternative food systems within the food regime in Switzerland. In-depth document analysis and subsequent qualitative data collection relying on expert interviews were performed. This study illustrates the collective agency shaping the contemporary food regime in Switzerland, encompassing private companies, relevant media, as well as associations and unions involved in farming, processing, and consumption. These influential entities and actor-networks advance different sub-regimes of food from nowhere, somewhere, and here that reflect the heterogeneity of the contemporary food regime in Switzerland. However, the data did not provide sufficient information to determine the collective agency of actors within the alternative food system. The dynamics of the food regime are shaped by contested social practices, which are influenced and interpreted through social agency. This results in an overlap of the sub-regimes that has led to strong counter-movements within the contemporary food regime in Switzerland.
本研究通过实证揭示了瑞士当代的食物体系，以了解食物生产、分配和消费的组织情况。从食物体系理论的角度出发，它运用实证方法详细突出了“无产地食物”“有产地食物”和“本地食物”子体系在食物体系中的（相互）关系。研究考察了在一个总体食物体系中共存的异质结构、过程和关系。为回应食物体系理论忽视社会能动性的批评，本研究进一步揭示了集体能动性，并探讨了瑞士食物体系中替代食物系统的作用。研究进行了深入的文献分析，并随后基于专家访谈进行了定性数据收集。本研究阐明了塑造瑞士当代食物体系的集体能动性，其中包括私人公司、相关媒体以及参与农业、加工和消费的协会与工会。这些有影响力的实体和行动者网络推动了“无产地食物”“有产地食物”和“本地食物”的不同子体系，这些子体系反映了瑞士当代食物体系的异质性。然而，数据并未提供足够信息来确定替代食物系统内行动者的集体能动性。食物体系的动态受到有争议的社会实践的塑造，这些实践通过社会能动性得到影响和解读。这导致了子体系的重叠，进而在瑞士当代食物体系中引发了强烈的反抗运动。
