On April 9, the Food for Thought Reading Group of the ICS Food Hub will host another session, organized by José Duarte Ribeiro. This time, the text Work in Progress: Power in Transformation to Postcapitalist Work Relations in Community-Supported Agriculture by Guilherme Raj, Giuseppe Feola, and Hens Runhaar will be presented by the author Guilherme Raj. The text is available on this link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-023-10486-8

Community-supported agriculture (CSA) initiatives are spaces where diverse work relations are performed. From a postcapitalist perspective, these initiatives attempt to create alternative-capitalist and non-capitalist work relations next to capitalist ones. While analyses of work relations in CSA abound, it remains uncertain how such diversification is made possible and how it is shaped by the micro-politics of and power relations in these initiatives. This paper addresses this gap by analysing how power shapes transformations to postcapitalist work relations in CSA. It provides substantial empirical evidence of multiple manifestations of power enabling or constraining postcapitalist work relations through a comparative case study of three CSA initiatives in Portugal. Results show that while CSA creates postcapitalist work relations that are non-alienated, non-monetised and full of care, they insufficiently unmake unbalanced power relations established in capitalist work relations. This paper argues that, when establishing postcapitalist work relations, the selected CSA initiatives could benefit from actively deconstructing internal hierarchies, de-centralising decision-making power from farm owners and addressing oppressive power relations that are ossified in their local and cultural context.

This will be an online session. If you are not a member of the ICS Food Hub, send an e-mail to the organizer to get the Zoom link.