<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>This article identifies a hitherto understudied element of local food communities, namely their potential as counter-movements to nationalist discourses, practices and policies. This potential should be particularly valuable in Eastern Europe, where European integration has been severely contested over the past years by political elites. We support our argument by a closer qualitative inquiry into two cases; one with urban-rural dimensions in the metropolitan area of Budapest and one in a more sparsely populated cross-border region at the Slovak-Hungarian border. Based on 18 interviews with coordinators, producers and consumers, numerous visits to both sites, and studying the organisations’ documents we conclude that the growth of local food communities contributes to strengthened solidarity in local communities. Although nationalist discourses on buying domestic are rarely contested explicitly, the lack of any reference to national movements and discourses testifies to the primary importance of the local.</p>
</abstract>

This article identifies a hitherto understudied element of local food communities, namely their potential as counter-movements to nationalist discourses, practices and policies. This potential should be particularly valuable in Eastern Europe, where European integration has been severely contested over the past years by political elites. We support our argument by a closer qualitative inquiry into two cases; one with urban-rural dimensions in the metropolitan area of Budapest and one in a more sparsely populated cross-border region at the Slovak-Hungarian border. Based on 18 interviews with coordinators, producers and consumers, numerous visits to both sites, and studying the organisations’ documents we conclude that the growth of local food communities contributes to strengthened solidarity in local communities. Although nationalist discourses on buying domestic are rarely contested explicitly, the lack of any reference to national movements and discourses testifies to the primary importance of the local.

Unexpected Counter-Movements to Nationalism: the Hidden Potential of Local Food Communities

Eastern European Countryside

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

This article identifies a hitherto understudied element of local food communities, namely their potential as counter-movements to nationalist discourses,...

Unexpected Counter-Movements to Nationalism: the Hidden Potential of Local Food Communities

Published Online: Dec 31, 2019

Page range: 37 - 61

DOI: https://doi.org/10.12775/eec.2019.002

Keywords
local food, food citizenship, economic nationalism, economic internationalism, national branding, cross-border cooperation, rural development

© 2019 Sara Svensson et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Unexpected Counter-Movements to Nationalism: the Hidden Potential of Local Food Communities

Published Online: Dec 31, 2019

Page range: 37 - 61

DOI: https://doi.org/10.12775/eec.2019.002

Keywordslocal food, food citizenship, economic nationalism, economic internationalism, national branding, cross-border cooperation, rural development

© 2019 Sara Svensson et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
local food, food citizenship, economic nationalism, economic internationalism, national branding, cross-border cooperation, rural development