[P2P-F] how do contemporary social change movements grow ?

[Michel Bauwens]

dear all,

below a strongly recommended essay that shows how close our analysis and
recommendations fit with the actual record of how contermpary movements are
initiated and grow,

see https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Local_Food_Movement_in_Belgium

** Article: The local food movement in Belgium: from prefigurative activism
to social innovations. By Geoffrey Pleyers. Interface: a journal for and
about social movements. Volume 9 (1): 123 – 139 (2017)*

URL =
http://www.interfacejournal.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Interface-9-1-Pleyers.pdf
Contents [hide
<https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Local_Food_Movement_in_Belgium#>]

   - 1 Abstract
   <https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Local_Food_Movement_in_Belgium#Abstract>
   - 2 Excerpts
   <https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Local_Food_Movement_in_Belgium#Excerpts>
      - 2.1 On the political origins of the movement
      <https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Local_Food_Movement_in_Belgium#On_the_political_origins_of_the_movement>
      - 2.2 Scaling through swarming
      <https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Local_Food_Movement_in_Belgium#Scaling_through_swarming>

Abstract[edit
<https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/index.php?title=Local_Food_Movement_in_Belgium&action=edit&section=1>
]

"This article provides an analysis of the action logics and challenges that
underline the evolution of the local food sector in Belgium and the
challenges that these actors face in a new stage of the movement for local,
organic and fair food.

Since 2000, disparate local movements have spread all over Belgium, in the
wave of the alter-globalization movements, critical consumerism and
prefigurative and concrete actions against neoliberalism.

Regional networks of those groups have progressively emerged, and have
become socio-political actors. While prefigurative activism and the
original critical stances towards markets and mainstream economics remain
present in many groups, a rising part of the local food activists now draw
on a confluence of critical consumption, ecological transition, the social
economy and solidarity and local development." (
http://www.interfacejournal.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Interface-9-1-Pleyers.pdf
)
Excerpts[edit
<https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/index.php?title=Local_Food_Movement_in_Belgium&action=edit&section=2>
]On the political origins of the movement[edit
<https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/index.php?title=Local_Food_Movement_in_Belgium&action=edit&section=3>
]

"The current renewal of local food networks in Western Europe, and notably
in France (Zimmer, 2011), Italy (Toscano, 2011) and French-speaking Belgium
finds its roots in the alter-globalization movement in the early 2000. In
France, the new local food network setting, AMAP2, was launched in 2001 by
small peasants and a local section of the alter-globalization network ATTAC
and was directly inspired by the US groups for “Community Supported
Agriculture”.

In Liège, two social and cultural centres particularly active in the local
alterglobalization movement were also among the first ones to start direct
purchase groups for local food. The “Beau Mur” hosts both the local section
of ATTAC and one of the larger group of local food consumers in town. It
gathers over 80 families every Tuesday. A frontrunner of the local
alter-globalization movement and the heart of the "Social Forum in Liège"
in mid-2000s, the autonomous social and cultural centre "Barricade3"
launched its “GAC” as early as 1999. It organizes a dozen talks a year
about food, denouncing the hold of transnational corporation over food and
pointing to concrete alternatives. In 2013, Barricade was again the main
initiator of a new model of local food network: the “Liège Food-Earth Belt”
(“Ceinture Aliment-Terre Liégeoise”, see below). It involves dozens of
actors from different sectors and promotes the production and local food
consumption.

As I have showed elsewhere (Pleyers, 2010: 35-105) Barricade and most of
the local food initiatives emerged in a specific part of the
alter-globalization movement, bathed in a culture of activism4 that focuses
on prefigurative activism, personal subjectivity and a concept of change
rooted in everyday life."
Scaling through swarming[edit
<https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/index.php?title=Local_Food_Movement_in_Belgium&action=edit&section=4>
]

"Rather than enlarging its various groups, many groups thus opt for
“emulation” (Tarde, 2001) and “swarming” rather than a growing organization
(Pleyers, 2010: 93): “We don’t seek to build a big organization but many,
many small organizations, each maintaining its specificities.” By doing so,
they hope to maintain convivial and participatory group dynamics and to
counter the trend towards institutionalization that usually characterizes
civil society organizations and solidarity economy projects. When a group
grows, the interpersonal dimension progressively gets lost and the
separation between the project entrepreneurs and the more passive
“consumers” widens. These actors lead us to reconsider the importance of
local level in a globalized world."


-- 
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