Solidarity finance and food democracy in civic food networks in Australia: what role for ‘citizen-financiers’?

IF 3.6 2区 社会学 Q1 AGRICULTURE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY
Kiah Smith, Daniel Cruz, Zannie Langford
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Abstract

Civic food networks increasingly seek to increase their impact in building fairer and more sustainable food systems through solidarity financing. This represents a counterpoint to financialisation in industrialised food systems through alignment with the values and practices of solidarity economy such as localisation, reciprocity, cooperation, resilience and food justice. Of growing interest is the potential for sourcing finance from the wider community; people who may be willing to contribute to civic initiatives’ goals and share in their risks and opportunities. Crowdfunding is one such approach in solidarity finance, appealing to both new and seasoned investors interested in supporting local sustainable food initiatives. This paper considers two case studies of equity crowdfunding in Australia to examine the relationships emerging between solidarity financing and food producers, consumers and investors in civic food networks, and the implications for progressing food democracy. Our findings describe the investors and their financial and non-financial motivations to participate in solidarity financing, and specifically to support crowdfunding; and the goals, strategies, and governance structures that characterise the experiments under study. These themes reveal how crowdfunding financiers assess the potential impacts of investments, especially on ecologies and food justice outcomes. We argue that these cases of solidarity financing are producing new forms of ‘citizen-financiers’, in parallel to the growing networks of ‘citizen-consumers’ and ‘citizen-producers’ that underscore shifts towards food democracy. Understanding the characteristics of this emerging category of civic actors contributes new understandings of the potential for food system transformation through solidarity economy, alternative finance and civil society.

澳大利亚公民食品网络中的团结金融和食品民主:“公民金融家”的角色是什么?
民间粮食网络越来越多地寻求通过团结融资增加其在建设更公平和更可持续的粮食系统方面的影响。这是工业化粮食系统金融化的对应方案,符合团结经济的价值观和做法,如本地化、互惠、合作、复原力和粮食正义。人们越来越感兴趣的是,从更广泛的社区获取资金的潜力;愿意为公民倡议的目标做出贡献并分担风险和机遇的人。众筹就是团结融资的一种方式,吸引了对支持当地可持续食品计划感兴趣的新投资者和经验丰富的投资者。本文考虑了澳大利亚股权众筹的两个案例研究,以研究民间食品网络中团结融资与食品生产者、消费者和投资者之间出现的关系,以及对推进食品民主的影响。我们的研究结果描述了投资者及其参与团结融资的财务和非财务动机,特别是支持众筹;以及目标、策略和治理结构,这些都是正在研究的实验的特征。这些主题揭示了众筹金融家如何评估投资的潜在影响,特别是对生态和粮食正义结果的影响。我们认为,这些团结融资的案例正在产生新形式的“公民-金融家”,与此同时,“公民-消费者”和“公民-生产者”的网络也在不断增长,突显了向粮食民主的转变。了解这一新兴公民行为体的特征有助于对通过团结经济、替代金融和民间社会实现粮食系统转型的潜力有新的认识。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
Agriculture and Human Values
Agriculture and Human Values 农林科学-科学史与科学哲学
CiteScore
6.70
自引率
13.30%
发文量
97
审稿时长
>36 weeks
期刊介绍: Agriculture and Human Values is the journal of the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society. The Journal, like the Society, is dedicated to an open and free discussion of the values that shape and the structures that underlie current and alternative visions of food and agricultural systems. To this end the Journal publishes interdisciplinary research that critically examines the values, relationships, conflicts and contradictions within contemporary agricultural and food systems and that addresses the impact of agricultural and food related institutions, policies, and practices on human populations, the environment, democratic governance, and social equity.
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