Maier, Fabian
(2024)
Seeds of degrowth? The politics of scaling and working in community-supported agriculture co-operatives.
PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.
Abstract
The pursuit of continuous economic growth as necessary, desirable, and limitless informs governments, businesses, and the social relations amongst people. However, in the face of rapidly accelerating ecological breakdown, intensifying social inequalities, and rising geopolitical tensions, the mantra of infinite growth on a finite planet is increasingly put into question by social movements and scholars across academic disciplines. Grounded in longstanding critiques of growth, discourses of degrowth outline counterproposals on how life could be organised towards ecological and human well-being instead of growth. While recent efforts have been made to understand organisational configurations of degrowth, it still remains largely unclear what degrowth means for organisations and forms of organising. In particular, there is a dearth of knowledge about the social processes of alternative organising and the extent to which these are conducive to a degrowth transformation.
This thesis examines the prefigurative potential of alternative organising in relation to degrowth. Situated within the context of growth-driven agri-food systems, understood as a prominent driver of ecological crises and deteriorating working conditions, this study explores alternative food networks aiming to prefigure more socially just and ecologically sustainable forms of food provisioning. Overall, this research analyses the possibilities and limits of Community-supported Agriculture (CSA) co-operatives in prefiguring degrowth. Accordingly, three sub-research questions are addressed: (1) How do organisational practices within CSA co-operatives interrelate with wider socio-political imaginaries of growth and degrowth, (2) How do CSAs strategise scaling pathways towards socio-ecological transformation, and (3) How do CSA workers organise, negotiate, and experience work. This research utilises a comparative maximum variation case study design focusing on two CSA co-operatives in Germany. Each case study features semi-structured interviews, online participatory engagement, document studies, focus groups and field visits.
The thesis offers three main theoretical contributions. Firstly, this research shows that degrowth-oriented imaginaries constitute a pertinent influence on organising rationales and objectives of CSA actors. However, such influence remains disconnected from everyday organisational practice. Given the empirical absence of degrowth in alternative organisational practice, this research suggests the need to taking a more critical and cautious stance when translating multifaceted political economic ideas of degrowth to instances of alternative organising. Secondly, this research posits that degrowth imaginaries, alongside the need to adapt and mitigate to accelerating ecological crises, can constitute seeds of rupture when aiming to scale transformative change. By focusing on strategising processes, this research challenges the relative lack of attention of organisational scholarship on the politics, power dynamics, and contingencies within social processes to negotiating scaling pathways in alternative organisations. Specifically, this research posits that market-insulated co-operatives informed by degrowth imaginaries at the founding stage are at risk of facing overt means-ends tensions more quickly than other types of alternative organisations, because of the enlarged sphere of influence which gives prevalence to political imaginaries. Thirdly, this research adds to nascent debates within organisation studies by foregrounding efforts to countering forces of alienation within alternative food labour as a terrain of struggle on a dynamic continuum between de/re-alienation. While CSA co-operatives can provide an outlet for degrowth-oriented ideas of de-alienated labour, this research challenges perspectives primarily foregrounding the emancipatory characteristics of CSA and co-operative work. In particular, this thesis argues that the extent to which CSA work constitutes a source of de/re-alienation is contingent upon path dependencies emerging from scaling dynamics, rather than direct market forces.
| Item Type: |
Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
(PhD)
|
| Supervisors: |
Korczynski, Marek
Parker, Simon
Ingram, Claire |
| Keywords: |
Degrowth, Alternative Organisation, Prefiguration, Imaginaries, Scaling, Alienation |
| Subjects: |
H Social sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor |
| Faculties/Schools: |
UK Campuses > Faculty of Social Sciences, Law and Education > Nottingham University Business School |
| Item ID: |
79998 |
| Depositing User: |
Maier, Fabian
|
| Date Deposited: |
12 Dec 2024 04:40 |
| Last Modified: |
12 Dec 2024 04:40 |
| URI: |
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/79998 |
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