Paper short abstract:

Grow-it-yourself movements become increasingly visible in contemporary urban societies. In my ethnographic study I examine small-scale subsistence growers and their food networks in Austria – “prosumer-citizens” seeking more independence from the market and the dominant food system.

Paper long abstract:

Apparently contradicting the maxims of progress and modernity, strategies of subsistence production become more and more visible in contemporary urban industrialised societies. This grow-it-yourself/together movement covers a range of schemes: from small-scale rural growers (partially organised in "peasant movements"), and suburban hobby farmers, to the cities with its individual and collective urban agriculture projects like community gardens and balcony farms. Not satisfied with the dominant system, they become what could arguably be termed "prosumer-citizens" (Toffler) who encompass and negotiate a variety of motivations and values: economic necessity and ecological considerations, lifestyle choice and health concerns, consumer critique and demands for food sovereignty. In this context, local activities are frequently considered to be part of larger social and environmental responsibilities. However, production for use and distribution of food and resources along private networks still remain largely hidden from dominant views of everyday economic practises (Gibson-Graham). In my ongoing ethnographic study I examine small-scale subsistence growers and their food networks in Austria, as they provide food and other resources for themselves and their immediate families, and distribute seeds and surplus through local markets or bartering schemes, and through private networks to their (urban) consumers. Engaged in alternative food systems and community economies, subsistence producers often operate in legal grey areas as they seek more independence from the market and the dominant food system.