Paper short abstract:

Aim of this speech is to answer how sustainable quality of food is constructed at specific post-transitional societies? How producers and consumers are reconfiguring socio-economic micro-universes, what role, in this process plays: hybrid knowledge, practices, traditions, institutions, civic models.

Paper long abstract:

Researchers emphasize that there are two sides of contemporary food systems. At the one hand there is industrial or super-industrial mode of production: quantitatively efficient, vertically separated, dependent from resources. At the other hand there is alternative model: which refer to social and moral values, reflexive locality, civic participation of different actors. It our presentation we want to focus on the second model. One of the most important aspects of emerging alternative food networks is their hybrid character. Those networks merge different kind of knowledge, rural and urban actors, classes, technology and culture, devices and consumer's practices. Alternative food networks are also related to notion of quality. The quality turn is useful sociological tool to look at the scope and nature of consumer-producers behaviours in the post-modern capitalism. This concept moves the attention from the economical effectiveness onto considerations on the nature of social relations and goods produced by the contemporary economy. Theoreticians of the quality turn argue that in the new, socialised model a more important role is played by new active actors whose knowledge, experiences, connections and values are going to determine the food production and consumption systems. This leads us to the aim of this paper: how food quality is constructed at very specific post-transitional conditions of Polish society? How Polish producers, processors and consumers are reconfiguring socio-economic micro-universes and what role, in this process plays: hybrid knowledge, products, devices, consumer practices, traditions, institutions and specific civic models.