Presentation short abstract

Utilising data from Italy and Portugal, this paper investigates the strategies and limits of community-supported agriculture initiatives to de-commodify, de-instrumentalise and de-monetise labour in their efforts to prefigure postcapitalist agroecological alternatives to capitalist agrifood systems.

Presentation long abstract

Community-supported agriculture (CSA) initiatives are spaces where diverse work relations are performed. CSA initiatives de-commodify, de-instrumentalise and de-monetise labour in their effort to prefigure postcapitalist agroecological alternatives to dominant capitalist agrifood systems. However, these attempts to transform labour are often tentative, precarious and incomplete, thereby exposing the difficulties they face given their inevitable embeddedness in a capitalist-dominated socioeconomic system. Building on qualitative empirical data from Italy (16 CSA initiatives) and Portugal (3 CSA initiatives), this paper answers the following research questions: What type of strategies do CSA initiatives employ to de-commodify, de-instrumentalise and de-monetise labour? How are work relations shaped by the micro-politics of and power relations in these initiatives? What are the potential and barriers to more accomplished post-capitalist labour? We observe substantial difficulties in realising postcapitalist labour, as CSA initiatives are constrained by external requirements (e.g., legislation) and by members’ continued integration into the capitalist system. While CSA initiatives diversify labour by creating alternative capitalist and non-capitalist work relations alongside capitalist ones, they often do not sufficiently unmake the imbalances of power within capitalism. These findings point to the importance of decentralising decision-making power within CSA initiatives and addressing the oppressive power relations ossified in their local and cultural contexts. Furthermore, the transformation of labour in CSA initiatives could be supported by deepening the collective process of deliberate deconstruction of valuation logics and predefined roles (within CSA initiatives), and legal frameworks (broader agrifood system). National CSA Networks could play a crucial supportive role in such deconstruction.