What does it mean to nurture ‘good intentions between city and country’? Performances of rural–urban relations in community-supported agriculture

Summary

This qualitative exploration of four CSA initiatives in Germany challenges the assumption that CSA automatically fosters 'good intentions' between urban and rural communities. The paper employs a conceptual framework treating CSA as a rural–urban interface where multiple discursive–material performances enact different types of relations. The findings indicate that whilst CSA can nurture material solidarity and deepen understanding, it may simultaneously reproduce hierarchical rural–urban relations or intensify alienation, and highlights the importance of examining rural and urban identities performed within these initiatives rather than focusing solely on producer–consumer relations.

Regional applicability

The findings are based on German CSA contexts and may have limited direct applicability to United Kingdom CSA schemes, which operate within different regulatory, cultural and social contexts. However, the theoretical framework regarding how rural–urban relations are performed through CSA may be transferable and could inform critical analysis of United Kingdom CSA initiatives and their actual (rather than assumed) impacts on community solidarity.

Key measures

Performances of rural and urban identities; material solidarity; hierarchical relations; producer–consumer understanding; sociocultural encounters transcending the food system

Outcomes reported

The study examined how community-supported agriculture (CSA) initiatives perform and enact rural–urban relations, finding that CSA can nurture material solidarity and understanding but may also reproduce hierarchical relations or deepen alienation between rural producers and urban consumers.

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