Local food as resistance

Integrating women’s experiences in the Hungarian food sovereignty movement

Authors

  • Luca Sára Bródy HUN-REN Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Institute for Regional Studies https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4275-8381
  • Judit Farkas University of Pécs, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
  • Izóra Gál Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Institute of Rural Development and Sustainable Economy
  • Kinga Milánkovics Hekate – Conscious Ageing Foundation
  • Erika Nagy HUN-REN Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Institute for Regional Studies
  • Mirjam Sági Central European University, Democracy Institute

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17356/ieejsp.v9i4.1142
Abstract Views: 452 PDF Downloads: 377

Keywords:

civil society, food sovereignty, women, gender relations, Central and Eastern Europe, Hungary

Abstract

The weak civil society thesis in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has been central to scholarly debates interpreting civil society from a Western lens. Touching upon the issue of food sovereignty, we contest this conceptualisation by revealing the wider networks and strength of food-related local practices in Hungary after the 1990s. In doing so, we rely on a qualitative study conducted between 2020-2021, based on 25 semi-structured ‘oral herstory’ interviews with women who have been actively dealing with food sovereignty issues. With the above study, we had three main objectives. First, to counter the widespread (mis)perception of local food production as a mere necessity in CEE. Second, we highlight the importance of rural local food production, to counter the understanding of home gardening as a practice without resistance. Thirdly, we wish to voice the experiences of women in the movement in their larger structural and historical settings. Our findings concentrate on two key areas: the movement's experience with recurrent crises and political-economic conditions from the 1990s onwards, and the subjective assessment of shifting hierarchical dynamics within the movement milieu. The paper's main goal is to illuminate women's experiences and positionality within the global food system from a Hungarian viewpoint.

Author Biography

Luca Sára Bródy, HUN-REN Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Institute for Regional Studies

Luca Bródy is an urban sociologist and received her PhD in 2019 on the political economy of citizen participation in urban regeneration in Barcelona and Budapest. She is a research fellow at the Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, at the Institute for Regional Studies in Hungary. Her current research interests lie in the area of social movements and civic mobilisation, state-civil society relationships, urban-rural divides, local development, and food sovereignty initiatives.

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Published

2024-03-13

How to Cite

[1]
Bródy, L.S., Farkas, J., Gál, I., Milánkovics, K., Nagy, E. and Sági, M. 2024. Local food as resistance: Integrating women’s experiences in the Hungarian food sovereignty movement . Intersections. East European Journal of Society and Politics. 9, 4 (Mar. 2024), 141–158. DOI:https://doi.org/10.17356/ieejsp.v9i4.1142.

Issue

Section

New forms of social integration fostering the authoritarian turn in Hungary