Between mainstream and alternative household food practices: exploring diverse pathways towards sustainability, by Petr Daněk (Masaryk University, Czech Republic)

In recent decades, alternative food networks have become the focus of researchers seeking ways out of the crisis caused by the corporate food system. Traditional food growing and sharing in home gardens and allotments remains overlooked or is interpreted as a coping strategy. Developing the concept of quiet sustainability, the talk presents Central European food self-provisioning as a non-activist practice that is widespread, socially inclusive, produces significant volumes of food, and has environmental, social and health benefits. The arguments are based on the results of representative household surveys conducted in the Czech Republic, Austria, and Croatia, as well as on qualitative research among Czech gardeners.

Dr. Petr Daněk is a social geographer at the Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic. His research interests include the critical study of development as a political discourse (at scales ranging from the global to the garden). He has published on the political geography of Central Europe, geographical thought or food self-provisioning.

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