Beyond Alternative Food Networks: Italy’s Solidarity Purchase Groups

This study presents an ethnographic description of the evolution of Italy’s Gruppo di Acquisto Solidale (solidarity purchase groups); membership groups in which individual members are responsible for the bulk acquisition of one type of good, which he/she then exchanges for the various goods that other members are responsible for. The analysis goes ＂beyond＂ the analysis of the groups as ＂alternative food networks＂ in that it suggests that they can be analyzed as a challenge to tacit assumptions about capitalism, globalized food systems, and civic participation. Annotation ©2014 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)