Scaling up civic food utopias in Australia: The challenges of justice and representation

Abstract

Through the lens of food utopias, this article explores the opportunities and dilemmas experienced by selected civic food networks (CFNs) in Australia as they seek to scale-up from local initiatives, to regional coalitions, to national social movements. Findings from qualitative analysis of key informant interviews indicate the ways that scaling up is both a micro- and macro-level process. While local initiatives focus on different problems (food waste, hunger, health, ecology), establishing shared visions that emphasise systems reform has shaped coalition building and collective action beyond the local. As problem and solution definitions converge and diverge around justice and rights, however, limitations in the representation, positioning and ‘voice’ of marginalised stakeholders – specifically, indigenous people and those most affected by hunger – have emerged. This has opened up new spaces of contestation that today take central place in determining the trajectory of ‘values-based territorial food networks’ in Australia.