Call for Papers: Agrifoodies and Alternative Agricultural Movements

Posted by on January 5, 2009

SPECIAL CALL FOR PAPERS
Agrifoodies and Alternative Agricultural Movements

Joint Meeting of the Agriculture, Food and Human Values Society And the Association for the Study of Food and Society

May 28-31, 2009
Penn Stater Conference Center
Pennsylvania State University
State College, Pennsylvania

Starting with “sustainability,” moving on to “organic,” and more recently to “local,” alternative agricultural movements (AAMs) have captured the imagination of academics, activists, and the public-at-large. Yet, with each “new” movement we seem to find ourselves accommodating rather than transforming the conventional agrifood system and the neoliberal institutions and mindsets on which it depends. Each alternative gets “bought out” intellectually and practically before it realizes any deep cultural, political and emancipatory change.

What can “agrifoodies” – as scholars, activists and citizens – learn from these conventionalizing trends? More importantly, how do we, as agrifoodies, rethink our research, our metaphors, and our very selves to
offer contextually grounded and socially just alternatives? How, in other words, do we simultaneously work toward more particular and more equitable futures?

This is a call for two complementary cluster of papers. The first welcomes papers, case studies especially, that shed light on how AAMs ultimately lose control over their own liberating language and innovative
efforts. The second cluster, guided by the first, welcomes papers that pose new questions and offer new sensibilities and tools by which we (agrifoodies and AAMs) may restore and redistribute power within grounded lives andacross lived spaces.

Paper titles and abstracts should arrive not later than Saturday, January 10, 2009 to all the undersigned:

Doug Constance                soc_dhc@shsu.edu
Laura DeLind                          delind@msu.edu
Bill Friedland                             friedla@ucsc.edu
Ray Jussaume                          rajussaume@wsu.edu

The intention is to make all papers available for reading on the Web four weeks before the opening of the annual meeting. The undersigned will act as conveners and group papers into sessions appropriately to their topic. We will forward our sessions to Program Chair Clare Hinrichs for incorporation into the schedule of sessions.

All proposals must include, in this order:
(1) title of paper;
(2) submitter’s name, organizational affiliation, and full postal mailing address;
(3) submitter’s e-mail address;
(4) submitter’s telephone number,
(5) names and organizational affiliations of co-authors or co-organizers;
(6) abstract of 250 or fewer words that describes the proposed pape

Submission Procedure
Submit proposals by e-mail to the special session organizers (soc_dhc@shsu.edu; delind@msu.edu; friedla@ucsc.edu; rajussaume@wsu.edu ) as an attachment in MSWord format  Please place “AAMAgrifoodie Abstract” in the subject line of the email. Please name the Word file with the lead author’s last name, followed by a period, followed by the first significant word in the title (example: Warner.Agroecology). More information about the conference can be found at http://afhvs.org/2009mtg.html

Dr. Douglas H. Constance
Associate Professor
Director of Undergraduate Studies
Department of Sociology
Campus Box 2446
Sam Houston State University
Huntsville, TX   77341
ph: 936-294-1514; fax: 936-294-3573
soc_dhc@shsu.edu

J. Huston, MA, CEC, CDM, CFPP
Consulting Chef, Food Services Consultant
Food Justice & Equity
San Francisco, CA