Food Matters and the Matter of Food: Towards a New Food Governance?

After over a decade of leading research work which has examined the political economy and globalization of the ‘industrial’ agro‐food system it is clear that there are now important new challenges associated with the incorporation of nature, consumption and alternative food networks. Taking David Goodman's recent paper ( Sociologia Ruralis 1999, no. 1) as a starting point, this discussion not cautions against a premature and over‐generalized rejection of political economy on the basis of concepts based upon actor‐network theory. Questions of food governance expose the asymmetry in power relations in food networks, whether conventional or alternative. Moreover, while accepting the need to examine the ‘hybridity’ of nature‐society relations, this needs to be done in ways which expose the degree of interconnection through the development of micro‐analytical research and the development of ‘middle‐level’ concepts.