Spatialising democracy through short food supply chains from agri-food democratisation to the political territory

For the past 30 years or so, Western societies have seen a trend towards food relocalisation. Short supply chains, based on the geographical proximity between producers and consumers, are now an integral part of the food distribution landscape. I show that short supply chains primarily refer to cooperative practices whose distinctive nature lies in their local roots and their democratic potential. My analysis of food relocalisation leads me to examine the Durkheimian lineage of the concept of cooperation. I highlight what I consider to be a spatial bias in the thought of Durkheim; for the sociologist, cooperation is fundamentally non-local and national. Food relocalisation appears as a political trend whose significance lies precisely in the local roots of its cooperative practices. This significance calls into question the non-local perspective of Durkheimian sociology. Ultimately, it underscores the need to spatialise democracy and highlights the contemporary aspiration for a form of territorial autonomy.