From Politics to Co-operation: The Dynamics of Embeddedness in Alternative Food Supply Chains

Alternative food supply chains have been the subject of a number of studies utilising the concept of embeddedness to account for their various dimensions, but they have been little analysed in terms of the relations between producers. As part of the body of research into the social construction of markets, this article aims to consider the nature and dynamics of ties between producers involved in the development of these chains. The study presented here relies on a series of quantitative and longitudinal network analyses in different systems of direct selling in the South of France. We consider here the example of a farmers' market and contrast it with vegetable box schemes. Our research demonstrates that alternative supply chains can renew ties between producers by decoupling political relations and through the embeddedness of sales activity in technical and friendship relations, both of which favour co-operation towards innovation. This article also aims to encourage a reconsideration of sociometry, as well as alternative food supply chains, to analyse and accompany sustainable local food systems.