Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Re-localizing ‘legal’ food: a social psychology perspective on community resilience, individual empowerment and citizen adaptations in food consumption in Southern Italy

  • Published:
Agriculture and Human Values Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper investigates how Food Security (FS) is enacted in a southern region of Italy, characterized by high rates of mafias-related activity, arguing for the inclusion in the research of socio-cultural features and power relationships to explain how Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) can facilitate individual empowerment and community resilience. In fact, while FS entails legality and social justice, AFNs are intended as ‘instrumental value’ to reach the ‘terminal value’ of FS within an urban community in Sicily, as well as the space where citizens can act their individual and collective political food choices. Building on the social psychology literature and on ecologic-psychopolitical models (Christens and Perkins in J Commun Psychol 36(2):214–231, 2008), we discuss the case of Addiopizzo, a citizen project promoting the legality of their AFNs through the rejection of the payment of the pizzo (the protection money asked by racket) in the local food chain. The aim is to problematize the extent to which FS is able to re-localize ‘legal’ food in the market. This was done by reconnecting citizens to their space and territory in a socio-cultural context at risk where agro-food producers, retailers and consumers are not free to fully enact their citizenship agency because of a widespread illegal structure. The research findings show that Addiopizzo project enables citizens to act their social power: agro-food producers and retailers by subscribing to formal requirements based on values that reject racket; consumers by purchasing Addiopizzo labelled products; individuals and groups by participating further open-to-the-public activities that promote everyday politically oriented behaviour. The citizen empowerment and community resilience can be exerted within AFNs as they are interconnected paths of reflexivity and social learning within social adaptation. The paper concludes by advocating the role of urban communities as a pivotal agent to maintain positive social adaptations, where AFNs work as a socio-cultural synthesis of traditional and alternative producer–consumer ways of interaction, which are embodied in the FS value.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. With Alternative Food Networks it is meant “a perceived trend towards the emergence of food production–consumption relationships which offer an ‘alternative’ set of possibilities to those provided by the ‘conventional’ industrialised agro-food complex” (Maye et al. 2011, p. 1). A good review of AFNs has been offered by Tregear (2011).

  2. The community psychology concept of “conscientization”, or critical awareness, has its sociological corrispective in “reflexivism” (Beck 1994).

  3. A community psychology approach has become central in the last century, form the 70 s on (see for instance Anderson et al. 1966); such an approach is characterized by theories, methodologies and tools aimed at research and interventions in social area and not only at individual level. In particular, the European perspective connects the individual to the social sphere investigating the close relationship of mutual influence between individual skills and the role of the social context (Francescato et al. 2013, p. 75). This new wave should be epistemic and transformative: the first refers to the psychological and political elements, the second to the goals of social change and/or structural improvement (Angelique et al. 2013).

  4. This can be explained as Familismo amorale (Banfield 1958): it seems to be a typical South Italy modus operandi, which is based on the achievement of the family well-being (father, mother, brothers and sisters), whose primary consequence was an endemic inability to act for the common good, commonly defined as a lack of civic engagement.

  5. The concept of empowerment has been included recently within the agri-food studies especially in relation to Food Security (see for instance Marsden and Morley 2014; Kneafsey et al. 2013). This paper aims at adding an additional perspective alongside those just mentioned.

Abbreviations

FS:

Food security

AFN:

Alternative food network

EU:

European Union

References

  • Ackerman-Leist, P. 2013. Rebuilding the foodshed. How to create local, sustainable, and secure food systems. Hartford, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing.

  • Adger, W.N. 2000. Social and ecological resilience: Are they related? Progress in Human Geography 24(3): 347–364.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Allen, P. 2008. Mining for justice in the food system: Perceptions, practices, and possibilities. Agriculture and Human Values 25: 157–161.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, L.S., S. Cooper, L. Hassol, D.C. Klein, G. Rosenblum, and C.C. Bennett. 1966. Community psychology: A report of the Boston conference on the education of psychologists for community mental health. Boston, MA: Boston University & Quincy Mass. South Shore Mental Health Center.

  • Angelique, H.L., R. Rodriguez, M.R. Culley, R. Brown, and A.J. Binette. 2013. (Em-) powering community psychology through an examination of social power. Journal of Community Psychology 41(6): 725–742.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Banfield, E.C. 1958. The moral basis of a backward society. New York, NY: The Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beck, U. 1994. Reflexive modernization: Politics, tradition and aesthetics in the modern social order. Redwood City, CA: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Becucci, S. 2011. Criminal infiltration and social mobilisation against the Mafia. Gela: A city between tradition and modernity. Global Crime 12(1): 1–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berkes, F., and H. Ross. 2013. Community resilience: Toward an integrated approach. Society and Natural Resources 26(1): 5–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boissevain, J. 1971. Democracy, development and proportional representation: A Sicilian case. The Journal of Development Studies 8(1): 79–90.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boon, H.J., A. Cottrell, D. King, R.B. Stevenson, and J. Millar. 2012. Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory for modelling community resilience to natural disasters. Natural Hazards 60(2): 381–408.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brodsky, A.E., and L.B. Cattaneo. 2013. A transconceptual model of empowerment and resilience: Divergence, convergence and interactions in kindred community concepts. American Journal of Community Psychology 52(3–4): 333–346.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bronfenbrenner, U. 1979. The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brunori, G., V. Malandrin, and A. Rossi. 2013. Trade-off or convergence? The role of food security in the evolution of food discourse in Italy. Journal of Rural Studies 29: 19–29.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carolan, M. 2006. Social change and the adoption and adaptation of knowledge claims: Whose truth do you trust in regard to sustainable agriculture? Agriculture and Human Values 23: 325–339.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carolan, M. 2013. Reclaiming food security. New York, NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cayli, B. 2013. Italian civil society against the Mafia: From perceptions to expectations. International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice 41(1): 81–99.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Christens, B.D., E.H. Carrie, and P.W. Speer. 2007. Getting the social organism thinking: Strategy for systems change. American Journal of Community Psychology 39: 229–238.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Christens, B.D., and D.D. Perkins. 2008. Transdisciplinary, multilevel action research to enhance ecological and psychopolitical validity. Journal of Community Psychology 36(2): 214–231.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clauss-Ehlers, C.S. 2008. Sociocultural factors, resilience, and coping: Support for a culturally sensitive measure of resilience. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 29: 197–212.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clay, E. 2003. Food security: concepts and measurement. In FAO, Trade reforms and food security. Conceptualizing the linkages, 25–34.

  • Dean, J.H., and R.A. Bush. 2007. A community psychology view of environmental organization processes. American Journal of Community Psychology 40: 146–166.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dixon, J. 2002. The changing chicken. Chooks, cooks and culinary culture. Sydney, AU: University of New South Wales Press.

  • Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). 1996. Declaration on world food security. World food summit 1996, Rome. http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/w3613e/w3613e00.htm. Accessed 28 September 2014.

  • Folke, C. 2006. Resilience: The emergence of a perspective for social-ecological systems analyses. Global Environmental Change 16(3): 253–267.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Forno, F., and L. Ceccarini. 2006. From the street to the shops: The rise of new forms of political actions in Italy. South European Society and Politics 11(2): 197–222.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Forno, F. (ed.). 2011. La spesa a pizzo zero. Consumo critico e agricoltura libera. Le nuove frontiere della lotta alla mafia. Milano: Altra Economia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foster-Fishman, P.G., and T.R. Behrens. 2007. Systems change reborn: Rethinking our theories, methods, and efforts in human services reform and community- based change. American Journal of Community Psychology 39(3–4): 191–196.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Francescato, D., M. Tomai, and G. Ghirelli. 2013. Fondamenti di psicologia di comunità. Principi, strumenti, ambiti di applicazione. Roma: Carocci editore.

  • Franklin, A., J. Newton, and J.C. McEntee. 2011. Moving beyond the alternative: Sustainable communities, rural resilience and the mainstreaming of local food, local environment. The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability 16(8): 771–788.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freedman, D.A., and K.D. Bess. 2011. Food systems change and the environment: Local and global connections. American Journal of Community Psychology 47: 397–409.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Freire, P. 1970. Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: Continuum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freire, P. 1973. Education for critical consciousness. New York, NY: Continuum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giorgi, A. 2007. Oltre il pensare mafioso: Sviluppo umano e beni relazionali. Rivista di Psicologia Clinica 3: 263–283.

    Google Scholar 

  • Godson, R. 2000. Guide to developing a culture of lawfulness. In Symposium on the role of civil society in countering organized crime: Global implications of the Palermo, Sicily Renaissance, Palermo.

  • Goodman, D., and M.J. Watts (eds.). 1997. Globalising food. Agrarian questions and global restructuring. New York, NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodman, M.K. 2004. Reading fair trade: Political ecological imaginary and the moral economy of fair trade foods. Political Geography 23: 891–915.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gottlieb, R., and A. Fisher. 1996. Community food security and environmental justice: Searching for a common discourse. Agriculture and Human Values 3(3): 23–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grey, M. 2000. The industrial food stream and its alternatives in the United States: An introduction. Human Organization 59: 143–150.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hamm, M.W., and A.C. Bellows. 2003. Community food security and nutrition educators. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior 35(1): 37–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Italian Confederation of Farmers. 2009. Criminalità in agricoltura. 3° Rapporto della Confederazione Italiana Agricoltori (CIA). Fondazione Humus. http://www.scianet.it/ciapuglia/svl/allegatiRead?recid=13948&allid=9915. Accessed 1 September 2014.

  • Kagan, C., M. Burton, P. Duckett, R. Lawthom, and A. Siddiquee. 2011. Critical community psychology. West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.

  • King, C.A. 2008. Community resilience and contemporary agri-ecological systems: Reconnecting people and food, and people with people. Systems Research and Behavioral Science 25: 111–124.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kjærnes, U. 2012. Ethics and action: A relational perspective on consumer choice in the European politics of food. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 25(2): 145–162.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kneafsey, M., E. Dowler, H. Lambie-Mumford, A. Inman, and R. Collier. 2013. Consumers and food security: Uncertain or empowered? Journal of Rural Studies 29: 101–112.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • La Spina, A., ed. 2008. I costi dell’illegalità. Mafia ed estorsioni in Sicilia. Bologna: Il Mulino.

  • Lehrner, A., and N.E. Allen. 2008. Social change movements and the struggle over meaning-making: A case study of domestic violence narratives. American Journal of Community Psychology 42(3–4): 220–234.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leonini, L., and R. Sassatelli (eds.). 2008. Il consumo critico. Bari: Editori Laterza.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levkoe, C.Z. 2006. Learning democracy through food justice movements. Agriculture and Human Values 23(1): 89–98.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Magis, K. 2010. Community resilience: An indicator of social sustainability. Society and Natural Resources 23(5): 401–416.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marsden, T., and A. Morley (eds.). 2014. Sustainable food systems. Building a new paradigm. Oxon-New York, NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maton, K.I. 2000. Making a difference: The social ecology of social transformation. American Journal of Community Psychology 28(1): 25–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maye, D., L. Holloway, and M. Kneafsey (eds.). 2011. Alternative food geographies. Representation and practice. Oxford: Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Micheletti, M. 2003. Political virtue and shopping. Individuals, consumerism and collective action. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

  • Mooney, P., and S. Hunt. 2009. Food security: The elaboration of contested claims to a consensus frame. Rural Sociology 74: 469–497.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morris, C., and H. Buller. 2003. The local food sector. A preliminary assessment of its form and impact in Gloucestershire. British Food Journal 105(8): 559–566.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Norris, F.H., S.P. Stevens, B. Pfefferbaum, K.F. Wyche, and R.L. Pfefferbaum. 2008. Community resilience as a metaphor, theory, set of capacities, and strategy for disaster readiness. American Journal of Community Psychology 41(1–2): 127–150.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Partridge, H. 2012. The determinants of and barriers to critical consumption: A study of Addiopizzo. Modern Italy 17(3): 343–363.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prilleltensky, I., and O. Prilleltensky. 2003. Synergies for wellness and liberation in counseling psychology. The Counseling Psychologist 31(3): 273–281.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prilleltensky, I. 2012. The what, why, who, and how of globalization: What is psychology to do? Journal of Social Issues 68(3): 612–629.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rakopoulos, T. 2014. Cooperative modulations: the antimafia movement and struggles over land and cooperativism in eight Sicilian municipalities. Journal of Modern Italian Studies 19(1): 15–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rapporto SOS Impresa. 2009. Le mani della criminalità sulle imprese, XII Edizione http://www.sosimpresa.it/userFiles/File/Documenti4/Rapporto_2009.pdf. Accessed 1 September 2014.

  • Rappaport, J. 1981. In praise of paradox: A social policy of empowerment over prevention. American Journal of Community Psychology 9: 1–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rehber, E. 2010. Food for thought: “four Ss with one F” security, safety, sovereignty, and shareability. British Food Journal 114(3): 353–371.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reich, S.M., T. Pinkard, and H. Davidson. 2008. Including history in the study of psychological and political power. Journal of Community Psychology 36(2): 173–186.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Santino, U. 2011. La mafia e il capitalismo: verso dove?. In La spesa a pizzo zero. Consumo critico e agricoltura libera. Le nuove frontiere della lotta alla mafia, ed. F. Forno, 13–27. Milano: Altra Economia.

  • Schanbacher, W.D. 2010. The politics of food. The global conflict between food security and food sovereignty. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO LLC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schneider, J., and P. Schneider. 1994. Mafia, antimafia, and the question of Sicilian culture. Politics & Society 22(2): 237–258.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schneider, J., and P. Schneider. 2006. Sicily: Reflections on forty years of change. Journal of Modern Italian Studies 11(1): 61–83.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sherif, M. 1966. In common predicament: Social psychology of intergroup conflict and cooperation. Boston, MA: Houghton-Mifflin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smithers, J., A.E. Joseph, and M. Armstrong. 2005. Across the divide (?): Reconciling farm and town views of agriculture–community linkages. Journal of Rural Studies 21: 281–295.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Speer, P.W. 2000. Intrapersonal and interactional empowerment: Implications for theory. Journal of Community Psychology 28(1): 51–61.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stolle, D., M. Hooghe, and M. Micheletti. 2005. Politics in the supermarket: Political consumerism as a form of political participation. International Political Science Review 26(3): 245–269.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Superti, C. 2008. Addiopizzo: Can a label defeat the Mafia? The Journal of International Policy Solutions 11: 3–11.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swidler, A. 1986. Culture in action: Symbols and strategies. American Sociological Review 51(2): 273–286.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tregear, A. 2011. Progressing knowledge in alternative and local food networks: Critical reflections and a research agenda. Journal of Rural Studies 27: 419–430.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Trickett, E.J. 2009. Community psychology: Individuals and interventions in community context. Annual Review of Psychology 60: 395–419.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ungar, M., M. Ghazinour, and J. Richter. 2013. Annual research review: What is resilience within the social ecology of human development? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 54(4): 348–366.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walker, B.H., N. Abel, J.M. Anderies, and P. Ryan. 2009. Resilience, adaptability, and transformability in the Goulburn–Broken Catchment, Australia. Ecology and Society 14(1): 12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams-Forson, P., and C. Counihan (eds.). 2012. Taking food public: Redefining foodways in a changing world. New York, NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zani, B. (ed.). 2012. Psicologia di comunità. Prospettive, idee, metodi. Roma: Carocci editore.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zimmerman, M.A. 1995. Psychological empowerment: Issues and illustrations. American Journal of Community Psychology 23(5): 581–599.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Cinzia Piatti for her constructive and helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marketing, Behavior, Communication and Consumption “Giampaolo Fabris”, IULM University, Via Carlo Bo 1, 20143, Milan, Italy

    Laura Emma Milani Marin & Vincenzo Russo

Authors
  1. Laura Emma Milani Marin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Vincenzo Russo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Laura Emma Milani Marin.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Milani Marin, L.E., Russo, V. Re-localizing ‘legal’ food: a social psychology perspective on community resilience, individual empowerment and citizen adaptations in food consumption in Southern Italy. Agric Hum Values 33, 179–190 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-015-9628-5

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-015-9628-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation