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Dear colleagues, I hope you will find the CFP below of interest. Best wishes, Annalisa https://foodscapesgraz.wordpress.com/ nb: abstract deadline 15.06.2013 Post-socialist alternative food networks Petr Jehlička (The Open University, Milton Keynes), Lenka Fendrychová (Charles University, Prague) Systems of food provisioning in post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) have undergone a profound transformation over the last twenty years. Transition from socialism to capitalism in CEE has been a part of broader changes worldwide. Post-socialist societies and their food systems have been subject to neoliberal restructuring based on deregulation, marketisation and privatisation, and driven by championing individual choice and responsibility. ‘Supermarketisation’ of the post-socialist food system contrasting with the limited choice of the previous era’s ‘shortage economy’ represents the mainstream. However, alternative relocalised and socially embedded food systems with their origins in the 1990s have recently gained increased prominence and have taken on different forms, varying in their aims and values, extent, radicalism and scale. They include, apart from the trends and innovations imported from the West such as certified organic and fair trade food, community supported agriculture and framers’ markets, more traditional practices of food self-provisioning and sharing which go back to the socialist and pre-socialist past. Food scares in the 1980s and 1990s and the ensuing erosion of the consumers’ trust in the industrialised food system was a major factor in the rise of western AFNs. Consumers have increasingly preferred direct engagements with producers and demanded healthy, often locally sourced food. The literature on western AFNs highlights their importance for the promotion of environmentally, socially and economically sustainable food system. Modern AFNs in the post-socialist region have developed in a different historical and geographical context than those in the West. Apart from agricultural restructuring and supermarketisation of the food chain, an important factor in their development has been the extension of the EU’s Common Agriculture Policy to the CEE region. Responses to imported western innovations and policies have ranged from adoption and pragmatic utilization to revision and refusal. Combined with historically determined intra-regional differences in the structure of agriculture this has resulted in diverse yet little explored post-socialist alternative foodscapes. The aim of this panel is to explore the diversity of the post-socialist alternative food networks and their potential as well as actual contributions to enhancing food sustainability and social justice. We also invite papers exploring the relevance of western food alternatives in the post-socialist context and contesting the perception of the region as an exclusive importer of western innovations. Please send you abstract (200-300 words), including 3 keywords, your e-mail address and affiliation to [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask] and [log in to unmask] by 15.06.2013 Information on the conference: https://foodscapesgraz.wordpress.com/