Taking (intra­‐) action: Alternative food initiatives doing differently to transform our food future

Abstract

This paper explores alternative food initiatives (AFIs) and their relational ontological forms. Demonstrations of pervasive and dynamic ‘intra-­‐actions’ in the urban foodscape can offer possibility and hope for a transformation away from the disenfranchisement often associated with the conventional food system, despite the challenge of unequal dispositions of different actors and activities involved. This participatory ethnographic study engages, in particular, the work of Karen Barad to understand how a more socially just food system can be materialised through new articulations of relationships in participants’ following of and engagement in AFI materialisms of work to be done. Here, several case studies of AFIs in Auckland, New Zealand will: highlight the abundance, prominence and dynamism of these models of alternative food; explore how doing differently is regularly and actively embodied by actors in the alternative foodscape, and how these novel expressions of alternative food can enact new potentials in the urban food landscape through their intra-­action.