Lectio Praecursoria: Patchworks of Care: Ethics and practice of care in the organic food movement in Latvia

Abstract

The thesis introduced in this lectio praecursoria explores the everyday work, ideals and values of the Latvian organic food movement known as tiešā pirkšana (‘direct purchasing’), an initiative which aims to shorten the physical and symbolic distance between producers and consumers; producers, market and regulating policies; and consumers and food. Drawing on the empirical material obtained through long-term ethnographic fieldwork, and theoretical discussions in social and food research, the concept of ‘reconnection’ was chosen to analyse the process of shortening the distance between the different actors involved in one small-scale food provisioning system. By focusing on the notion that there is a link between the reconnection process and the ethics and practice of care, the thesis analyses different forms of care in the various stages of food provisioning in the TP movement. Keywords: mall-scale food provisioning, care and food, spatiotemporalities of care, everyday food practices