The Organization of Practices for Instituting Economic Processes: Alternative Food Networks in Beijing

Abstract

Recurrent food safety scandals have prompted Beijing consumers to organize farmers’ markets and buyers’ clubs as a way to access organic food. This article draws on practice theory to understand the way in which these networks use the idea of “good food” to reorganize practices of farming, food purchase, cooking, and eating. The article uses the Polanyian concept of “instituted economic processes” to analyze specific modes of orientation and exchange between organic farmers and urban consumers and specific instituted forms of production and consumption. The article illustrates that “good food” became a shared element in practices and the system of provision. Through the qualification of food and associated discourse relating good food to practices and the food system, practices from production to exchange and consumption share an orientation and institute distinctive economic processes.