Speaker
Description
Chinese food markets serve as the infrastructural nodes binding and solidifying diverse urban-rural flows through the agri-food exchange while experiencing continuous state-led remoulding. This paper examines a specific food market as the dynamic node embedded within broader city-region food systems, emphasising its role in fostering more justice and inclusive food networks. Based on the filmmaking ethnography conducted in Sihong County, China, this paper investigates the livelihood strategies of vendors operating within and beyond a specific food market, exploring how they navigate and bridge the gaps in incomplete infrastructures through building socio-economic networks across spatial boundaries and connecting diverse actors. Apart from selling in the market, they often simultaneously play multiple and flexible roles in the food supply system, including wholesaler, broker, producer and beyond, and develop tactical and rhythmic operations through the network across urban and rural areas. Applying rhythmanalysis to analysing their business practices, the study reveals how these vendors tactically orchestrate rhythmic operations, leveraging networks across urban and rural areas to adapt and innovate.
The findings demonstrate how food markets not only withstand infrastructural gaps but also transform them into opportunities for strengthening urban-rural interdependencies through inclusive food supplies. These spaces serve as constellations of interaction that transcend the dichotomies of urban and rural, providing alternative pathways beyond capitalist-driven agrarian-urban transformation. As integral components of city-region food systems, food markets hold significant potential to foster sustainable and inclusive food systems by enhancing local livelihoods, supporting diverse forms of production and distribution, facilitating alternative connections, and challenging dominant food supply paradigms. Through this lens, the paper highlights the critical role of food markets in shaping resilient food futures within and beyond China.
| Keywords | food market; urban-rural interdependencies; inclusive food network; rhythmanalysis |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | Yes |
