Governance Tensions or Growth Pains of an alternative food network: The case of the Brussels GASAP (Solidarity Purchasing Groups for Peasant Agriculture)

This paper applies the concept of Hybrid Governance to the analysis of a local food network organization. Hybrid Governance captures the key governance tensions experienced by alternative food organizations in their spatial-material dynamics of development and growth. These tensions are framed according to three types: ‘organizational, resource and institutional (governance) tensions’. Interrelations among the tensions are also key aspects of the analysis. After an explanation of the conceptual framework and the methodology (section 2), the paper pursues the empirically analysis of the GASAP (section 3), a producers-consumers network developed in Brussels since 2006. The analysis identifies three phases in the GASAP’s life-course, showing how governance tensions and their interrelations emerge and play a role in conditioning the governance and the overall development of the organization through time. A concluding section 4 highlights the governance outcomes produced by the tensions in the GASAP organization. Pathways and challenges to improve the governance in more sustainable directions are also mentioned. The paper argues that the Hybrid Governance approach provides a more synthetic and holistic representation of the real-life governance challenges experienced by local food organizations. By doing so, it provides a more sound basis to suggest improvements and ways forwards in governing alternative food systems.no ISBN/ISSNstatus: publishe