Agro‐Digital Governance and Life Itself: Food Politics at the Intersection of Code and Affect. (17th November 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Carolan, Michael
• Is Part Of: Sociologia ruralis. Volume 57(2017)Supplement S1
• Page Start: 816
• Page End: 835
• Publication Date: 2016-11-17
• Subjects: Sociology, Rural -- Periodicals; 307.72
• DOI: 10.1111/soru.12153
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0038-0199

Abstract

Abstract: This article seeks to answer the following questions. How are digital platforms encountered and felt by producers and consumers and how do these assemblages shape the foodscapes we imagine and enact? How do elements like digital locks, proprietary code, and 'open' code inform how we think about the subject of agrofood governance? Finally, what are the lives being made to live, and left to let die, as a result of digital platforms, from those employing digital locks and proprietary software to those built on open source code? To do this, the paper draws upon two case studies. The first examines London‐area producers and consumers linked to the web‐based distribution platform FarmDrop. This is followed by a case study involving US producers loosely linked to the group Farm Hack; a group that promotes technology that is collectively built and freely shared, and which desires to 'hack' that which is not. To conclude, the article turns briefly to Berry's (2001) thoughts on interactivity. While insightful, as the concept helps us think about the less‐than‐overt ways in which code‐based assemblages enable and disable, the aforementioned case studies allow for some refinements to what it means to do and be interactive.