Frames, Funds, and Friends: The Influence of Ideology, Finances, and Coalitions on Food Movement Strategy

• In Event: 463 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Roundtables (one-hour). Table 01. Coalition Building in Social Movements

Abstract

The U.S. food system is afflicted by variety of social, ecological, and economic predicaments including in hunger, food access inequalities, soil and water degradation, and lack of community control over food. Scholars and activists agree that in order for U.S. food movement actors to affect significant system-wide change, players must bridge a multitude of issue areas and ideological differences. Despite thorough analyses of local and regional food systems, little research has been conducted on either national level advocacy perspectives or the ties that bind and divide food advocacy coalitions. This project’s central research question examines how the U.S food advocacy movement works to resist the hegemonic domination of the national food system by state and corporate actors. To answer this question, this research develops a social network analysis of 71 national-level food advocacy actors, compiles web-based issue and tax data, and conducts 36 semi-structured interviews with senior food activist staff. Social movement literature and Antonio Gramsci’s concepts of counter-hegemonic movements and wars of position inform the findings and reveal the national food movement’s nascent propensity to unite cultural and class struggles to create significant pressure for systematic change in the U.S. food system. This paper reveals that despite most activists’ conviction that a constellation of agri-business and state policies dominate the U.S. food system, significant network rifts, framing dilemmas, strategic conflicts, and resource complexities prevent national food activists from generating a robust challenge to hegemonic food system actors.

Author

• Matthew C. Friesen, Bluffton University