A new rural in the city: A no-middlemen markets’ ethnography

Abstract

This article presents an ethnography of the no-middlemen markets in Athens, where producers from all over Greece sell foodstuffs directly to consumers. No-middlemen markets offer an interesting lens through which to view the political foodways created in Athens, reflecting a wider changing landscape of shifting responsibilities for better food futures. I draw from theories on moral economy and reflect on the body of literature on alternative food networks and civic food networks. I argue that in Athens-in-crisis, citizen-producers and citizen-consumers step in and renegotiate the dynamics and power relations between civil society, the market and the State. By doing so they rebalance the dependence of the Greek agriculture from the State and EU protectionism, as well as from the food industry's oligopoly of middlemen, moving towards a more economically sustainable model. They also work towards reconnecting rural and urban foodways and reconstructing social relations around food. As such, they reshape and protect the identities for urban and rural populations alike, provide a contrast to the abstractions of neoliberal politics, resilience to the crisis and ultimately protect the foundation of the Greek society. To this end, this article offers a useful lens through which to explore the diverse ways responsibility is enacted and the social food politics at times of crisis, leading to a better understanding of the complexities and processes of resistance to the crisis by urban and rural people.