Abstract
In this paper, we examine diverse political philosophical conceptualisations of justice and interrogate how these contested understandings are drawn upon in the burgeoning food justice scholarship. We suggest that three interconnected dimensions of justice—plurality, the spatial–temporal and the more-than-human—deserve further analytical attention and propose the notion of the ‘justice multiple’ to bring together a multiplicity of framings and situated practices of (food) justice. Given the lack of critical engagement food justice has received as both a concept and social movement in the context of the United Kingdom (UK), we draw upon empirical research with practitioners and activists involved with heterogenous food movements working at the local, regional and national level and apply the justice multiple concept to the interview data. We highlight the diverse ways that justice is discussed in terms of access, fairness, empowerment, rights and dignity that reflect established organisational discursive framings and the fragmented nature of food system advocacy and activism. Based on this insight, we argue that a plurivocal, relational conceptualisation of socioecological justice can help enhance the multiple politics of food justice, pluralise UK food movement praxis and nurture avenues for broader coalition-building across the food system.
Highlights
The notion of food justice has increasingly been evoked by various civil society groups as a powerful mobilising concept in the United Kingdom (UK) context
This has primarily occurred as a direct consequence of the ongoing impacts of austerity and welfare reform which has witnessed the proliferation of hunger and poverty
2018; End Hunger UK 2019; MacLeod 2019; Raj 2019). Despite this recent intensification of the politicisation of food-related inequities, we argue that ‘justice’— as a contested idea and practice—in food justice deserves far greater critical scholarly and activist attention by those involved with heterogenous UK food movements
Summary
The notion of food justice has increasingly been evoked by various civil society groups as a powerful mobilising concept in the United Kingdom (UK) context. Drawing upon insights from new materialism (Bennett 2010; Coole and Frost 2010), scholars have argued that taking the agency or vitality of nonhumans seriously (Plumwood 2001)—for example, by exposing the more-than-human agencies of soil in the politics of food systems—is crucial in order to foster more just and sustainable socioecological relations (Ferguson and the Northern Rivers Landed Histories Research Group 2016) This creates new political terrains for social transformation beyond the nature/society dichotomy in ways that expand the parameters of justice to nonhuman life.
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