Challenges of building alternatives: the experience of a consumer food co-operative in Istanbul

ABSTRACT

This paper provides an in-depth analysis of BÜKOOP (Bogazici University Consumer Co-operative), a university-based consumer food co-operative established in 2009 in Istanbul. The pessimism about alternative food movements in general and food co-operatives in particular is challenged by the case of BÜKOOP, which is a “successful” consumer food co-operative that has survived to date without sacrificing its original goals. The overall contributions afforded by the study are twofold. First, the case study speaks to the literatures on alternative food movements and on food co-ops, providing insights regarding challenges of building alternatives as well as how to deal with them. In the case of BÜKOOP, the following intertwined dimensions of the issue have emerged as of crucial importance in this regard: how to handle the tension between “ideals” and “practical necessities,” whether “small is (indeed) beautiful,” how to develop and maintain a “co-op spirit,” and what it means to be a “successful” consumer food co-op. Second, since the authors are among the founders of BÜKOOP, the study also provides a contribution to the growing literature on scholar-activist auto-ethnography.

KEYWORDS:

• Food co-operatives
• alternative food movements
• diverse economies
• degrowth
• scholar activism
• auto-ethnography

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Özlem Öz

Özlem Öz (PhD London School of Economics and Political Science) is full Professor at the Department of Management, Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey, where she teaches courses on globalization and organization theory. She was awarded by the Turkish Academy of Sciences the “Encouragement Award in Social Sciences and Humanities” and the “Successful Young Scientists Award.” Özlem Öz is the author of two books (The Competitive Advantage of Nations: The Case of Turkey, Ashgate, 1999; and Clusters and Competitive Advantage: The Turkish Experience, Palgrave MacMillan, 2004) as well as many articles in respected academic journals (including, for instance, European Planning Studies; International Journal of Urban and Regional Research; Journal of Management Inquiry; Political Geography; Journal of Business Research; International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing), reflecting her research interests in geographic clusters, the film industry, urban transformation (Istanbul), and urban–rural dynamics and co-operatives. She also writes reviews and critiques on cinema and literature.

Zuhre Aksoy

Zuhre Aksoy is Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science and International Relations, Bogazici University, Turkey. She holds a PhD from the Department of Political Science, University of Massachusetts Amherst. In 2004–2005, she was a post-doctoral fellow at the International Center for Advanced Studies (ICAS) of New York University. Her research interests include International Relations, International Institutions, International Environmental Politics, and Political Economy of Agriculture and Food. She teaches courses on environment and politics, international politics, and North–South relations. Her research focuses on agrobiodiversity conservation, multi-level linkages in the conservation of genetic resources, global environmental justice, traditional knowledge, and climate change. Publications include “Global Justice: From Theory to Development Action,” Journal of International Development (with Theo Papaioannaou and Helen Yanacopulos, 2009); “The Legal-Institutional Framework and Agrobiodiversity Conservation in Turkey,” in Rethinking Structural Reform in Turkey: Beyond the World Bank’s Strategy, edited by Karapinar et al. (Nova Publishers, 2010); “Local–Global Linkages in Environmental Governance: The Case of Crop Genetic Resources,” Global Environmental Politics (2014) and “The Politics of Biotechnology and the Governance of Genetically Modified Organisms in Turkey,” in The Making of Neoliberal Turkey, edited by Ozbay et al. (Ashgate, 2016).