Moral economy in Italy: a case study

This paper explores the development of alternative practices of production and consumption of food in Italy related to “moral economies”, pointing out the attention on the potentiality of the short food chains aiming to improve the conditions of small producers as well as on critical consumption practices that have encouraged the constitutions of the solidarity purchasing groups (GAS) . The networks developed by these actors present specific aspects that are not considered by the analytical approaches just focusing on spatiality, but can be interpreted as “networks of resistance” characterized by moral principles. The paper present a case study on a network of Sicilian producers, located in the south of Italy, that set up innovative relationships with critical consumers associated in GAS, located in the Center and North of Italy. The common principles of “solidarity, ethical, reciprocity” are shared by all the actors producing innovative actions that produce new forms of moral economies.