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Countermovement, Neoliberal Platoon, or Re‐Gifting Depot? Understanding Decommodification in US Food Banks
Author(s) -
Lindenbaum John
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
antipode
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.177
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 1467-8330
pISSN - 0066-4812
DOI - 10.1111/anti.12192
Subject(s) - neoliberalism (international relations) , countermovement , capitalism , economics , capital (architecture) , devaluation , politics , political economy , scholarship , reproduction , food systems , market economy , sociology , political science , currency , economic growth , law , food security , biology , ecology , physics , jump , archaeology , quantum mechanics , monetary economics , history , agriculture
In this paper, I explore the decommodification that takes place in US food banks. I argue that food banks are neither Polanyian countermovements re‐embedding the market in society nor tiny platoons of neoliberalism that advance market relations and state withdrawal. Rather, food banks are best understood as re‐gifting depots that are part of the capital accumulation process. Recent scholarship on primitive accumulation, the disarticulations approach, and waste suggests that the devaluation of food products and the exclusion of human labor are everyday elements of capitalism. I conclude by examining the potential for progressive politics in US food banking.