TY  - BOOK
AU  - Born,Branden
AU  - Purcell, Mark
TI  - Avoiding the local trap: scale and food systems in planning research
SN  - 0739456X
AV  - NA9000 JOU 
PY  - 2006///
CY  - Thousands Oaks
PB  - ACSP
KW  - Food systems
KW  - Scale
KW  - Local trap
N2  - A strong current of food-systems research holds that local food systems are preferable to systems at larger scales. Many assume that eating local food is more ecologically sustainable and socially just. We term this the local trap and argue strongly against it. We draw on current scale theory in political and economic geography to argue that local food systems are no more likely to be sustainable or just than systems at other scales. The theory argues that scale is socially produced: scales (and their interrelations) are not independent entities with inherent qualities but strategies pursued by social actors with a particular agenda. It is the content of that agenda, not the scales themselves, that produces outcomes such as sustainability or justice. As planners move increasingly into food-systems research, we argue it is critical to avoid the local trap. The article’s theoretical approach to scale offers one way to do so
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X06291389
ER  -