Food Crisis and The Relations Between Managers and Members in Women’s Cooperatives

An industrialized food system tries to overcome the food crisis with policies aimed only at increasing production. Women’s cooperatives emerge as potential horizontal organizations that give importance to the experience of food production and consumption processes, the sustainable use of natural resources and direct consumer access to food against this industrial system. According to the principles of cooperatives, there should be an egalitarian and democratic division of labor among managers, and members and they should actively participate in the processes of production and distribution. Using Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical approach, this article aims to show the power relations between the members and managers in women’s cooperatives specialized in the food sector. Based on the project carried out in 2019 and 2020, the relations of govarnance in women’s cooperatives are examined. These relations are essential to explain the obstacles that prevent women’s cooperatives from solving food crisis. Managers, who hold cultural, economic, and social capital, use certain strategies to maintain their class positions in the field. They use the strategies of expertise, symbolic violence, and labor control to maintain their hegemony over members. Furthermore, their work experiences, values (entrepreneurship, branding, leadership, etc.), tastes and prejudices affect their interactions with members. These interactions are important for understanding the unfair processes of production and distribution in women’s cooperatives.