Autonomous Food Spaces in Catalonia

Abstract

This case study discusses how citizens were creating autonomous spaces in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, from which to critique capitalist pressures and to establish alternatives based on food practices. Three anti-capitalist examples were explored: Can Masdeu, an alternative living and education centre; L’Aixada, a consumer cooperative; and La Xarxa D’Aliments, a food recycling activity based within an occupied bank. In contrast to many alternative food practices, these examples were relatively long-lived, offering insights as to how horizontal governance approaches could sustain participants’ lifestyle politics within a capitalist society. Shared governance approaches included consensus, asambleas and membership, the creation of shared physical and virtual spaces, and a range of alternative consumption practices (ethical, anti-consumerist and degrowth). These initiatives promoted critical thinking, communitarian skills, responsibility, reciprocity and solidarity.