Oh Ani, how I love you.

Being in a damn good mood this morning, thanks to Ms. DiFranco, I’ve decided to share a bit more of my thesis with y’alls. The proposal has been done for weeks now (yes, i wrote it in a week) and haven’t really looked at it since. So its rough. Butttt I know my friends/family are getting impatient so here is the backbone just as a taste:

While the concept of ‘shared risk’ and its potential benefits are neither new nor progressive, this concept is worth investigating due to its central role in bridging a relationship between producers and consumers throughout the local food initiative, particularly amongst Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) relationships. Shared risk has been used as an effective selling point for many farmers involved in CSA ventures, by attracting shareholders (consumers) on the one hand and by prioritizing monetary investment in local foods as a less risky lifestyle on the other. The ways in which shared risk has been outwardly promoted carries with it three prevailing assumptions about the production of local foods. First, based on perception, this notion assumes that the current industrial, and more globally embedded food process is more risky, rendering the idea of the local as fundamentally less risky. Second, in relation to the productive processes, shared risk is assumed to be inherently equal, where there is a balance of risk being distributed proportionately between farmers and their buyers. And lastly, in relation to transaction, this relationship assumes a direct correlation between increased monetary investment and diminished risk- the more investment from consumers corresponds to less productive risk for farmers. Indeed, the concept of shared risk is both convoluted and normalized, requiring further clarification.

The objective of this research, therefore, is to examine the ways in which CSA farmers construct the notion of risk. And more importantly, to determine the factors involve that give rise to the collective identification and definition of risk among CSA farmers (Strydom, 2002). With a focus on the Ottawa-area CSAs I hope to use this research to gain a better understanding of how social interactions throughout the productive and distributive processes of CSAs define the notion of shared risk. The central questions of this research are; what is risk, and how is it defined in this context? Is this conceptualization of risk commensurate to the idea of sharing? And, what is actually being shared?

Das all for now folksss

First thesis posting…this is gross and i feel dirrttty

My proposal is actually coming along quite well so here is a snippet of some theoretical considerations that will frame ma thesis mofuckass:

Ulrich Beck’s conception of Risk Society with two prevailing and interconnected theses; one on Reflexive Modernization (absolute brilliancy) and the other on the issue of Risk itself.

Reflexive modernization argues that a new and different phase of modernization is currently underway. It’s somewhat difficult to dicepher when this ‘new’ modernization actually began but some say perhaps in the late 80s to early 90s…anyway…Reflexive is not defined as a mere reflection but as a process whereby we critique the products of science. Essentially we are in a phase where we are experiencing a confrontation of the bad and icky stuff as in the outcome of our inventions as a result of the previous modernity. Examples include but are not limited to our reliance on GMOs in food that’s now resulting in food contimination/disease etc. or the development of cancer from pollutants etc etc. One of the important ideas that I’m taking from this theory is how it all links to Risk. As we’ve created more issues by using science, we are now fixing it with…you guessed it! MORE effing SCIENCE. Now this obviously increases the probability of risk by doing so and in fact, we are trapped in a downward spiral should we keep doing so. But here is where the de-growth movement comes in- as a form and process of risk mitigation. As an ‘alternative’ but in my opinion even this concept of alternative is fundamentally flawed because all we’re doing is going back to basics- to the way things used to be. And, more importantly, to the way things should have remained.  That’s all for now suckers.

(Beck, you sexy mofo)

School schmool

So I fucked off the last semester by playing outside and a little bit inside, and it was wellll worth it. My thesis topic changed about a trijillion times I can’t even remember. Did i mention that I also lied my way out of paying fees for the summer? Fuck off UOttawa. I refuse to pay you just so I can borrow your books. Paying 800$/semester every semester to write a proposal, then 1200$/semester every godamn semester to write a thesis students are set-up to fail.

Goal: Write a 30-pager proposal in one week. Lets begin.