Reified throw-away European Union? An insight into the commodification of food waste
Author
Barretta, Julie
Term
4. term
Publication year
2015
Submitted on
2015-04-07
Pages
157
Abstract
Food waste has attracted growing attention as both an ethical challenge and an economic opportunity. This thesis examines why, and through which institutional mechanisms, the commodification of food waste has occurred in the European Union. Using a critical political economy approach, it combines commodification theories with Habermas’s concept of reification to analyze how EU policy and governance assign exchange value to food waste via legal definitions, authorizations, subsidies, and taxes. The study finds that food waste in the EU has increasingly been treated as a market product, yet concludes that the European public sphere is not fully reified in this domain: although administrative and economic logics influence parts of the debate and governance, democratic decision-making operates as a bulwark against full reification. It further argues that commodification is shaped by broader European sociopolitical dynamics, highlighting both internal and external factors—including Euroscepticism and economic imperialism—that help explain why food waste is construed and regulated as a commodity.
Madaffald har fået voksende opmærksomhed som både et etisk problem og en økonomisk mulighed. Dette speciale undersøger, hvorfor og gennem hvilke institutionelle mekanismer varensgørelsen af madaffald har fundet sted i EU. Med et kritisk politisk-økonomisk udgangspunkt kombinerer analysen teorier om varensgørelse med Habermas’ begreb om reifikation for at belyse, hvordan EU’s politik og forvaltning tildeler madaffald bytteværdi gennem juridiske definitioner, godkendelser, tilskud og afgifter. Studiet viser, at madaffald i EU i stigende grad behandles som et markedsprodukt, men konkluderer samtidig, at den europæiske offentlige sfære ikke er fuldt reificeret på dette område: Selvom administrative og økonomiske logikker påvirker dele af debatten og forvaltningen, fungerer EU’s demokratiske beslutningsprocesser som et værn imod fuld reifikation. Endvidere peger specialet på, at varensgørelsen formes af bredere europæiske sociopolitiske dynamikker, og fremhæver både interne og eksterne forhold—herunder euroskepsis og økonomisk imperialisme—som medvirkende til, at madaffald forstås og reguleres som en vare.
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