Third-Sector Advocacy: An Exploration of the Work of Community Food Providers

Katy Gordon, Andrea Tonner and Juliette Wilson
Additional contact information
Katy Gordon: The University of Sheffield, UK
Andrea Tonner: University of Strathclyde, UK
Juliette Wilson: University of Strathclyde, UK

Sociological Research Online, 2023, vol. 28, issue 4, 964-981

Abstract: This article explores advocative work of third-sector community food providers in Scotland. The article argues these organisations can contribute to tackling household food insecurity through their advocative work, recognising that state-led policy on household income is needed. Capturing the advocacy of these organisations, rather than focussing solely on their service provision can provide insight that is largely missing from existing community food scholarships. The research adopts a quasi-ethnographic qualitative approach with 16 grassroots community food providers and 5 meso-level support organisations. The findings identify advocacy practices undertaken, targeted at political and public audiences and national and local institutional layers. It highlights the tensions of this work, including fears of exacerbating a failing system. The findings also evidence a complementary, symbiotic, and reciprocally strengthening relationship between service provision and advocacy by third-sector organisations. These contributions demonstrate the potential of this sector to contribute to social change required to address the root causes of household food insecurity.

Keywords: advocacy; agency for change; food insecurity; third sector (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13607804231169574 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:socres:v:28:y:2023:i:4:p:964-981

DOI: 10.1177/13607804231169574

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Sociological Research Online
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().