Exploring the influences of spatialities on developing face-to-face alternative aquaculture food networks

Abstract

A face-to-face alternative food network is seen as a way to build direct connections between producers and consumers by cutting down the numbers of wholesalers and middlemen in the agricultural food supply chain The quality-oriented products bring producers reasonable profits to encourage rural area development As a result it is important to understand what resource is needed for developing alternative food network To provide a clearer imagination of spatial planning in rural area the aquaculture industry is chosen to be the research object In this research spatializing livelihood perspective is used to analyze the access to livelihood capitals of ten households developing face-to-face alternative food networks in five different districts Furthermore it is essential to explore the roles of place network territory and scale to explain how they enable and constraint livelihood strategies of households Interview method and the participatory observation are conducted to survey each households’ experience The result shows that the access to food processing and the frozen storage facilities are the common key factors for households developing face-to-face alternative food networks However these households participate in various multiple spatialities such as place network territory and scale which influence their abilities to access and accumulate livelihood resource For example farmed aquatics and social relationships with other actors are varied and distinct As a result there are different livelihood types within these households

Date of Award	2020
Original language	English
Supervisor	Wei-Ju Huang (Supervisor)