Editors: Andrés Spognardi, Ana Raquel Matos

Deadline for submissions: April 15, 2025

Keywords: food policy; food regime; food security; local food systems; sustainability transition.

The food regime is an analytical tool used to interpret the economic, political, and power dynamics that shape the production, distribution, and consumption of food on a global scale. Drawing on Gramsci’s theory of hegemony, a food regime reflects a stable configuration of coercion and consent among actors with asymmetric power distributions. This configuration, however, carries internal tensions that, over time, lead to crises and restructurings, paving the way for its eventual replacement.

Dominated by large transnational corporations, the current food regime is characterized by a growing tension between the expansion of a global industrial agriculture system – socially and environmentally unsustainable – and local, small-scale agricultural systems, represented by indebted medium and small farmers in the global North and networks of peasants and smallholders in the global South.

This issue of e-cadernos CES seeks contributions that explore the multiple dimensions of this tension. We are particularly interested in articles that examine the implications of the hegemonic role played by large multinational corporations, as well as the challenges and transformative potential of local agricultural systems, positioned at the opposite end of the systemic contradiction.

We welcome empirical, theoretical, and review-based approaches from across the social sciences, including sociology, economics, political science, law, geography, anthropology, and public health. We are especially interested in interdisciplinary studies, as well as in contributions that incorporate perspectives from practitioners and stakeholders involved in advocacy organizations and initiatives aimed at addressing these systemic contradictions and advancing the transition toward a more environmentally sustainable and locally supportive food model.

Submissions are welcome at any geographic scale or regional context. While we remain open to a broad range of topics, we are particularly interested in research addressing the following dimensions:

• Environmental: The impacts of the corporate food system on climate change, food waste, biodiversity, and ecosystem health; the effects of extreme weather events on the food supply chain; and the role of agroecology and other sustainable alternatives in reducing the ecological footprint of the corporate regime.

• Social: The emergence and development of social movements advocating for local food systems; economic, gender, and ethnic inequalities in accessing adequate food; food security in socially vulnerable contexts; and the capacity of local agricultural systems to provide sustainable and resilient economic alternatives that promote healthy and accessible diets in contrast to the dominant model.

• Political: The role of public policies in regulating food production and distribution, the impact of food legislation on corporate and local practices, and the influence of civil society organizations in shaping policies toward a fairer food system.

• Cultural: Transformations in eating habits and consumption practices under the corporate regime, cultural resistance through the preservation of local food traditions, and the identities tied to local food production systems.

• Economic: The economic impacts of the corporate regime on local farmers, particularly in relation to market concentration and debt dynamics; and the potential of local farming systems to provide sustainable and resilient economic alternatives to the dominant model.

e-cadernos CES is a peer-reviewed, online and entirely open access journal, published by the Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra (Portugal). It is currently indexed in CAPES, DOAJ, EBSCO, ERIH Plus and Latindex. For more information on the publication consult: https://journals.openedition.org/eces.

All texts should be original and submitted in their complete version, in Portuguese, English, Spanish, or French. They must not exceed 60,000 characters (with spaces), including footnotes and bibliographical references. For the final section, @cetera, other texts may be presented (up to 35,000 characters maximum), such as interviews and debates (up to 25,000 characters maximum), or unpublished book reviews (up to 5,000 characters maximum). The submitted manuscripts must not have been otherwise published in full or in part (in both print or digital format), in the same language or another, nor be presently under submission to another publication.

Detailed guidelines for submitting texts are available at https://journals.openedition.org/eces/805. Manuscripts should be sent by email to e-cadernos@ces.uc.pt and authors should clearly identify the thematic issue in question ― “Resisting the corporate food regime”.

All manuscripts will be subject to the double-blind peer review process.