Complicating conventionalisation

ABSTRACT

A central theme of the literature on alternative food and drink markets is whether these efforts maintain their alterity as they grow, or whether they conventionalise. We argue that conventionalisation is not inevitable. Furthermore, analysts of the consumer version of this process, co-optation theory, often fail to recognise that alternative entrants often transform both sides of a market. In research at a food swap, we found that the desire to enact alterity became so exaggerated that participants were forced to ‘thread an oppositional needle’ as they rejected many offerings. We theorise that oppositional identities can at times be a bar to new markets. We conclude with reflections on the relevance of this finding for the larger ‘sharing’ economy.