Discourse analysis of an organic network: A practice perspective

Abstract

Many organic farmers markets have positioned themselves as an alternative network to the global industrial food system. These markets are now active online in order to promote their activities and products, including the Ottawa Organics Farmer's Market (OOFM), the case for this study. The aim of this research is to provide insights into how organic farmers, as a community of practice, operate discursively online in order to better understand some of the opportunities and limitations they have to influence the greater discourse around food. To do so, we drew on the discourse analysis literature (Nicolini, 2012; Gee, 2011; Alvesson & Karreman, 2000) to gain knowledge into the market’s discursive and representational practices online. Practice theory was specifically mobilized for our discourse analysis. We found out many of the ways that the OOFM constructs and derails the organic food discourses of "organics as technics", "organics as commodity" and "organics as equity".