Food Supply Networks in Chile. The Neighborhood as a Resilient Place at the Time of Covid19

Abstract

In this article we present the results of an ethnographic investigation, based on a combined qualitative/quantitative design, into the impacts of the Covid19 pandemic on two Chilean cities. We studied the activation of local food supply networks in popular areas of the comunas (districts) of Peñalolén and Santiago (Metropolitan Region) and Valdivia (Los Ríos Region). Our work focused on a hypothetical assumption that anticipated resilient behavior by communities or social bases through these networks as a local strategy in the face of the crises, adversity and restrictions implied by the pandemic in economically depressed urban areas; these effects still persist. We used a substantive, localized approach to food supply networks, analyzing their dynamics, scope, and limits in the study areas, treating them as complex socio-territorial configurations. Our data show that, in the context of this crisis, the neighborhood, on different scales, emerges as a space of resilience and creative resistance in the face of food supply problems, and offers a potential for prosperity in similar events in the future.Í