Bringing together a range of case studies from Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, Germany, Norway, Poland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Greece, this book compares and contrasts different models of food re-localization. The richness and complexity of the international case studies provide a broad understanding of the characteristics of the re-localization movement, while the analysis of knowledge forms and dynamics provides an innovative new theoretical approach. Each of the national teams work on the basis of an agreed common framework, resulting in a strongly coherent and comprehensive continental overview. This shows how the actors involved are pursuing their objectives in different regional and national contexts, re-embedding, socially and ecologically, the relation between food production, consumption and places.

Contents: Introduction: food relocalisation and knowledge dynamics for sustainability in rural areas, Maria Fonte; Part I Reinventing Local Food and Local Knowledge: 'Local food' as a contested concept: networks, knowledges, nature and power in food-based strategies for rural development, Hilary Tovey; Creating a tradition that we never had: local food and local knowledge in Northeast Germany, Rosemary Siebert and Lutz Laschewski; The reconstruction of local food knowledge in the Isle of Skye, Scotland, Lorna Dargan and Edmund Harris; Local food production in Sweden: the Eldrimner national resource centre for small-scale food production and refining, Karl Bruckmeier. Part II Valorising Local Food and Local Knowledge: From local to the global: knowledge dynamics and economic restructuring of local food, Isabel Rodrigo and José Ferragolo da Veiga; The construction of origin certification: knowledge and local food, Maria Fonte; One tradition, many recipes: social networks and local food - the Oscypek cheese case, Tomasz Adamski and Krzysztof Gorlach; Traditional food as a strategy in regional development: the need for knowledge diversity, Gunn-Turid Kvam; Traditional and artisanal versus expert and managerial knowledge: dissecting two local food networks in Valencia, Spain, Almudena Buciega Arévalo, Javier Esparcia Pérez and Vicente Ferrer San Antonio; Reclaiming local food production and the local-expert knowledge nexus in two wine producing areas in Greece, Apostolos G. Papdopoulos; Conclusion: Europe's integration in the diversities of local food and local knowledge, Maria Fonte; Index.