"Warrior, Builder, and Weaver Work,"

G. W. Stevenson et al. have developed an analytical framework for interpreting food systems change as a social movement. This framework focuses on the strategic orientation of change activities, and their organization into three types: warrior, builder, and weaver. These three types reflect differences in framing processes, mobilizing structures, and perceived policital opportunities. Warrior work is the conscious resistance to the modern agrifood system. It is political because it seeks to change the attitudes and beliefs of society through legislative reform, public protest, research and analysis, and via boycotts. Builder work reflects the "reconstruction orientation to change. " It is the work of local food system entrepreneurship; supporting alternative agriculture, parallel markets, and distribution demands. Weaver work is movement building through outreach and organizing, creating linkages between builder, warrior work, and civil society. The authors argue that each of these change orientations require compelling narrative frames, and that weaver work especially must engage in coalition building, with each other, but also with other change communities in order to increase the potential for creating significant change. G. W. Stevenson et al., "Warrior Builder, and Weaver Work," in Remaking the North American Food Syste, ed. C. Clare Hinrichs and Thomas A. Lyson (Lincoln, NE: UNiversity of Nebraska Press, 2008).

The link address is: https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/ebenven2/foodguides/Ch2RemakingNAFoodSystem.pdf