Abstract In heterodox economic geography, there is an ongoing debate as to how our economic, social, and environmental needs may be better addressed by organizing the economy differently, through more equitable and more sustainable practices. This calls for further studying and discussing alternative economic practices in a diverse economy. In this article, existing alternative economic practices within agrifood systems—specifically alternative forms of connecting producers and consumers—are explored, primarily on a conceptual but also an empirically grounded level. The article makes two conceptual contributions: First, it offers a comprehensive review of the literature and, with an emphasis on contributions by economic geographers, clarifies the meaning of alterity in alternative food systems. It reveals the hitherto limited focus on either alternative products or alternative distribution networks. In light of this limitation and the ongoing incorporation of characteristics of alternative food by conventional food industries for profit purposes, second, it extends those insights by reconceptualizing alterity—namely, by introducing alternative economic practices as an important third pillar of alternative food networks (AFNs). Empirically, by presenting two newly emerging models of AFNs from Berlin and Frankfurt—which go beyond just offering alternative food stuffs or using alternative distribution networks and instead aim at de-commodifying the food system—the article provides a closer view on existing alternative economic practices, highlighting the ways in which they think and perform the economy otherwise.

中文翻译：

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关于替代经济实践的重要性：重新定义替代食品网络中的替代性

摘要 在非正统的经济地理学中，关于如何通过更公平和更可持续的实践以不同方式组织经济来更好地满足我们的经济、社会和环境需求的争论正在进行中。这需要进一步研究和讨论多元化经济中的替代经济实践。本文探讨了农业食品系统中现有的替代经济实践——特别是连接生产者和消费者的替代形式——主要是在概念和经验层面上进行了探讨。这篇文章做出了两个概念性贡献：首先，它对文献进行了全面回顾，并强调了经济地理学家的贡献，阐明了替代性食物系统中异质性的含义。它揭示了迄今为止对替代产品或替代分销网络的有限关注。鉴于这一限制以及传统食品行业出于盈利目的不断将替代食品的特征纳入其中，其次，它通过重新定义替代性来扩展这些见解——即，通过引入替代经济实践作为替代食品网络（AFNs）的重要第三支柱）。从经验上看，通过展示来自柏林和法兰克福的两种新出现的 AFN 模型——它们不仅仅是提供替代食品或使用替代分销网络，而是旨在使食品系统去商品化——文章提供了对现有替代经济实践的更深入的了解，突出他们以其他方式思考和执行经济的方式。