The Highland Alternative

The Highland Alternative examines how small-scale farming communities in Scotland's Highlands and Islands, through a combination of food sovereignty, agroecology, and land sovereignty, have developed alternatives to capitalist agriculture making them more resilient to recent crises of capitalism such as the COVID-19 pandemic. From 15 months of research conducted with 14 small-scale food producers in Scotland, this book reveals how communities not only survived recent crises but strengthened their autonomy by reducing dependency on global supply chains. Drawing on Erik Olin Wright, David Harvey and John Holloway's analyses of capitalism and strategies of social transformation, the author examines the unintended trajectories of change that emerge from the crisis of capitalism, the gaps and contradictions these crises have revealed, the relationships between these strategies and crises as they reveal alternative economic practices, and the sustainability of these practices against capitalism's ability to reproduce itself. In doing so, the book explores historical trajectories from the Highland Clearances to contemporary challenges, examining transformative strategies including community land ownership, direct sales networks, and regenerative farming practices that create alternative economic relationships. This forward-thinking study will appeal to postgraduate students and scholars in sociology, political economy, human geography, and social movements studies interested in alternatives to capitalism, social and environmental sustainability, and food systems. It will also appeal to practitioners in social movement organizations, NGOs focused on environmental justice, and activists interested in sustainable agriculture and community resilience strategies.