The Problem with Solutions

Why Silicon Valley Can't Hack the Future of Food
1. Auflage 2024
ISBN: 978-0-520-40267-6
Verlag: University of California Press

Buch, Englisch, 272 Seiten, Trade Paperback, Format (B × H): 138 mm x 213 mm, Gewicht: 330 g

A concise and feisty takedown of the all-style, no-substance tech ventures that fail to solve our food crises.

Why has Silicon Valley become the model for addressing today's myriad social and ecological crises? With this book, Julie Guthman digs into the impoverished solutions for food and agriculture currently emerging from Silicon Valley, urging us to stop trying to fix our broken food system through finite capitalistic solutions and technological moonshots that do next to nothing to actualize a more just and sustainable system.

The Problem with Solutions combines an analysis of the rise of tech company solution culture with findings from actual research on the sector's ill-informed attempts to address the problems of food and agriculture. As this seductive approach continues to infiltrate universities and academia, Guthman challenges us to reject apolitical and self-gratifying techno-solutions and develop the capacity and willingness to respond to the root causes of these crises. Solutions, she argues, are a product of our current condition, not an answer to it.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Guthman, Julie

Fachgebiete

• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften Interdisziplinär Ökotrophologie (Ernährungs- und Haushaltswissenschaften)
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Wissenssoziologie, Wissenschaftssoziologie, Techniksoziologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Regierungspolitik
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Volkskunde Minderheiten, Interkulturelle & Multikulturelle Fragen
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften Kulturwissenschaften: Ernährung & Gesellschaft
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Sachkultur, Materielle Kultur

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Contents

Preface 

Introduction: The Origins of Solutions 

1 Silicon Valley and the Urge to Make the World aBetter Place 
2 Agrifood Solutions before Silicon Valley 
3 Silicon Valley Bites Off Agriculture and Food 
4 Alternative Protein and the Nothing Burger of the Techno-Fix 
5 Digital Technologies and Plowing Through to the Problem 
6 Silicon Valley Thinking Comes to the University 
7 Big Ideas and Making Silicon Valley–Style Solution Makers 
Conclusion: The Pessimism of Solutions and the (Cautious) Optimism of Response 

Acknowledgments 
Glossary of Terms 
Notes 
Bibliography 
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Julie Guthman is a geographer and Distinguished Professor in Sociology at University of California, Santa Cruz. Her previous books include Wilted: Pathogens, Chemicals, and the Fragile Future of the Strawberry Industry.