Abstract: Over the last few years niches got more and more discussed as initial point for societal change. But approaches like Strategic Niche Management (SNM) are critisised for its focus on technological niches and its idea of a „top-down-management“, whereby radical alterations in fact is more often initiated by non-governmental groups and parts of civil society. This work attaches itself to this issue and investigates the emergence and diffusion of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in Germany – as an example of an niche created bottom-up and being an alternative practice compared to the current agricultural regime. The focus of the study lies on the question how CSA could spread out and which factors did influence the diffusion of this concept. The qualitative analysis of this question could contribute both to some theoretical increments and to some practical recommondations for the further development of CSA and the support of niches in order to transform whole production and consumption sectors.