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Agrofood Dynamics in the Turn of the Century in the Light of Convention Theory

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Handbook of Economics and Sociology of Conventions

Abstract

Since the 1980s, agricultural food systems of production, knowledge structures, and the global food economy experienced epochal changes, including the emergence of global value chains, of new types of services, and standards. Economics and sociology of convention (EC/SC) have provided in this context analytical and theoretical insights for new directions in agrofood studies. This chapter provides a recension of works related to agriculture and food, in French and Anglophone literature, then discusses some of the main topics and methodological aspects involved in applied EC/SC. Critical assessment of the overused notions that are “quality turn” and “alternative food networks” allows to reflect on the meanings of quality, and on changes and combinations of quality conventions. Coherence of combinations of technologies, markets, and product qualities results of the processes of resources qualification, according to worlds of production. Thus, to relate food systems of provision and the global context with a political economy point of view, the chapter studies resources for qualification, institutional hybridity, and ambiguous relationships between localness and globalness.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. INRA, Toulouse, France

    Gilles Allaire

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  1. Gilles Allaire
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Correspondence to Gilles Allaire .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Lucerne, Lucerne, Switzerland

    Rainer Diaz-Bone

  2. University of Lille, Villeneuve-d’Ascq, France

    Guillemette de Larquier

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Allaire, G. (2023). Agrofood Dynamics in the Turn of the Century in the Light of Convention Theory. In: Diaz-Bone, R., Larquier, G.d. (eds) Handbook of Economics and Sociology of Conventions. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52130-1_58-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52130-1_58-1

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