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- Convenors:
-
Ben Eyre
(University of East Anglia)
June Po (Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich)
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- Stream:
- Advocacy and Activism
- Sessions:
- Thursday 17 September, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
This panel brings together anthropologists and geographers to discuss approaches to global supply chains that focus attention on circulation, flows, and asymmetries of knowledge.
Long Abstract:
This panel brings together anthropologists and geographers to discuss varied approaches to global supply chains that foreground knowledge as a productive focus for research. Variously tracing the flow of knowledge historically, spatially, and socially, the papers in this panel reveal unexpected consequences and opportunities as well as powerful asymmetries. They show the potency of applying geographical and anthropological scholarship to diverse supply chains and ask how academics can understand, interrogate, and engage with them. This panel therefore engages theoretically with applied approaches in addition to engaged and activist research.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 17 September, 2020, -Zuhre Aksoy (Bogazici University)
Paper short abstract:
This paper will address how, and to what extent the members of alternative food networks know about the food they purchase from farmers. The paper aims to explore in what ways/whether this knowledge provides a bridge between producers and consumers for a potentially transformative food politics.
Paper long abstract:
Neoliberal transformation in agriculture have significantly eroded the capabilities of small farmers, including those who cultivate traditional varieties of crops to sustain their livelihoods in increasingly competitive markets. In recent years, however, there is a growing number of initiatives for alternative food networks (AFNs) including food co-ops in cities. The focus of this paper will be on alternative food networks in Istanbul, and how they relate to farmers. Varying in several aspects such as how they define food justice, many of these initiatives prioritize the establishment of a direct relation between producers and consumers, with the aim to provide healthy and quality food for their members, while supporting small farmers. This paper aims to address the question of how, and to what extent the members of alternative food network initiatives know about the food they purchase from farmers and their production process in particular, with a focus on the mechanisms by which they obtain their knowledge. Secondly, the paper aims to explore in what ways/whether this knowledge provides a bridge that brings producers and consumers together for a potentially transformative food politics, as well as the constraints therein. Based on open-ended, in-depth interviews with AFN members and farmers they purchase from, the paper aims to contribute to the debate on politics of knowledge, and whether alternative food networks provide a forum for knowledge exchange that can redefine rural-urban relations.
June Po (Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich) Sarah Turner (McGill University) Jean Michaud
Paper short abstract:
This paper focuses on how traditional knowledge of Hmong and Yao distilled alcohol is being forgotten, preserved, or transformed as alcohol enters regional and global markets. However, state approaches to encourage upland alcohol as a regional commodity are having some unexpected consequences.
Paper long abstract:
The unique taste Vietnamese rice liquor has garnered recognition in international spirits competitions in recent years. Meanwhile, the growing middle class of Kinh lowlanders and the expansion of the tourism industry in the uplands has increased demand for traditionally distilled alcohol across ethnic minority communities in the Sino-Vietnamese borderlands. Despite the essential roles that rice alcohol plays in ceremonial rituals and social interactions, there has been limited investigation into how traditional ecological knowledge is changing in local alcohol production under the context of state cultural preservation policy and development goals. This paper focuses on how traditional knowledge of Hmong and Yao distilled alcohol is being forgotten, preserved, or transformed as alcohol enters regional and global commodity chains. Drawing conceptually from actor-oriented livelihood approaches, we conducted 63 semi-structured and conversational interviews with distillers, traders, and consumers in three communes in Lào Cai province. Findings show that the transfer of alcohol production knowledge through practice is limited as the younger generations of Hmong and Yao adults are generally searching for work away from the homestead. Producers opt to buy convenient commercial sources of fermentation agents instead of making plant-based fermentation agents. However, state approaches to encourage upland alcohol as a regional commodity are also having some unexpected consequences. In sum, upland minority distillers have their own visions for their commodity in this frontier region, and this vision is not always aligned with lowland trader ambitions or state frontier 'development' goals.
Ben Eyre (University of East Anglia)
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines 'value chain' approaches to dairy development in Tanzania. Farmers have not embraced practices that philanthropic funders think they should to maximise profit from their cows, but some have adopted a 'value chain' approach to philanthropy itself instead
Paper long abstract:
The latest iteration of dairy development in Tanzania is a philanthropically-funded initiative that adopts a 'value chain' approach to boost smallholder farmers' livelihoods by enabling them to sell milk to companies who process it for sale to wealthy urban consumers. This involves training aimed at transforming farmers' mindsets as well as husbandry techniques, in order that they can grasp the opportunities of the 'dairy value chain'. Evidence of positive impact in the South West of the country is limited (so far). This paper asks what an ethnographic approach might look like that is not grounded in the critique that 'value chain' thinking in dairy development fails to understand the local context and therefore fails to achieve its aims. It suggests instead that some smallholders themselves adopt something like a 'value chain' approach in their engagement with dairy development, not in their pursuit of dairy as a viable business but in their view of philanthropy itself as a value chain that they can access and benefit from. This insight offers an original critical lens through which to view philanthropy for dairy development