Contested Sustainability Discourses in the Agrifood System
The industrial agrifood system is in crisis regarding its negative ecological, economic, and social externalities: it is unsustainable on all dimensions. This book documents and engages competing visions and contested discourses of agrifood sustainability.
Using an incremental/reformist to transformation/radical continuum framework for alternative agrifood movements, this book identifies tensions between competing discourses that stress food sovereignty, social justice, and fair trade and those that emphasize food security, efficiency, and free trade. In particular, it highlights the role that governance processes play in sustainability transitions and the ways that power and politics affect sustainability visions and discourses.
The book includes chapters that review sustainability discourses at the macro and meso levels, as well as case studies from Africa, Australia, Canada, Europe, South America, and the USA.
Douglas H. Constance is Professor of Sociology at Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas, USA.
Jason Konefal is Associate Professor of Sociology, at Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas, USA.
Maki Hatanaka is Associate Professor of Sociology at Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas, USA.
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Contested Sustainability Discourses in the Agrifood System
Edited by Douglas H. Constance, Jason Konefal and Maki Hatanaka
For further details please visit the series page on the Routledge website: www.routledge.com/books/series/ECEFA/
Contested Sustainability Discourses in the Agrifood System
Edited by Douglas H. Constance, Jason Konefal and Maki Hatanaka
First published 2018
by Routledge
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2018 selection and editorial matter, Douglas H. Constance, Jason Konefal and Maki Hatanaka; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Douglas H. Constance, Jason Konefal and Maki Hatanaka to be identified as the authors of the editorial matter, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Constance, Douglas, editor. | Konefal, Jason, editor. | Hatanaka, Maki, editor.
Title: Contested sustainability discourses in the agrifood system / edited by Douglas H. Constance, Jason Konefal and Maki Hatanaka.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2018. |
Series: Earthscan food and agriculture series | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018008821| ISBN 9781138063099 (hardback) | ISBN 9781315161297 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Food industry and trade. | Sustainable agriculture. | Agricultural industries.
Classification: LCC HD9005 .C623 2018 | DDC 338.1dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018008821
ISBN: 978-1-138-06309-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-16129-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Goudy
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
We dedicate this book to the distinguished environmental sociologist Frederick H. Buttel (19482005).
Contents
Contributors
Editors
Douglas H. Constance is Professor of Sociology at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, USA. His research area is the social impacts of the globalization of the industrial agrifood system and alternative agrifood systems. He has numerous journal articles, book chapters, and books on these topics. His most recent co-edited book is Alternative Agrifood Movements: Patterns of Convergence and Divergence (2014) by Emerald Press. He is past Editor in Chief of the Journal of Rural Social Sciences. He is also past President of the Southern Rural Sociological Association (2003), the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society (2008), and past Vice-President of the Rural Sociological Society (2013). Dr Constance currently serves as the Quality of Life Representative and Chair of the Administrative Council of the United States Department of Agriculture Southern Region Sustainable Agriculture Research Education Program (USDA/SSARE).
Jason Konefal is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Sam Houston State University, USA. His research examines the relationship between political economic structures and practices and opportunities for social change. Specifically, he is interested in how neoliberalization is affecting governance processes and possibilities for equality, justice, sustainability, and democracy in food and agriculture. Dr Konefals publications have appeared in the Journal of Rural Studies, Agriculture and Human Values, and Organization & Environment.
Maki Hatanaka is Associate Professor of Sociology at Sam Houston State University, USA. Her research examines economic globalization and efforts to regulate it in the areas of food, agriculture, and the environment. In particular, her interests focus on forms of non-state sustainability governance, particularly standards, metrics, certification, and accreditation. Her research has been published in numerous edited volumes and journals, including Science, Journal of Rural Studies, Food Policy, World Development, Agriculture and Human Values, and Sociologia Ruralis.
Contributing authors
