Comp. by: LElumalai Stage : Revises1 ChapterID: 9781405132879_4_A Date:31/3/09
Time:21:44:14 Filepath://ppdys1108/BlackwellCup/00_Blackwell/00_3B2/Gregory-
9781405132879/appln/3B2/revises/9781405132879_4_A.3d
consumption. In addition, those state and, in-
creasingly, private bodies that regulate prices,
terms of trade, food quality and environmen-
tal concerns relative to food production play an
integral role in shaping the agro-food system.
Various analytical frameworks have been
employed to specify the ways in which the mul-
tiple practices and institutions that organize the
provision of food are interrelated, and even co-
produced.
Among different conceptualizations of the
agro-food system, one major axis of difference
is whether the key organizing forces of the
food system exist at horizontalscalesor ver-
ticalflows. An example of the first is the
concept offood regime. Borrowing fromregu-
lation theory, Friedman and McMichael
(1989) first employed this concept to denote
the existence of national patterns of food
production and trade that are periodically sta-
bilized by distinct configurations of private,
sub-national, national and supra-national
regulation. An example of the latter is Fine,
Heasman and Wright’s (1996) ‘system of
provision’. In keeping with thecommodity
chainapproach,theytaketheverticaltrajectory
of a givencommodityas the unit of analysis.
In this approach, the agro-food system is best
understoodasacompositeofallcommoditysys-
tems, even though many food stuffs travel
through horizontal organizations and institu-
tions and are eaten as part of a (horizontal) diet.
A second major consideration in these differ-
ing approaches is the extent to which the nat-
ural conditions of production, the organic
properties of food, and/or specific commodity
characteristics are seen to shape the agro-
food system. Goodman, Sorj and Wilkinson
(1987) afford a good deal of explanatory
power to the biological foundations of food
production insofar as they posit thatindus-
trializationtakes place in ways that are dis-
tinct from other key sectors (seeagrarian
question).
A third consideration is the ontological sta-
tus of the food system itself; namely, to what
extent the term reifies a set of relationships
that are then seen to be more determined
and stable than they may be. Drawing on
French convention theory, Allaire and Boyes
(1995) first highlighted the importance of em-
bedded social relations in constructing the
quality of foodcommodities. Recently, agro-
food scholars have borrowed from actor-
network theoryas well, not only to recog-
nize that food provision is more contingent,
variable, fragmented and, hence, vulnerable
to political change than the systemic languageimplies, but also to theorize the significance of
the non-human in non-binary ways. What-
more and Thorne’s (1997) discussion of alter-
native food networks mostly precipitated the
shift from ‘systems’ to ‘networks’ as the dom-
inant analytic in agro-food studies. jguSuggested reading
Fold and Pritchard (2005); Tansey and Worsley
(1995).aid Targeted and typically conditional flows
ofresourcesaimed at alleviating specific so-
cial and economic problems and/or promoting
long-term economicdevelopment. Aid may
take a variety of forms, but the predominant
forms, such asworld bankloans and Official
Development Assistance (ODA) from govern-
ment agencies, are usually designed to encour-
age specific policy choices by recipients and
are conditional upon the recipient importing
specific products or services from firms con-
nected with the donor agency.
Such forms of ‘tied aid’ have a long history,
but have become especially important since
the end of the Second World War. From that
point the World Bank, which was formed
along with the international monetary
fund(imf) in 1945, took on a central role in
providing large-scale international aid for re-
construction and long-term development
(Payer, 1982; Kolko, 1988, pp. 265–77).
While the World Bank was originally focused
upon the reconstruction of advanced indus-
trial economies, it came later to have as one
of its main tasks the provision of aid to devel-
oping countries. Since the 1970s, World Bank
loans have been offered on the condition that a
number of political and economic reforms,
often referred to as ‘structural adjustment’,
are implemented (Mosley, Harrigan and Toye,
1991; see alsoneo-liberalism). This practice
has come under considerable criticism in
recent years, on grounds ranging from distri-
butional and environmental impacts to failure
to involve local communities in development
decisions.
Many forms of ODA have been criticized,
like World Bank projects, for their effects on
local livelihoods and recipient country auton-
omy (Gibson, Andersson, Ostrom and Shiva-
kumar, 2005). For example, tied aid forces
recipient countries to purchase goods and ser-
vices from the donor country, thus subsidizing
donor country exporters and forcing recipients
to purchase goods.
For example, in 1990, only one of the world’s
27 Development Assistance Countries (DAC),Gregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_A Final Proof page 21 31.3.2009 9:44pmAID