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Agencing an innovative territorial trade scheme between crop and livestock farming: the contributions of the sociology of market agencements to alternative agri-food network analysis

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Abstract

The aim of this article is to show the relevance of the sociology of market agencements (an offshoot of actor–network theory) for studying the creation of alternative agri-food networks. The authors start with their finding that most research into alternative agri-food networks takes a strictly informative, cursory look at the conditions under which these networks are gradually created. They then explain how the sociology of market agencements analyzes the construction of innovative markets and how it can be used in agri-food studies. The relevance of this theoretical frame is shown based on an experiment aimed at creating a local trade scheme between manure from livestock farms and alfalfa grown by grain farmers. By using the concepts of the sociology of market agencements, the authors reveal the operations that are required to create an alternative agri-food network and underscore the difficulties that attend each one of these operations. This enables them to see the phenomena of lock-ins and sociotechnical transition in a new light.

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Abbreviations

ANT:

Actor-Network Theory

FNAB:

Fédération Nationale de l’Agriculture Biologique (French National Federation of Organic Agriculture)

GAB:

Groupement d’Agriculture Biologique (Organic Agriculture Group)

INRA:

Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (French National Institute of Agricultural Research

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Frédéric Goulet, Jérémy Forney and the participants of the New directions in agri-environmental governance workshop in Neuchatel, and the two AHV reviewers for their comments on an earlier version and Gabrielle Leyden for her translation. This research has been funded by the French National Research Agency (Grant ANR-15-CE21-0006’Institutionnalisation des agroécologies’).

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  1. UMR Innovation, Univ. Montpellier, Cirad, INRAE, Montpellier SupAgro, 2 place Viala, 34060, Montpellier, France

    Ronan Le Velly & Marc Moraine

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  1. Ronan Le Velly
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Correspondence to Ronan Le Velly.

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Le Velly, R., Moraine, M. Agencing an innovative territorial trade scheme between crop and livestock farming: the contributions of the sociology of market agencements to alternative agri-food network analysis. Agric Hum Values 37, 999–1012 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-020-10026-8

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