Allison Loconto

French National Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE) | INRAE · Social Science, Agriculture and Food, Rural Development and Environment

Markets for agroecological food and inputs are actively shaping ecological forms of agriculture. The processes that set up these two sets of markets, both upstream and downstream of farms, have an impact on agricultural systems and practices. To defend this thesis, we introduce results from ongoing studies over the past fifteen years of different...

While organic agriculture has created a set of institutions that allow producers to know which practices provide “organic” quality and allow consumers to recognize it via an on-package label, the landscape of agroecological products is quite fluid and diverse. Often, products are traded directly between producers and consumers and quality is convey...

L’intermédiation des connaissances est introduite dans cet article afin de contribuer aux débats sur les types de connaissances nécessaires aux transitions sociotechniques. Entre 2013 et 2021 une recherche participative a été menée avec 25 initiatives qui ont su rendre leurs systèmes agroalimentaires plus durables. En mobilisant deux cas empiriques...

Standards are strongly intertwined with values in economic contexts, which goes far beyond economic value. Standards’ diversity is expressed in local spaces where standards are made, put into action, circulate and commensurate. In these mutually linked and globally distributed spaces, we can analyze the ways in which standards and value(s) encounte...

Fairtrade International (FTI) sets forth in its theory of change a food future that consists of fair trade, small farmer and farm worker empowerment and sustainable livelihoods for producers in the Global South. The enactment of this socio-technical imaginary, what we call the Fairtrade imaginary, relies upon a suite of voluntary standards as the m...

L'agroécologie fait l’objet d’un intérêt grandissant comme moyen de progresser vers une agriculture et des systèmes alimentaires plus durables. Cependant, les preuves de la contribution de l'agroécologie à la durabilité restent fragmentées en raison de méthodes et de données hétérogènes, d'échelles différentes et de lacunes dans la recherche. Pour...

The aim of this special issue is to explore emergent phenomena in the agri-food sector through the lens of prosumption, in order to highlight its heuristic value in identifying new and emerging trends in the field, especially focusing on the interplay between social and economic relations. This introduction explores the theoretical foundations of t...

There is increasing interest in agroecology as a way to move toward more sustainable agriculture and food systems. However, the evidence of agroecology's contribution to sustainability remains fragmented because of heterogeneous methods and data, differing scales and timeframes, and knowledge gaps. Facing these challenges, 70 representatives of ag...

Sustainable food systems are fundamental to ensuring that future generations are food secure and eat healthy diets. To transition towards sustainability, many food system activities must be reconstructed, and myriad actors around the world are starting to act locally. While some changes are easier than others, knowing how to navigate through them t...

Les systèmes alimentaires durables sont essentiels pour assurer la sécurité alimentaire et une alimentation saine pour les générations futures. Pour faire la transition vers la durabilité, de nombreuses activités du système alimentaire doivent se transformer, et une myriade d’acteurs à travers le monde doivent agir localement. Certains changements...

https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/12137-Deforestation-and-forest-degradation-reducing-the-impact-of-products-placed-on-the-EU-market/feedback?p_id=6348580

Institutional change and diversity have been two major topics of debate in contemporary social sciences. At the core of this debate are actors’ skills to manage the institutional frame that defines limits and possibilities for their strategies. This article analyses how social movements produce institutional change and diversity in the organic food...

Globally, standards govern and organize the production and exchange of food. This article uses insights from science and technology studies (STS), to study the translation of multiple standards in the Ghanaian pineapple industry. The data demonstrate a translation process that is best described as nesting. Nesting is the process through which produ...

Globally, standards govern and organise the production and exchange of food. This article uses insights from science and technology studies to study the translation of multiple standards in the Ghanaian pineapple industry. The data demonstrate a translation process that is best described as nesting. Nesting is the process through which producers tr...

Standardization as spaces of diversity was introduced by Loconto and Demortain (2017) to advance the sociology of standards. Their analytical framework for studying standardization processes in interactive spaces is mobilized and expanded upon in this article in order to address the problematic relationship between standards and diversity. Studying...

What is an agroecological product and how is it valued in markets? While labels have often been used as a way to resolve the uncertainty around the quality and origin of products, this paper recognizes that labels are but one component of a broader system of governance by standards whereby the creation, control and circulation of standards create a...

The unintended consequences of standards and certification schemes, particularly their challenges for alternative agri‐food networks, is a core concern of rural sociology. The conventionalisation of organic agriculture is a prime example. In this article, we contribute to this debate by studying standards that organic farmers developed for themselv...

Achieving food security at a global scale while protecting the environment, as envisioned in the Sustainable Development Goals, will require a complex process of collaboration and the integration of analyses at multiple scales. Agricultural and land use models are increasingly being used to bridge the global/local divide, particularly as a means to...

Feeding 9 billion people by 2050 on one hand, and preserving biodiversity on the other hand, are two shared policy goals at the global level. Yet while these goals are clear, they are to some extent in conflict, because agriculture is a major cause of biodiversity loss, and the path to achieve both of them is at the heart of a public controversy ar...

This book takes a transdisciplinary approach and considers multisectoral actions, integrating health, agriculture, environment, economy, and socio-cultural issues, to comprehensively explore the topic of sustainable diets. Consideration is given to the multi-dimensional nature of diets and food systems, and the book explores the challenging issues...

This article traces how 'agroecology' is co-produced as a global socio-technical object. The site of co-production, the Global Dialogue on Agroecology, was convened by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in different cities around the world between 2014 and 2018 (Rome 2014; Brasilia, Dakar, Bangkok 2015; La Paz, Kunmin...

In Europe, agroecology has become the center of many debates that animate political and professional arenas, particularly regarding the definition and scope of the concept itself. This paper attempts to understand the ways that the term agroecology is conceptualized by different participantsparticipants and how these concepts circulate so as to exp...

The role of consumers in the division of labour is rarely acknowledged in theories of work/production, despite the fact that the work of consumers is highly relevant and can take various forms (paid/unpaid; formal/informal; autonomous/dependent). Fuchs (1968) showed that the consumer could be treated as a factor of production similar to waged labou...

By engaging the frameworks of boundary organizations and social worlds, this article examines the emergence of non-certified organic agri-food in China by studying its pioneer organization–the Beijing Farmers’ Market (BFM). Based on tri-angulated analysis of texts, semi-structured interviews and on-site observations, we show that BFM allows diverse...

In Europe, agroecology has become the center of many debates that animate political and professional arenas, particularly regarding the definition and scope of the concept itself. This paper attempts to understand the ways that the term agroecology is conceptualized by different actors and how these concepts circulate so to explore the interests at...

Historically, agroecology was constructed in specific locales through the articulation of professional, political and intellectual spaces: the ‘agricultural professionals’ space, spaces of scientific research (agronomy, biology, ecology, entomology, social sciences) and social movement spaces that are critical (to varying degrees) of the industrial...

Sustainability standards are increasingly being used to encourage, measure and prove the adoption of sustainable practices. Yet it is unclear what measures have been developed to ‘prove’ the ‘responsibility’ of standards development organizations in ‘impacting’ sustainable practices. By drawing upon the French school of pragmatic sociology, I argue...

In the literature and in current public discourse, innovation is usually taken to mean technological innovation, which is carried out through the figure of the entrepreneur. This editorial introduction first goes back to the emergence of the notion of social innovation, dedicated to including other processes, actors and purposes. It reminds us that...

We examine the emerging phenomenon of markets for ‘agro-ecological’ products and ask two fundamental questions: 1) Do they exist?; and 2) What forms do they take? Based on qualitative analysis of 12 case studies from different initiatives in developing countries, we focus on how different types of actors (producers, consumers and intermediaries) cr...

This chapter analyses the debates and tensions that characterise the field of organic agriculture. 1 These tensions concern the principles, but perhaps more often, the practices and systems put in place to implement organic agriculture, which can lead to an important gap between the discourse and the facts about organic food. We analyse the specifi...

Behind the Scenes of the Quality Labels: Tripartite Regulation and Nested Markets From the Europeanization to the Globalization of Organic Agriculture This paper focuses on the actual conditions of government by tripartite standardization. This form of regulation combining voluntary standards, certification and accreditation is increasingly used in...

Standards have become an important object of investigation in social science and STS scholars have called for a more systematic program of research to study standards or standardization (Busch 2011; Timmermans and Epstein 2010). In this considering concepts paper, we engage with their program for a sociology of standards and propose a new way to th...

Over the past twenty years, standards and certification have become the leading governance mechanism for determining what sustainability entails, how to measure it, and how to assess it. This system of sustainability standards has generally relied upon the third-party certification (TPC) model to ensure that producers are complying with standards....

Social and environmental standards-development organizations (SDOs) have been collaborating together to construct “meta-standards.” These exercises in standards-setting are part of a longer term process of transitioning innovative approaches to sustainable agriculture from diverse niches such as organic, fair trade, and environmental conservation i...

Assembling Export Markets: The Making and Unmaking of Global Food Connections in West Africa by Stefan Ouma Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2015. Pp. 264. £55 (hbk). - Volume 55 Issue 2 - Allison Loconto

This article analyzes the institutionalization of the global organic agriculture field and sheds new light on the conventionalization debate. The institutions that shape the field form a tripartite standards regime of governance (TSR) that links standard-setting, certification, and accreditation activities, in a layering of markets for services tha...

Assurance—an intermediary’s guarantee of compliance with regulatory standards—is critical for legitimate governance within the sustainability field. This legitimacy classically depends on the degrees of separation that are needed between the RIT roles to create trust in regulators and enforce the compliance of targets. Following the emergence of th...

This chapter investigates how sustainable practices interact and co-evolve with sustainable marketinginitiatives. The research is based on an international survey of fifteen case studies of institutionalinnovations in linking sustainable agricultural practices with markets. We explore how farmers andorganisations are moving toward more sustainable...

The foundation of recent science, technology and innovation (STI) policy in Tanzania lay in providing the ‘proper’ conditions for encouraging investment in agriculture. The authors argue that imagining activities in tea research as ‘tinkering’ helps to explain the learning processes and gaps in STI policy. Detailing how the tea industry tinkers wit...

Enabling consumers to identify products as being produced sustainably is fundamentalto incentivising farmers to market their products in this way. In this short article, wereflect upon what we know about efforts to link sustainable production with responsibleconsumption both within global value chains and within domestic markets in developingcountr...

Oportunidades y Desafíos de los Sistemas Agroalimentarios Sostenibles en América Latina y el Caribe. Oportunidades y Desafíos de los Sistemas Agroalimentarios Sostenibles en América Latina y el Caribe.

Le but de ce chapitre est d’analyser la trajectoire d’évolution qu’a connue l’agriculture biologique, entre posture critique et politique et constitution d’un segment de marché autour d’un label officiel, et les tensions que ces dynamiques ont suscité parmi les acteurs du champ de l’agriculture biologique. Il se base sur trois travaux portant sur l...

Who is responsible for sustainable agri-food systems? In global discourse, the need to feed a growing population in a world of diminishing resources, is quickly becoming consolidated as a core societal challenge (Conway, 2012; FAO, 2012). But who is responsible for achieving this? Is this the mandate of producers, who are tilling the earth with mac...

The purpose of this study is to explore whether and how products from agroecological production systems are being valued in markets. The study is based on a meta-analysis of 12 case studies (Benin, the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Kazakhstan, Mozambique, Namibia, Uganda), mainly from developing an...

Social and environmental standards-development organizations (SDOs) have been collaborating together to construct “meta-standards.” These exercises in standards-setting are part of a longer term process of transitioning innovative approaches to sustainable agriculture from diverse niches such as organic, fair trade, and environmental conservation i...

In this brief, FAO presents lessons learned from experiences in 15 developing countries where developments in markets have enabled farmers to transition to sustainable practices. The brief provides recommendations on how innovative systems such as revising the rules of the market and expanding access to markets are also powerful market incentives n...

From 2013 to 2014, the FAO and the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique(INRA) undertook a survey of innovative approaches that enable markets to act asincentives for the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices. Through a competitiveselection process, 15 cases from around the world provide insights into how small-scaleinitiatives tha...

Res-AGorA was a three-year, EU FP7 project (2013-2016) which has co-constructed a good-practice framework, the “Responsibility Navigator”, with practitioners and strategic decision makers. This framework facilitates reflective processes involving multiple stakeholders and policy-makers with the generic aim of making European research and innovation...

Knowledge is fundamental to our ability to change practices from unsustainable to sustainable ones (Grin, Rotmans and Schot, 2010). However, sustainability has often been described as a “wicked problem”, where the knowledge needed to make this transition is often inconclusive and contested (Batie, 2008; Levin et al., 2012; Peters and Pierre, 2014)....

The Res-AGorA projectRes-AGorA was a three-year, EU FP7 project (2013–2016) which has co-constructed a good-practice framework, the “Responsibility Navigator”, with practitioners and strategic decision makers. This framework facilitates reflective processes involving multiple stakeholders and policy-makers with the generic aim of making European re...

In this chapter, I focus on how MNCs are justifying the responsibility of their vision and technologies for the sustainability of agri-food systems. I pay close attention to how responsibility is distributed between actors in the institutional arrangements and which instruments are used to govern the responsibility of actors. This case is of intere...

Entre 2013 y 2015 la FAO y el INRA llevaron a cabo una encuesta de 15 enfoques innovadores que permiten a los mercados de proveeder incentivos en la transición hacia una agricultura sostenible en los países en via de desarrollo. Los resultados son: innovaciones (i) del sistema que permiten nuevas normas para la comercialización y aseguran las cuali...

2011 was a pivotal year. It was the year when the originators of the first formal normative frameworks of Responsible (Research) and Innovation (RRI), lost contact with their own history. Our paper aims to recover this history. It does so in two ways. First it develops the concept of de-facto responsible research and innovation, referring to the on...

In this paper, we analyze intermediary work in the context of sustainability transitions in relation to what we call the “environmental paradox”. While sustainability transitions are strongly related to political or social expectations in terms of management performance and measurable results and effects, environmental problems have some generic ch...

The study presented in this chapter focused on these institutional and market intermediaries and illustrated how markets work to create incentives for the adoption of sustainable practices (Loconto et al., 2016). This chapter presents a summary of the core results of this study, with a specific focus on the six African experiences included in the s...

Through its international and regional symposia, FAO has recognized the important roleof agroecological production systems in the development of sustainable food systems.However, there is little understanding of how agroecologically produced crops becomemarketable products that are recognized by consumers for their agroecological qualities. In2015,...

This chapter introduces an innovation within the agriculture sector in Benin: the Songhai Centre’s integrated production model. The centre focuses on an integrated production system, but its innovation is in creating a solid network of regional hubs that excel in sustainable production and have established local markets for sustainably produced goo...

This edited volume has gathered together a collection of selected case studies fromaround the world, documented by the innovators themselves. The preceding chaptersdetail how each case has innovated within its organizational and institutional environmentsto create markets for its sustainable products. All the case studies in this volumeare consider...

When shopping for 'sustainable' products for their national habit of tea and biscuits, consumers in the UK can choose from a range of differently certified items and brands. This choice already illustrates a separation between conventional products and ‘sustainable’ products, which can be claimed to be a political action by the consumers. However,...

A popular approach over the past twenty years has been to rely upon voluntary standards as a means to make claims, measure, and judge whether a number of social-equity concerns exist in private-sector practices. But can voluntary standards deliver gender equity? This contribution responds to this question by exploring how standards and gendered div...

A variety of sustainability standards have emerged from social movements that stake claims on different niches in the market for sustainable food and agriculture products. We argue that we are beginning to see a transition towards a regime of 'certified sustainability'. This regime is characterized by the use of standards to govern agri-food system...

Standards that codify sustainability, such as Ethical Trade, Fairtrade, Organic and Rainforest Alliance, have become a common means for value chain actors in the Global North to make statements about the values of their products and the practices of producers in the Global South. This case study of Tanzanian tea value chains takes a closer look at...

Over the past twenty years, sustainability standards have been used in agri-food systems as a way to link sustainably produced products with consumers who are looking for these types of products. This system of certification has generally relied upon the third-party certification (TPC) model as a way to ensure that producers are complying with stan...

In this paper, we analyze intermediary work in the context of sustainability transitions in relation to what we call the “environmental paradox”. While sustainability transitions are strongly related to political or social expectations in terms of management performance and measurable results and effects, environmental problems have some generic ch...

The study found that the empirical evidence is limited to the analysis of mainly three standards: GlobalGAP, fair trade and organic. Moreover, most studies focus on two commodities: coffee and horticulture products. While there is a decent range of geographic cover, the majority of studies focus on a handful of countries: Mexico, Kenya, Peru, Costa...

When shopping for ‘sustainable’ products for their national habit of tea and biscuits, consumers in the United Kingdom (UK) can choose from a range of differently certified items and brands. This choice illustrates a conceptual and material separation between ‘conventional’ products and ‘sustainable’ products and has been qualified as a political c...

A variety of sustainability standards have emerged from social movements that stake claims on different niches in the market for sustainable food and agriculture products. We argue that we are beginning to see a transition towards a regime of ‘certified sustainability’. This regime is characterized by the use of standards to govern agri-food system...

Scholars describe the proliferation of sustainability standards by multi-stakeholder initiatives as part of an organizational field for sustainability. The aim of this article is to gain a better understanding of the institutionalization process of this global organizational field by focusing on the case of the ISEAL Alliance (the global associatio...

We plan to present the results of a literature review of the impact of voluntary standards on smallholders’ ability to participate in markets ,conducted by FAO in 2012. The study found that the empirical evidence is limited to the analysis of mainly three standards: GlobalGAP, fair trade and organic. Moreover, most studies focus on two commodities:...

In light of the rise of the (semi-)private regulation of markets through standards systems, this article explores the underlying processes by which private governance is developed through two case studies of fair trade. We illustrate how there are competing logics playing out in different parts of the movement with regards to how the core values th...

We problematize this notion of a theoretical failure by exploring the case of the Tea Research Institute of Tanzania (TRIT). TRIT is a national agricultural research institute for the tea sector, and like other similar institutes, has a hybrid governance model that relies upon public and private funding. Our data collection follows a participatory...