Commodification of Global Agrifood Systems and Agro-Ecology Convergence, Divergence and Beyond in Turkey Routledge Studies in Governance and Change in the Global Era Series

This book explores the shifting relations of food provisioning in Turkey from a comparative global political economy perspective. It offers in-depth ethnographic analysis, interviews and historical insights into the ambiguities and diversities that simultaneously affect the changing conditions of food and agriculture in Turkey. Specific issues examined include the commodification of land, food and labour; the expansion and deepening of industrial standardization; the expansion of a supermarket model; and concomitant changes in, as well as the simultaneous co-existence of, traditional methods of production and marketing. Contrasting observations are drawn from diverse locales to provide examples of convergence, divergence and cohabitation in relation to transnationally advocated industrial models.

Commodification of Global Agrifood Systems and Agro-Ecology employs a form of comparative perspective that allows the particular processes of restructuring of agrifood relations in Turkey to be simultaneously distinguished from, yet related to, changes taking place in global power dynamics. Y?ld?z Atasoy explores agrifood transformation in Turkey with a unique approach that considers a plurality of intertwined normative influences, ontological beliefs, cultural?religious narratives, political struggles and critical?interpretive positions. Based on original research, the book treats changes in food provisioning as an analytical thread capable of uncovering how the normative acceptability of capitalized agriculture and techno-scientific innovation is entangled with processes of class formation, growing inter-capitalist competition and Islamic politics. Such processes, in turn, frame income/wealth generation, landscape management, agro-ecological dynamics and labour practices, as well as the taste and smell of place.

1 Agrifood Systems and Supermarketization

2 Breaking from the Past: Changes in Agricultural Land Use

3 GlobalGAP and Agro-Biotechnology: Syngenta and Rijk Zwaan in Turkish Villages

4 Farming Imaginaries: Convergence, Divergence and Beyond

5 The Taste and Smell of Place

6 Trust and Trustworthiness: Paternalist Labour Relations in Agriculture

7 Supermarkets and Pazars: Divergent Paths

8 A Discussion on Diversity

Yıldız Atasoy is professor of Sociology, Associate Member of the School for International Studies and Associate Member of the Department of Geography, Simon Fraser University, Canada. Her books include: Global Economic Crisisand the Politics of Diversity (edited); Islam’s Marriage with Neoliberalism: StateTransformation in Turkey; Hegemonic Transitions, the State and Crisis in NeoliberalCapitalism (edited); Turkey, Islamists and Democracy: Transition and Globalization ina Muslim State; and Global Shaping and Its Alternatives (edited).