IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v10y2018i11p4001-d179946.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“When We Stand up, They Have to Negotiate with Us”: Power Relations in and between an Agroindustrial and an Indigenous Food System in Bolivia

Author

Listed:
  • Johanna Jacobi

    (Centre for Development and Environment, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland)

  • Aymara Llanque

    (AGRUCO—Agroecología Universidad Cochabamba, Universidad Mayor de San Simón, Cochabamba 3392, Bolivia)

Abstract

Our global food system is characterized by an increasing concentration and imbalance of power, with trade-offs between hunger, inequality, unsustainable production and consumption, and profit. A systematic analysis of power imbalances in food systems is required if we are to meet the 2030 Agenda vision of promoting sustainable production and consumption patterns and ending hunger and poverty. Such an analysis, with a view to a transformation to more sustainable and just food systems, requires tools to be developed and tested in real-life case studies of food systems. To better understand the structures and mechanisms around power in food systems, this study applies a political ecology lens. We adapted the “power cube” analysis framework that was proposed by the Institute of Development Studies for the analysis of spaces, forms, and levels of power. We apply the analysis of these three dimensions of power to two food systems in the tropical lowlands of Bolivia: one agroindustrial and one indigenous. After identifying food system actors, the food system spaces in which they interact, and what forms of power they use at what levels, we discuss some implications for an emerging scientific culture of power analyses in critical sustainability assessments. Mechanisms of hidden power undermine visible legislative power in both case studies, but in our example of an indigenous food system of the Guaraní people, visible power stays with a local community through their legally recognized and communally owned and governed territory, with important implications for the realization of the right to food.

Suggested Citation

  • Johanna Jacobi & Aymara Llanque, 2018. "“When We Stand up, They Have to Negotiate with Us”: Power Relations in and between an Agroindustrial and an Indigenous Food System in Bolivia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-27, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:11:p:4001-:d:179946
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/11/4001/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/11/4001/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Duckett, Dominic George & McKee, Annie J. & Sutherland, Lee-Ann & Kyle, Carol & Boden, Lisa A. & Auty, Harriet & Bessell, Paul R. & McKendrick, Iain J., 2017. "Scenario planning as communicative action: Lessons from participatory exercises conducted for the Scottish livestock industry," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 138-151.
    2. McKay, Ben M., 2017. "Agrarian Extractivism in Bolivia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 199-211.
    3. Philip McMichael, 2009. "A food regime analysis of the ‘world food crisis’," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 26(4), pages 281-295, December.
    4. Valeria Sodano, 2006. "Power and the Analysis of the Food System," Department of Economics University of Siena 478, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    5. Jacobi, Johanna & Mukhovi, Stellah & Llanque, Aymara & Augstburger, Horacio & Käser, Fabian & Pozo, Claudia & Ngutu Peter, Mariah & Delgado, José Manuel Freddy & Kiteme, Boniface P. & Rist, Stephan & , 2018. "Operationalizing food system resilience: An indicator-based assessment in agroindustrial, smallholder farming, and agroecological contexts in Bolivia and Kenya," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 433-446.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mohammad Mojibul Hoque Mozumder & Aili Pyhälä & Md. Abdul Wahab & Simo Sarkki & Petra Schneider & Mohammad Mahmudul Islam, 2020. "Governance and Power Dynamics in a Small-Scale Hilsa Shad ( Tenualosa ilisha ) Fishery: A Case Study from Bangladesh," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-24, July.
    2. Inga C. Melchior & Jens Newig, 2021. "Governing Transitions towards Sustainable Agriculture—Taking Stock of an Emerging Field of Research," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-27, January.
    3. Carla Inguaggiato & Michele Graziano Ceddia & Maurice Tschopp & Dimitris Christopoulos, 2021. "Collaborative Governance Networks: A Case Study of Argentina’s Forest Law," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-14, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ríos Núnez, Sandra & Benítez Jiménez, Diócles & Soria Re, Sandra, 2015. "Cadenas agroalimentarias territoriales. Tensiones y aprendizajes desde el sector lácteo de la Amazonía ecuatoriana," Revista Lecturas de Economía, Universidad de Antioquia, CIE, issue 84, pages 179-208, November.
    2. Toumbourou, Tessa D. & Dressler, Wolfram H. & Werner, Tim T., 2022. "Plantations enabling mines: Incremental industrial extraction, social differentiation and livelihood change in East Kalimantan, Indonesia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    3. Giger, Markus & Mutea, Emily & Kiteme, Boniface & Eckert, Sandra & Anseeuw, Ward & Zaehringer, Julie G., 2020. "Large agricultural investments in Kenya’s Nanyuki Area: Inventory and analysis of business models," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    4. Laura M. Pereira & Scott Drimie & Kristi Maciejewski & Patrick Bon Tonissen & Reinette (Oonsie) Biggs, 2020. "Food System Transformation: Integrating a Political–Economy and Social–Ecological Approach to Regime Shifts," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(4), pages 1-20, February.
    5. Lecegui, Antonio & Olaizola, Ana María & López-i-Gelats, Feliu & Varela, Elsa, 2022. "Implementing the livelihood resilience framework: An indicator-based model for assessing mountain pastoral farming systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    6. Maria Backhouse & Malte Lühmann & Anne Tittor, 2022. "Global Inequalities in the Bioeconomy: Thinking Continuity and Change in View of the Global Soy Complex," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-15, May.
    7. Ann Hill, 2015. "Moving from “matters of fact” to “matters of concern” in order to grow economic food futures in the Anthropocene," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 32(3), pages 551-563, September.
    8. Vera Belaya & Jon Henrich Hanf, 2016. "The dark and the bright side of power: implications for the management of business-to-business relationships," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-17, December.
    9. Karoliina Rimhanen & Hanna Mäkinen & Miia Kuisma & Helena Kahiluoto, 2023. "What enhances dairy system resilience? Empirical cases in Finland and Russia," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 11(1), pages 1-23, December.
    10. Sarah Hackfort, 2021. "Patterns of Inequalities in Digital Agriculture: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-18, November.
    11. Xhoxhi, Orjon & Imami, Drini & Hanf, Jon & Gjokaj, Ekrem, 2022. "Too much power or no power: when does intermediary's power result into better wine and happier farmers?," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 25(5), December.
    12. André Magnan, 2012. "New avenues of farm corporatization in the prairie grains sector: farm family entrepreneurs and the case of One Earth Farms," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 29(2), pages 161-175, June.
    13. Mark Tilzey, 2019. "Food Democracy as ‘Radical’ Food Sovereignty: Agrarian Democracy and Counter-Hegemonic Resistance to the Neo-Imperial Food Regime," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(4), pages 202-213.
    14. Jane Battersby, 2019. "The Food Desert as a Concept and Policy Tool in African Cities: An Opportunity and a Risk," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-15, January.
    15. Eckart Woertz & Martin Keulertz, 2015. "Food trade relations of the Middle East and North Africa with tropical countries," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 7(6), pages 1101-1111, December.
    16. Hanf, J. & Belaya, V., 2009. "The „Dark“ and the „Bright“ Sides of Power in Supply Chain Networks," Proceedings “Schriften der Gesellschaft für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften des Landbaues e.V.”, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA), vol. 44, March.
    17. Lesli Hoey & Allison Sponseller, 2018. "“It’s hard to be strategic when your hair is on fire”: alternative food movement leaders’ motivation and capacity to act," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 35(3), pages 595-609, September.
    18. Bellemare, Marc F., 2012. "As You Sow, So Shall You Reap: The Welfare Impacts of Contract Farming," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(7), pages 1418-1434.
    19. Ozturk, Ilhan, 2017. "The dynamic relationship between agricultural sustainability and food-energy-water poverty in a panel of selected Sub-Saharan African Countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 289-299.
    20. Otero, Gerardo & Pechlaner, Gabriela & Liberman, Giselle & Gürcan, Efe, 2015. "The neoliberal diet and inequality in the United States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 47-55.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:11:p:4001-:d:179946. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.