Confiance et qualité des produits alimentaires : une approche par la sociologie des relations marchandes

Given the current crises, what means do actors implement in order to redefine the conditions for both a social contract and an economic adjustment between the producers and consumers of foodstuffs? These means can be interpreted as ways to cope with the risk of a mismatch between consumer expectations and the quality of produce in the marketplace – as new ways of assembling actors around interests that are not always stable. This quite high degree of indeterminacy, which comes into play throughout the market game, makes it necessary to better understand forms of association among actors and the arrangements that emerge as the market evolves as a function of new forms of adjustment. The actions undertaken by a group of mussel producers in France are reported. Under pressure to standardize produce, they have, nonetheless, imagined solutions for identifying produce and sorts of production so as to force the marketplace to deal with differences in quality. – Special issue on Agriculture and food.