Family farming and the emergence of an alternative sociotechnical imaginary in Argentina

In this article, we analyse the mechanisms by which family farming established itself in Argentina over the 2004–2016 period as a legitimate solution to the food security challenge. We show that this process has played a role in the emergence of an alternative sociotechnical imaginary built as a counter-model to the one associated with industrial agriculture. We highlight the importance of the processes of demarcation and detachment at the heart of this shift, in the political, techno-scientific and agricultural spheres. The actors involved in the promotion of family farming associate this alternative approach to the development of the agricultural sector with the implementation of an alternative practice and organisation of science and technology. These shifts correspond to a narrative and mode of political action that put the emphasis on the production of a national future liberated from the mistakes and injustices of the past, in which science and technology play a central role. By highlighting the tensions at the heart of this dynamic, between the establishment of new boundaries and the challenging of existing ones, the article contributes to the analysis of the formation of alternative sociotechnical imaginaries, and in particular the underlying mechanisms of co-production between science and politics.