Geographies of Commodity Chains (Routledge Studies in Human Geography) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415514037 ISBN 13: 9780415514033

Publisher: Routledge, 2011

Synopsis

Individuals, consumer groups, nation states and supra-national bodies increasingly have interrogated the ethics of particular production and consumption relations such as GM foods. Flowing from and bound up with these political concerns is the growing interest in the mutual dependence of sites of (for example) production, distribution, retailing, design, advertising, marketing and final consumption.

This timely volume draws together contributions concerned with the production, circulation and consumption of commodities. Not only do these case study examples seek to transcend older understandings of production and consumption, but they also explicitly tap into wider public debate about the meanings, origins and biographies of commodities.

Taking a geographical approach to the analysis of links between producers and consumers, the book focuses upon the ways in which these ties increasingly are stretched across spaces and places. Critical engagements with the ways in which these spaces and places affect the economies, cultures and politics of the connections between producers and consumers are skilfully threaded through each section.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Geographies of Commodity Chains is a groundbreaking text that will
introduce students effectively and concisely to a topic gaining great
currency within economic geography.
The text addresses a theme which is central to understandings of
consumption and consumer cultures at the beginning of the new
millennium- the nature of connections between production and consumption.
The text takes a geographical approach to the analysis of links between
producers and consumers, focusing upon the ways in which these ties are
increasingly stretched across spaces and between places.
Geographies of Commodity Chains will become the foundational text for
teaching and research upon the topic.
Main Features
_ contributes explicitly to theories of, and approaches to the commodity
chain
_ connects discussions within geography to current debates in sociology,
cultural studies, marketing, development studies and consumer studies
_ detailed and timely case studies
_ a comprehensive introduction reviews key debates and helps the reader
navigate through the text
Dr Alex Hughes lectures in the School of Geography, Politics and
Sociology at the University of Newcastle.
Dr Suzanne Reimer lectures in the Department of Geography at the
University of Hull.

Geographies of commodity chains, brief TOC-
Introduction- geographies of commodity chains
Part I- Commodity chains, networks and fileres
From farm to supermarket- the trade in fresh horticultural produce from sub-Saharan Africa to the UK
Hazel R Barrett, Angela W Browne and Brian W Ilbery
Are hogs like chickens?- enclosure and mechanization in two ‘white meat’ fileres
Michael J Watts
Spilling the beans on a tough nut- liberalisation and local supply system changes in Ghana's cocoa and shea chains
Niels Fold
Part II- Commodity chains and cultural connections
New geographies of agro-food production- an analysis of UK quality assurance schemes
Carol Morris and Craig Young
Culinary networks and cultural connections- a conventions perspective
Jon Murdoch and Mara Miele
Initiating the commodity chain- South Asian women and fashion in the diaspora
Parvati Raghuram
Part III- Commodities, representations and the politics of the producer-consumer relation
A rose is a rose is a rose- creating product identity in the Ecuadorian flower industry
Justine Coulson
Citrus, apartheid and the struggle to (re)present Outspan oranges
Charles Mather and Petrina Rowcroft
Tropics of consumption- getting with the fetish of ‘exotic’ fruit?
Ian Cook, Philip Crang and Mark Thorpe
Part IV- Ethical commodity chains and the politics of consumption
A thread lost in an endless labyrinth- unravelling fashion's commodity chains
Louise Crewe
Accounting for ethical trade- global commodity networks and the audit economy
Alex Hughes
The ‘organic commodity’ and other anomalies in the politics of consumption
Julie Guthman
Knowledge, ethics and power in the home furnishings commodity chain
Suzanne Reimer and Deborah Leslie

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0415514037
• ISBN 13: 9780415514033
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288
• Editor: Hughes Alex, Reimer Suzanne