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McLaren Alexander Vasudevan Assembling Export Markets The Making and Unmaking of Global Food Connections in West Africa Stefan Ouma This edition first published 2015 © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd Registered Office John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK Editorial Offices 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148‐5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services, and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com/wiley‐blackwell. The right of Stefan Ouma to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. 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Cover image: Front cover image © Stefan Ouma Set in 9.5/11.5pt Plantin by SPi Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India 1 2015 Contents Series Editors’ Preface viii Preface ix Technical Remarks xi List of Figures xii List of Tables xiii Abbreviations xiv 1 Introduction: Struggling with “World Market Integration” 1 Rethinking Global Connections 6 Grounding Commodity Chains: Geographies of Marketization 9 Matters of Concern 14 The Practical Means of Marketization 15 Marketization as Proliferation 16 Of Frontier Regions and Borderlands 16 How This Book Unfolds 17 2 Querying Marketization 21 Studying Markets as Practical Accomplishments 23 Markets as Sociotechnical Agencements 25 “Problems” of Market‐Making 29 Exchanging Goods the “Right” Way 31 Qualified Objectifications 32 Detachment/Calculation 35 Singularizations 36 Knowing and Doing Markets 37 From Market Knowledge to Knowing Markets 38 Power in/through Markets 39 Formatting Market Encounters 42 The Order(ing) of Markets 44 Conclusion 49 vi contents 3 Remaking “the Economy”: Taking Ghanaian Horticulture to Global Markets 53 Models of Organizing “the Economy”: From Macro to Micro 56 A Tale of Two Frontiers 59 Markets for Development: Organic Mangoes in Northern Ghana 60 Fresh from Farm: JIT Pineapple Markets 66 Sites of Attention 71 Conclusion 74 4 Critical Ethnographies of Marketization 77 Researching Markets in the Making 79 Outside/Inside “the Market” 81 “Reconstructing” Market Practices 85 Technicalities? 86 Knowledge Production: Heuristics and Limitations 88 After “the Field”: Veni, Vidi, Vici? 90 Conclusion 92 5 The Birth of Global Agrifood Market Connections 94 Nothing Was Packaged for (High‐value) Export 97 Market Enrollment, Not Integration 98 The Messy Economics of Outgrowing 107 Market‐making as Boundary Work 108 Outflanking Nature? 113 The Terms of “World Market” Enrollment 115 Good(s) Connect(ions) 119 Having the “Right” Product 121 Performing the Audit Economy 122 Relational Properties of Competition 123 Ongoing Struggles for Retail Worth 124 The Orderings of JIT 125 Conclusion 126 6 Enacting Global Connections: The Making of World Market Agencies 131 Qualculating the Mango Tree 133 Indeterminate Framings of Worth 133 Struggling for the Agricola Oeconomicus 137 Responsibilizing/Autonomizing Farmers 140 Standardizing Market STAs 141 Standards and the Stubborn Social 147 Value/Power 149 Conclusion 151 7 Markets, Materiality, and (Anti‐)Political Encounters 153 The Hidden Conditions of Global Markets 155 Powerful Valorimeters 157 Pricing, Returns, and Visible hands 159 contents vii Power Relations as Relations of Accounting 162 Accounting: Frontstage 165 Accounting: Backstage 166 Conclusion 171 8 Market Crises: When Things Fall Apart, or Won’t Come Together 174 A Model in Crisis 177 MD2 Takes Over the Market, or How Goods Become Delegitimated 178 Trading Down in Times of Crisis 183 Currency and Capital Volatilities 183 When the Supply Base Disenrolls … 184 Reassembling the Market Social? 187 Recalcitrant “Nature” and the Crisis of the Developmental Market 189 (Mis‐)calculating “Nature” and other Surprises: Mango Trees as Precarious Commodities 191 Crisis Accounts 193 Regrouping 196 The Corporate Calculus of the Crisis 197 Fixing Yields: Contested Pathways of Qualification 198 Conclusion 201 9 Conclusion 205 Beyond Inclusion 209 “Market Modernity,” Alternatives, Critique 212 Beyond Agrifood: Profanizing Marketization 213 References 215 Index 232 Series Editors’ Preface The RGS‐IBG Book Series only publishes work of the highest international standing. Its emphasis is on distinctive new developments in human and physical geography, although it is also open to contributions from cognate disciplines whose interests overlap with those of geographers. The Series places strong emphasis on theoretically‐ informed and empirically‐strong texts. Reflecting the vibrant and diverse theoretical and empirical agendas that characterize the contemporary discipline, contributions are expected to inform, challenge and stimulate the reader. Overall, the RGS‐IBG Book Series seeks to promote scholarly publications that leave an intellectual mark and change the way readers think about particular issues, methods or theories. For details on how to submit a proposal please visit: www.rgsbookseries.com Neil Coe National University of Singapore Tim Allott University of Manchester, UK RGS‐IBG Book Series Editors