The Cotton Commodity Chain, Women, Work and Agency in India and Japan: The Case for Feminist Agro-Food Systems Research

Abstract

This paper centers gender to advance alternative theoretical explanations in agro-food systems research and develops a methodology, feminist commodity chain research. The theory and methodology are put to work in the historical context of cotton in India and Japan to illuminate similitude and disruption when agrarian economies articulate with the global forces of colonialism. I then present a case study of contemporary south India to argue that a respect for history, differentiating between forms of transgressionary and feminist agency, and listening to women's theories, speak to the current disjuncture by acknowledging “winners,” “losers,” and new possibilities for women and workers.