World-scale processes and agro-food systems: critique and research needs

Abstract

This article argues that concepts and empirical characterizations of globalization and corporate organization drawn from the international political economy literature must be interrogated critically before being extended to agro-food studies. A brief survey of this literature reveals divergent conceptualizations of globalization and conflicting views of the state. For greater clarity, an ideal-typical taxonomy of world-scale processes and corporate organizational forms is proposed. It is suggested that contemporary global restructuring represents the combined yet uneven interaction of concurrent world-scale processes. This framework is used to discuss the limitations of some recent analyses of the globalization of agro-food systems and offer suggestions for future research.