The Creation of Standardization in Organic Rice Farming
Keywords:
Organic agriculture, Organic based-standards, Standardization, Governmentality, Isan farmersAbstract
This paper examines the standardization in organic agriculture by looking at the export-oriented organic rice farming in Northeastern Thailand. The standardization in the export-oriented organic rice farming is made possible through the discursive practices of international organic-based standards on the local farmers. The imposition of international organic standards on the local farmers aims to transform conventional rice farming to organic rice farming and to get farmers certified as organic producers in order to be able to export organic rice to niche markets overseas. Through Foucault’s concept of “governmentality” this article examines standardization in organic rice farming in the form of control over the farmers. The control over farmers is operated by the use of disciplinary power and the manufacturing consent among the farmers themselves. The production of consent among farmers is created through the process of self-regulating farmers whereby farmers conform with the regulations by following the procedure conducted by the others. The farmers agreed with the measure of standardization because they were informed that disciplinary and self-regulation would help them to get higher productivity and to improve their competitiveness in global markets.
References
เนตรดาว เถาถวิล. 2554. “เฮ็ดอยู่แต่บ่พอกิน คำถามว่าด้วยการพึ่งตนเองของชาวนาเกษตรอินทรีย์ในยุคโลกาภิวัตน์และการพัฒนา” วารสารสังคมวิทยาและมานุษยวิทยา มหาวิทยาลัยธรรมศาสตร์ 10 (2) : 81-109.
ภาษาอังกฤษ
Agrawal, Arun. 2005. Environmentality : Technologies of Government and
the Making of Subjects. Durham and London : Duke University Press.
Bacon, Christopher, Mendez, Ernesto and Fox, Jonathan A. 2008. Cultivating
Sustainable Coffee : Persistent Paradoxes. In Christopher M. Bacon, Ernesto V. Mendez, Stepen R. Gliessman, David Goodman and Jonathan A. Fox (eds.), Confronting the Coffee Crisis : Fair Trade, Sustainable Livelihoods and Ecosystems in Mexico and Central America, pp. 155-178. London : The MIT Press.
Burawoy, Michael. 1979. Manufacturing Consent : Changes in the Labor Process
under Monopoly Capitalism. London : The University of Chicago Press.
Foucault, Michel. 1991. Governmentality. In Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon and Peter Miller (eds.), The Foucault Effect. Studies in Governmentality with Two Lectures by and an Interview with Michel Foucault, pp. 87-104. Chicago : The University of Chicago Press.
Goodman, Michael K. 2004b. “Reading Fair Trade : Political Ecological Imaginary
and the Moral Economy of Fair Trade Foods”, Political Geography, 23 : 891-915.
Guthman, Julie. 2008. “Neoliberalism and the Making of Food Politics in California”,
Geoforum, 39 : 1171-1183.
Higgins, Vaughan. 2005a. Governing Agriculture through the Managerial Capabilities
of Farmers : The Role of Calculation. In Vaughan Higgins and Geoffrey Lawrence (eds.), Agricultural Governance : Globalization and the New Politics of Regulation, pp. 118-130. London : Routledge.
Higgins, Vaughan and Lawrence, Geoffrey. 2005b. Introduction : Globalization
and Agricultural Governance. In Higgins Vaughan and Geoffrey Lawrence (eds.), Agricultural Governance. Globalization and the New Politics of Regulation, pp. 1-15. London and New York : Routledge.
Li, Tania Murray. 2007a. “Practices of Assemblage and Community Forest
Management”, Economy and Society 36(2) : 263-293.
__________. 2007b. The Will to Improve : Governmentality, Development and
the Practices of Politics. London : Duke University Press.
Murdoch, Jonathan and Ward, Neil. 1997. “Governmentality and Territoriality.
The Statistical Manufacture of Britain’s National Farm,” Political Geography
16(4) : 307-324.
Mutersbaugh, Tad. 2004. “Serve and Certify : Paradoxes of Service Work in
Organic-Coffee Certification”, Environment and Planning D22 : 533-552.
Rosset, Peter and Altieri, Miguel A. 1997. “Agro-ecology Versus Input Substitution :
A Fundamental Contradiction of Sustainable Agriculture”, Society
and Natural Resource 10(3) : 283-295.
Rose, Nicholas and Miller, Peter. 1992. “Political Power Beyond the State”,
The British Journal of Sociology 43(2) : 173-205.
Scott, James C. 1998. Seeing Like a State : How Certain Schemes to Improve
the Human Condition Have Failed. London : Yale University Press.
Skarstad, Guro Adnegard, Terragni, Laura and Jorjusen, Hanne. 2007. “Animal
Welfare According to Norwegian Consumers and Producers : Definitions
and Implications”, International Journal of Sociological Food and Agriculture
15(3) : 74-90.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
All written articles published on Journal of Social Sciences is its author’s opinion which is not belonged to Social Sciences Faculty, Chiang Mai University or is not in a responsibility of the journal’s editorial committee’s members.
