Assembling Rice Production Systems across Burkina Faso and Uruguay

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce the rice production systems in Burkina Faso and Uruguay and analyze them as two divergent instantiations of global-local entanglements. We trace how global-local entanglements come into being and how seemingly similar practices of entangling result in contrasting configurations. Our empirical material shows how local understandings and concerns, as well as practices of enacting them, are constantly ordered to produce a fit between globalized and situated relations. In the case of the Uruguayan rice sector, these efforts constitute a harmonized, depoliticized web of relations, which prompt for particular kinds of doings and reflections to become unquestioned and preclude others. In Burkina Faso, in turn, comparable efforts and tools do not result in a hegemonic frame of reference but rather amplify divergences and contradictions between different understandings and activities revolving around rice production. Studying these two different orderings of fits between global forms and situated relations sheds light on de-/stabilizations of food systems and the ongoing work they require. Such a processual and comparative perspective allows for a multiplication of stories on global-local entangling. Thus, it goes beyond reproducing clear-cut categorizations and escapes dichotomies, such as the one of market integration and market failure.