Small-scale fisheries and agricultural trade networks are socially embedded: emerging hypotheses about responses to environmental changes

• The prevalence of diverse and embedded social- and trade relationships connecting producers to consumers has been widely recognized across fisheries and agricultural small-scale food systems (SSFS). How this embeddedness influences the ability of smallholders to deal with environmental change is still largely unknown. This is particularly troublesome in the context of global change which is threatening the production and livelihoods of millions of smallholders around the world. In this study, we characterize SSFSs trade networks concerning their social embeddedness across different contexts and then explore how SSFSs’ actors at different scales could respond to environmental changes. We apply a comparative research design based on four different case studies of small-scale fisheries and agriculture in Mexico and South Africa. Building from embeddedness theory, we find key similarities in the level of social embeddedness of trade relationships across cases. For example, stable socially impregnated trade prevails, including horizontal relationships amongst actors connected to smallholders, as opposed to solely spot market-based relationships connecting producers with consumers through vertical relationships. Still, there are differences across cases, such as the higher formalization of business relationships in the agriculture cases and the influence of institutional and country-specific factors on the trade structures. In responding to environmental change, actors mostly respond based on their existing trade relationships, although these relationships are also subject to change. These findings allowed us to propose four hypotheses outlining how social embeddedness in trade networks plays a role in responding to environmental changes and, in particular, how socially embedded trade relationships can be both beneficial and burdensome.

Ämnesord

LANTBRUKSVETENSKAPER  -- Lantbruksvetenskap, skogsbruk och fiske (hsv//swe)

AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES  -- Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Earth and Related Environmental Sciences (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap -- Miljövetenskap (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Earth and Related Environmental Sciences -- Environmental Sciences (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi -- Sociologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology -- Sociology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Agriculture; embeddedness; fisheries; food; networks; resilience

vetenskap om hållbar utveckling

Sustainability Science

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

ovr (ämneskategori)