Presentation of Matthieu Brun in the framework of the International symposium AGRIFIRME Research project.
"The “AGRIFIRM” project aims to identify and characterize what is commonly referred to as “firm agricultures” and, in particular, the associated practice, forms of organization and types of management of the agricultural trade. Our objective is to account for the emergence of a new type of agriculture hitherto neglected by “rural studies”.
The development of a highly capitalist type of agriculture fully integrated into the commodity markets, of new forms of ownership of agricultural capital, and the arrival of new agents, testify to the emergence of social and economic organizations of agriculture at odds with the family-based forms recognised and supported by policy-makers in the second half of the twentieth-century.
At the global level, firm agricultures have now emerged beside “family agricultures”. The former are now supported by new investors (food industry, private funds, States) that wish to secure their supply of agricultural commodities and/or new investment opportunities. This international seminar will enable participants to share hypothesis and research findings. Its first objective will be to further our understanding of the changing contours and forms of labour organization.
Distinct from the familial model, such forms testify to the process of abstraction and financierization that characterize contemporary agricultural worlds. They contribute to defining firm agriculture. The questions elaborated during this seminar will be confronted to new analytical models developed in Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, the USA, and in Europe. Three workshops, supported by a transversal comparative approach, will allow participants to share their respective points of view and to elaborate new research perspectives."
