Assembling Rice Production Systems across Burkina Faso and Uruguay
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.
