Giraudo, Maria E. (2017) Uneven development and the governance of agricultural commodity booms : the case of soybean in South America. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

Issues related to food security have long been closely tied to the dynamics of the global political economy. The latest price peak experienced in the commodities market (2007-2008) greatly affected agricultural commodities, creating significant imbalances in production and consumption. This research develops an interdisciplinary approach that links together issues of natural resource governance, development, and transformations in the global political economy to explore the ways in which countries of South America govern commodity booms. In other words, this thesis examines how these global dynamics affect the ways in which food-producing states manage the wealth produced during commodity booms and how this is wealth is subsequently distributed among different sectors of society.

In South America, the recent commodity boom has led to an expansion of primary production oriented towards export markets, creating imbalances in their domestic productive structures. This thesis focuses on the production and trade of soybean in three countries of the Southern Cone: Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. Following the boom, soybean production has come to dominate the agricultural sectors and overall exports of these countries, with some authors going as far as to dub this rapidly expanding industry the ‘Soybean Republic’. This research engages with cutting edge debates in International Political Economy, with a conceptual focus that draws from human geography and brings in space as both contingent and constituted by the changing productive and trade dynamics. By looking at the development of fixed infrastructure and dynamics of capital mobility, this research explores the patterns of uneven development that emerge from the expansion of the soybean complex, as well as the capacity of the Argentine, Brazilian, and Paraguayan states to govern the distribution of the profits emanating from it.

Item Type:	Thesis or Dissertation (PhD)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HF Commerce J Political Science > JZ International relations
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Farm produce -- Prices, Natural resources -- Management, Natural resources -- Political aspects, Soybean industry -- South America, International economic relations
Official Date:	September 2017
Dates:	Date Event September 2017 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Politics and International Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Richardson, Ben, 1982- ; Broome, André, 1978-
Sponsors:	University of Warwick
Format of File:	pdf
Extent:	xi, 290 leaves : illustrations, charts
Language:	eng

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