@article{ebc376fff1cb43efa5e8bdd0b3fe90b0,
title = "Global decisions versus local realities: Sustainability standards, priorities and upgrading dynamics in agricultural global production networks",
abstract = "Voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) in global production networks (GPNs) have grown significantly in prominence. Existing research largely assumed that VSS create linear upgrading outcomes for all GPN actors, and has studied VSS from the point of adoption in the GPN, rather than a broader range of stages in their lifecycle. To address these limitations, and building on literature around power and agency in GPNs, we develop the constellation of priorities (CoP) model to unpack the diverse and often diverging boardroom (Northern lead firm) and local (Southern supplier) priorities involved in such standards. Through in-depth fieldwork on horticulture in Kenya and cocoa in Nicaragua across the VSS lifecycle, we find significant divergences in priorities between farmer groups in both countries and lead firms in the UK and Germany. We illustrate demonstrate analytically and empirically that diverging priorities coupled with power asymmetries produced contestations, leading to simultaneous economic and environmental downgrading, and social upgrading. ",
keywords = "Central America, Sub-Saharan Africa, certification, environment, global production networks, global value chains, upgrading",
author = "Judith Krauss and Aarti Krishnan",
note = "Funding Information: First and foremost, we would like to thank everyone who contributed to our research in whatever way – this would not have been possible without you. J.K. would like to thank the ESRC (ES/J500094/1) and the University of Manchester's Sustainable Consumption Institute for PhD studentships through which the primary research for this manuscript was conducted. A.K. would like to thank the Brooks World Poverty Institute for the PhD studentship facilitating the original research for this manuscript, the ESRC for her post‐doctoral fellowship 2018–19 (ES/S011692/1), and the Hallsworth Fellowship. J.K. and A.K. would like to thank Stephanie Barrientos and Rory Horner and anonymous reviewers for helpful, constructive comments on this manuscript, and Ulrich Hoffmann for comments on a prior version of this paper published as a discussion paper for the United Nations Forum on Sustainability Standards. We would also like to thank the participants in a Development Studies Association conference panel on GVCs and GPNs organised by Matthew Alford and Rory Horner for helpful comments. All errors that remain are our own. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors alone, and do not represent those of any funder, company or other organisation. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 The Authors. Global Networks published by Global Networks Partnership and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.",
year = "2021",
month = may,
day = "21",
doi = "10.1111/glob.12325",
language = "English",
pages = "1-- 24",
journal = "Global Networks",
issn = "1470-2266",
publisher = "John Wiley & Sons Ltd",
}