Trading in the secretive commodity

Over the past century and a half, a handful of transnational corporations have built fortunes trading commodity crops such as corn, soy and wheat. Graded and standardized, these commodities are considered uniform and therefore fungible; information about their origins need not accompany them to market. But in recent years major food brands, as part of broader ‘sustainable sourcing’ commitments, have begun to ask about the places and practices that produce these crops. Their inquiries have exposed the limits of the commodity traders’ supposedly unrivalled market intelligence. They also raise questions about how the advent of agricultural grades and standards made knowledge of crop origins seem unnecessary in certain commodity supply chains, and about how those supply chains might henceforth change, now that lack of such knowledge has become a liability.     

Transnational advocacy networks in global supply chains: a study of civil society organizations’ sugar movements in Cambodia

As a contribution to the growing literature on transnational advocacy networks (TANs) in the global production networks, this article examines how civil society organizations (CSOs), which have adopted the TAN approach, influence the sugar industry in Cambodia. Due to ineffective domestic influencing strategies, the CSOs adopted the TAN approach and escalated to an international supply chain movement approach (ISCMA) aiming to influence international stakeholders at each stage of the sugar supply chain in order to leverage boomerang pressure on the sugar producing companies and the Government of Cambodia. Despite its resourceful networking strategies, the ISCMA failed to leverage significant influence on the sugar companies and the government to achieve its demands. The failure was not due to weak networks, but was in part due to the political nexus between the government and the sugar companies. This article suggests that to ensure the effectiveness of CSOs’ actions within the TAN framework in the global production networks, one should take into account the power of the government in relation to local politico-commercial elites.     

The Soviet Reception of Selma Lagerlöf

Abstract

The focus of this paper is Selma Lagerlöf’s literary presence in Soviet Russia. Despite being one of the most translated and published foreign authors in pre-revolutionary times, Lagerlöf made very infrequent appearances on the Soviet literary scene for 40-odd years between 1917 and the end of the 1950s. The process of literary production is examined in this paper in search of an explanation for the changing pattern in the publication of Lagerlöf’s texts. To problematize the process of literary production in the newly established Soviet state, Foucault’s conceptualization of the process of knowledge construction is utilized to describe, understand, and explain the interplay between critical resources, such as linguistic and literary expertise, individual initiative, and the government-controlled publishing enterprise in the Soviet state. I argue that the agency of literary workers remained relevant to the literary process, despite increasing ideological pressure on literary production, and that they paved the way towards the official reintroduction of Lagerlöf to the Russian Soviet readership during the 1950s.     

Corporate power in the agro-food system and the consumer food environment in South Africa

This contribution maps the South African agro-food system with a focus on corporate ownership and power, inspired by value chain work applied to the food system as a a whole. Corporations tend to dominate some nodes, for example input supply, grain storage and handling, and feedlots. Other nodes have a corporate core but with a wide number of smaller economic actors, for example agricultural production, food manufacturing, wholesale and retail, and consumer food service. This wide number of actors points to possible areas of intervention to boost livelihoods by supporting their economic activities. The paper considers the influence of corporations in structuring consumer perceptions on food quality and health, from input into apparently neutral dietary-based guidelines to advertising. Financialisation in the food system, including the institutionalisation of share ownership and the rise of agri-investment companies, and the multi-nationalisation of South African agro-food capital especially into Africa, have implications for the ability of the nation state to regulate activities in the agro-food system. The paper concludes with some recommendations for further work.     

The Impact of Unfunded Environmental Mandates When Environmental Quality and Timber are Produced Jointly

A number of different aspects of environmental quality are produced jointly with timber. Unfunded environmental mandates whose costs are borne strictly by the private landowner lead to reduced production of both timber and environmental quality relative to the quantity of both that would be produced in the absence of such policies. That is, acting without regard to environmental consequences, private landowners produce more environmental quality (as a byproduct of producing timber) than they do when unfunded policy mandates result in de facto partial takings for which they are not compensated.     

Writing as ‘Compearance’ in Diário da Queda by Michel Laub

Diário da Queda (2011) by Michel Laub has been described as autoficção (autofiction), the Brazilian translation of the concept coined by Serge Doubrovsky to describe the narrative working-through of trauma through fictional autobiography. This article re-examines the definition of ‘autofiction’ and argues that Laub's narrative process more closely resembles Jean-Luc Nancy's notion of a singular voice ‘compearing’ experiences in a process of ‘sharing’ that, when combined with touch and affection can – according to the novel – more successfully help to overcome trauma. At stake are questions regarding the inheritance of Holocaust memory, as well as its politicised deployment in contemporary conflicts.     

马克思精神生产概念的提出及意义——马克思精神生产理论早期文本学研究

精神生产是唯物史观的重要组成部分,是建构唯物史观的理论基础。精神生产在现代社会发展中的影响越来越大。深入、系统地研究马克思精神生产理论,具有重大的理论和现实意义。     

公有制的生产力标准与实现形式的客观要求

适应社会化生产的客观要求建立公有制 ,是巩固和发展社会主义制度的需要。然而 ,怎样适应社会化的发展来建立公有制 ,却是需要我们在实践中不断探索的问题。这个问题的解决 ,有利于我们更好地确立适应生产力发展水平的生产关系 ,从而 ,充分利用并合理开发劳动资源 ,以服从和服务于我国市场经济条件下的社会改革。     

对明代文词派传奇的再认识

明代成化、万历时期,在传奇剧坛占主导地位的是文词派.然而长期以来,文词派倍受批评,这实在有失公正.宣扬伦理以正风俗的<香囊记>,以渊博的学识、淳雅的语言奠定了文词派的基础;渗透着强烈现实批判精神的<玉玦记>,以"使事稳贴"、曲词雅丽、宾白通俗赢得了观众和读者的青睐,确立了文词派在剧坛的主导地位;沦入佛道的<昙花记>头绪纷繁、典雅缛丽,标志着文词派脱离观众、走向衰落.而衰落的文词派,却孕育了临川派和吴江派的胚胎.由此可见,文词派影响了整个明清两代传奇的风格.<琵琶记>是文词派的源头,八股科举制和文字避忌促成了文词派的诞生,诗文复古运动对文词派的发展推波助澜,这是文词派产生、发展、壮大的原因.     

Multiproduct activity and competition policy: The Tetra Pak case

We suggest the Tetra Pak case as a real-world example to study the implications of multiproduct activity for European Competition Policy. Tetra Pak, a monopolist in aseptic carton packaging of liquid food, competes with Elopak in the nonaseptic sector. The EC Commission used the effect of Tetra Pak's dominance in the aseptic sector on its rival's performance as an evidence of the former's anticompetitive behavior. With linear demand and cost functions and interdependent demands, the Commission's position can be supported. However, a more general model suggests that the Commission's conclusions cannot be supported as the unique outcome of the analysis of the information available.