Work-in-Progress

JOIN VIRTUALLY! Politics, Technology, and Change in Russian Agriculture

Thu
Apr
23
In accordance with updated University guidelines on limiting public gatherings in light of COVID-19 concerns, this event will be offered virtually via Zoom. To attend, please register with kievents@nd.edu for the pre-circulated paper and instructions on how to join by computer or phone.

A Kellogg Work-in-Progress Seminar with Faculty Fellow Susanne Wengle.

Russia’s food system has undergone profound changes over the last 15-20 years. Large capital investments have increased production and productivity and led to dramatic changes in how food is produced and processed. Agrifood corporations have emerged as new central actors, as producers, land-owners, and financiers. The rise of corporate farms was made possible by a set of political priorities and generous public support measures. The paper makes two contributions: first, it documents and explains the nature of the political bargain between corporate farms and the Putin government. New technologies are central to this bargain. Secondly, the paper makes a broader theoretical argument about the political dynamics of change in agro-food system. Food studies tend to rely on one set of actors as drivers of change – consumers, citizens, or corporations. This paper suggests that the concept of technopolitics provides promising way to understand the dynamics of change in food systems, in Russia and beyond.

Work-in-Progress Seminars are designed to generate in-depth discussion of new scholarly work. For the pre-circulated paper and to attend, register with kievents@nd.edu.

Speakers / Related People
Susanne Wengle

Susanne Wengle is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. Wengle's main research interests concern the politics of markets regulations; her past research examines how particular regulations function and how they evolve, what “politics” make them possible, and also how their effects change the political conditions in which they were formulated...
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