Dialectics of Association and Dissociation: Spaces of Valuation, Trade, and Retail in the Gemstone and Jewelry Sector

abstract

This article aims to substantiate how processes of valuation translate between different registers of value. We develop an analytical framework of how valuation is intertwined with geographic origination and the geographies of association and dissociation, which establish how commodities and consumer products are either associated with, or dissociated from, matters that are beneficial or damaging for sales and brand reputation. The article focuses on the rather unexplored gemstone and jewelry sector, and shows how the analysis of value is not reducible to Marxist notions of exchange and use value but needs to take into account symbolic and sign value, and embrace dis/association dialectics. It develops a novel conceptual framework that draws upon the early work of Baudrillard on symbolic value, together with Marxian value theory, and mobilizes it for the analysis of association–dissociation dialectics and practices in global value chains. We are particularly concerned with the role of origination and provenance to highlight the intrinsically geographic dimensions of gemstones that are enacted by traders and retailers in the valuation process. The article shows how valuation and consumption of gemstone and jewelry play out through complex and multiscalar, relational associative and dissociative practices, which intertwine with revealed sustainability problems in the diamond industry. It also shows how a current rise in the value and popularity of colored stones interrelate with a corporate refocusing away from mined diamonds, and entails even more in-transparent supply networks.

Key words:

• geographies of association and dissociation
• value creation and valuation
• trading networks
• gemstones and jewelry
• geographic origination

Acknowledgments

This article is a joint effort and has benefited greatly from the constructive comments we received from a number of colleagues at various stages. In particular, we would like to thank Lisa Ann Richey for acting as a discussant during a paper development seminar in the Joint Sustainability Governance Group, Copenhagen Business School, as well as Jane Pollard and two anonymous referees for their critical and helpful feedback. Lotte Thomsen also thanks Neil Coe and Henry Yeung for their hospitality, engagement, and funding of a GPN@NUS Centre visiting scholarship during which fieldwork for this article was initiated. Further, Martin Hess is grateful to Oliver Ibert, Jana Kleibert, Felix Müller, and Dominic Power for the collaboration in an earlier research project on “Geographies of Dissociation: The Social Construction of Value from a Spatial Perspective,” funded by the Leibniz Association (SAW-2015-IRS-1), which helped to theoretically inform this article. Finally, we are grateful to all those people in the gemstone and jewelry industry who took the time to provide invaluable information during interviews.