Explaining change in the international agro-food system

Abstract

This article serves as an introduction to the collection that follows. The articles engage with theoretical debates around the restructuring of international agro-food systems with particular emphasis on advanced industrial economies. This introductory article outlines the nature of recent changes in agro-food systems, introduces the contemporary debates around the causes and consequences of restructuring processes and identifies three arenas of creative tension which concern: the relationship between global processes and local change; the characterization of production systems as Fordist or flexibly specialist; and the relationship between political economy and micro-sociological perspectives.

Keywords:

• Agro-food systems
• globalization
• international restructuring
• political economy
• networks