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Copyright of Canadian Journal of Development Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

• A diverse ensemble of intermediary traders jointly shape access to food. • The food cluster is recognized internally and externally as an institution for trade. • A practice-oriented approach demonstrates how institutions are self-reinforced. • Assembling a variety of practices is a condition for consolidating the cluster. • An institutionally viable food cluster enables access to food in rural settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review aims to unravel how partnering processes relate to processes of inclusion in the context of food provisioning. In food provisioning, inclusion has two key dimensions: the inclusion of (low-income) consumers to increase levels of food security, and the inclusion of smallholder producers to promote inclusive economic growth. This review discusses both dimensions and shows that the tandem of inclusive businesses and partnering processes reconfiguring the terms under which social groups at both sides of the agri-food chain are included is largely uncharted terrain. The paper ends with three promising areas for further research, which require a further integration of different literatures and perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A traders 'network is a confederation of skilful people that unite and coordinate a variety of tasks. • Functional properties of traders' networks emerge from situated practices and are difficult to design a-priori. • A traders' network guarantees its own continuity by opening space for personal skills development of its members. • Selection of skilful members is vital for performance and sustenance of a traders 'network. • There is a tension between inclusive organisations and the exclusive nature of networks that are able to persistent in the altering realities of trading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Securing access to affordable and nutritious food is an urgent topic on the agenda for development strategies in Africa. Intervention strategies targeting food security triggered a long lasting debate whether science and technology driven interventions could be the panacea for hunger eradication. However, contextual factors are extremely important in determining food security, as it is a location specific outcome of how biophysical, geographical, societal and political factors combine. Recent studies emphasize the important role of institutions to understand the persistence of food insecurity or to explain how different actors address food security. This article introduces a special issue that investigates approaches and methods, anchored in different institutionalisms, diagnosing how institutions influence food security levels in diverse African contexts. We draw two main lessons from this special issue. Firstly, there is a clear need for localized ex-ante institutional diagnostics to understand developments in food security in Africa. This can inform and guide decision-makers in designing locally appropriate interventions. Secondly, developing institutional diagnostics in view of sustainable food security requires theoretical triangulation; food insecurity is typically a problem emerging from a configuration of distinct processes. To develop a contextual and precise understanding of how institutions work and to identify what an institutional context ‘is good at’, the special issue argues in favour of an interdisciplinary approach in the social sciences that is strongly rooted in evolving practices (re)arranging institutions affecting food security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Voluntary labelling and certification schemes have become increasingly used in global agro-food chains. They primarily aim at enhancing the sustainability of agricultural production processes. The global palm oil supply, the different environmental and social problems related to it, and the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification clearly illustrate this. However, global sustainability standards may also have unintended impacts on food security and local development, which are not explicitly taken into account. This article explores the unnoticed effects of voluntary palm oil certification in Indonesia and Ghana and identifies their implications on local and national food provision. As voluntary labels and certification schemes are an emerging category of global governance instruments, their role in food security, as a global public good, should be taken seriously and connected to political and scientific debates on their future involvement in realizing food security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concerns about food safety influence the way in which Vietnamese consumers confront the question of where, how and from whom they buy their fresh vegetables. In this paper we analyze in what manner and to what extent existing shopping practices inhibit the adoption of modern retail based food safety strategies. Using a social practices theory based approach, we analyze in detail the sales practices of sellers and the purchasing practices of consumers in a Vietnamese provincial city. This study reveals how both sellers and buyers in wet-markets, Asian style fresh food markets, apply different sets of skills and knowledge, based on locality, personal contacts and private judgment, to match supply and demand in the context of food safety threats. Within the everyday practice of shopping for vegetables, trust is shown to be continuously reproduced along pre-given lines. Consumers do not easily look outside or move beyond their existing routines even when food safety concerns would urge them to do so. From these findings we conclude that in situations where wet-markets serve as the dominant channel for distributing and purchasing fresh food, the efficacy of government and retail induced food safety strategies depends on their articulation within existing food purchasing routines of Vietnamese consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture & Food is the property of Research Committee on Sociology of Agriculture & Food and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)