Dissertation Research: Negotiating the Uniformity of a Commodity -- The Case of the Rapessed Subsector in the People's Republic of China

商品子部门是围绕特定商品组织起来的人类和非人类行动者的社会网络。它们是一种工具，用来改造商品，以及围绕该商品的社会关系和自然环境。本论文的研究旨在提高我们对特定子部门如何通过技术变革创造和保持商品统一性的理解。它以1949年以来中华人民共和国油菜籽分行业为例。子行业中的每个人对一致性的定义都不同。因此，在一种商品中创造统一性的技术变化揭示了在分部门中对该商品的冲突利益和价值之间的谈判。该项目通过使用两种互补的方法跟踪油菜籽从生产到消费：(1)分部门的历史研究和(2)与参与者的访谈。该奖项允许论文学生在中国进行文献和实地调查，以了解参与的参与者如何谈判油菜籽创新的社会和技术方向。

Commodity subsectors are social networks of human and non-human actors organized around a given commodity. They are a type of vehicle for transforming a commodity, and social relations and nature surrounding that commodity. This dissertation research is designed to improve our understanding of how a given subsector creates and maintains uniformity in a commodity through technical change. It uses the case of the rapeseed subsector in the People's Republic of China (PRC) since 1949 as an example. Each human actor in the subsector defines uniformity differently. Thus, technical changes for creating uniformity in a commodity reveal negotiations among conflicting interests in and values for that commodity in a subsector. The project follows rapeseed from production to consumption by using two complementary methods: (l) historical studies of the subsector and (2) interviews with participants. This award allows the dissertation student to undertake the documentary and field work research in the PRC needed to understand how the actors involved have negotiated the social and technical directions of rapeseed innovation.