Doctoral Dissertation Research: Market Transformation, Uneven Development, and Institutional Change along the Colombian and Dutch Cut Flower Commodity Chains

过去二十年来，全球鲜切花市场经历了一个快速转型的过程，这对出口导向型发展模式提出了新的问题。越来越多的新进入者，消费者对企业社会责任的要求，以及不断上升的买家杠杆是当今充满活力的全球切花市场的特征。虽然这些变化在当今全球化的世界中并不罕见，但在很大程度上仍未被探索的是，处于不同社会体制和发展背景的行动者如何应对新的竞争压力。借鉴全球商品链分析和发展研究的理论框架，本项目比较考察了世界主要鲜切花供应商哥伦比亚和荷兰的商品链。从理论上讲，有必要从考虑到全球商品链所处的特定社会体制和发展背景的角度来解决经济发展模式问题。本项目比较地解决了以下问题：(1)哥伦比亚和荷兰的切花商品链是如何（重新）组织的？(2)这种（再）组织的社会经济影响是什么？(3)不同发展背景下的国家机构如何表达全球竞争压力？调查人员希望证明，商品链重组需要将竞争压力转移到商品链中最弱的参与者身上，作为从生产者到买方驱动的商品链更大转变的一部分。此外，它将说明为什么鲜切花市场成为一个高度竞争、碎片化和动态的舞台，这个舞台是由位于其特定优势位置的参与者和机构不断（转变）形成的。研究人员将采用多地点民族志方法（包括深度访谈）、机构民族志、档案研究和时间序列统计数据分析来研究这些问题。本项目通过在不同的社会制度和发展背景下嵌入商品链分析，做出了理论贡献。在方法上，本研究与该领域以前的工作的区别在于，将两个不同但相互关联的商品链合并到一个分析框架中进行比较。其目的是超越孤立的个案研究分析，在当今市场关系特征的不同但相互联系的背景下，对经济结构调整、不平衡发展和制度变革的过程提出问题。这个项目也与政策制定者相关。为了在竞争日益激烈的全球市场中找到一席之地，许多发展中国家已转向非传统出口，例如鲜切花。然而，发展的希望在很大程度上仍然远离这些国家。通过比较哥伦比亚和荷兰的经验，该项目将突出世界上两个最大的花卉出口国的缺陷和成功。这个项目将帮助这些国家的决策者确定市场机制以及促进可持续发展的政策和体制结构。

Over the past two decades the global cut flower market has experienced a process of rapid transformation that raises new questions for export-oriented models of development. A growing number of new entrants, consumer demands for corporate social responsibility, and rising buyer leverage characterize today's dynamic global cut flower market. While these changes are not atypical of today's globalizing world, what remains largely unexplored are the ways in which actors situated in dissimilar socio-institutional, and developmental contexts respond to new competitive pressures. Drawing on theoretical frameworks employed in global commodity chain analyses and development studies, this project comparatively examines the commodity chains of the world's leading cut flower suppliers, Colombia and the Netherlands. Theoretically, there is a need to address economic development models from a perspective that takes into account particular socio-institutional and developmental contexts in which global commodity chains are embedded. This project comparatively addresses the following questions: (1) How are the Colombian and the Dutch cut flower commodity chains being (re)organized? (2) What are the socioeconomic impacts of this (re)organization? (3) How are global competitive pressures being articulated by state institutions in dissimilar developmental contexts? The investigators expect to demonstrate that commodity chain restructuring entails displacement of competitive pressures to the weakest actors in the commodity chain as part of a larger shift from producer to a buyer-driven commodity chain. Moreover, it will be illustrated why the cut flower market emerges as a highly contested, fragmented, and dynamic arena that is continuously (trans)formed by actors and institutions situated from their particular vantage points. The investigators will examine these questions by employing multi-sited ethnographic methods (including in-depth interviews), institutional ethnographies, archival research, and time series statistical data analysis.This project makes a theoretical contribution by embedding commodity chain analysis in differentiated socio-institutional and developmental contexts. Methodologically, what distinguishes this study from previous work in the field is the use of an incorporated comparison of two dissimilar yet interrelated commodity chains into a single analytical frame. The aim is to go beyond isolated case-study analysis to problematize the processes of economic restructuring, uneven development, and institutional change across dissimilar, but linked, contexts characteristic of today's market relations. This project is also relevant to policymakers. In an attempt to find a niche in increasingly competitive global markets, many developing countries have turned to non-traditional exports, such as cut flowers. Yet, the promise of development has still largely eluded these countries. By comparing the experiences of Colombia and the Netherlands, this project will highlight the pitfalls and successes of the two largest flower exporters in the world. This project will help policymakers in these countries identify the mechanisms of the market, and the policies and institutional structures that will facilitate sustainable development.