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

Cornell University, Ithaca NY

Investigators

Abstract

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.