Le Velly, Ronan

Regaining control of the market? The construction of innovative intermediated supply chains for beef - 2020.


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Drawing on the sociology of collective action and the sociology of market “agencements,” this article describes the construction of innovative supply chains for beef in Loire and Isère (France). For their promoters, cattle producers and meat retailers, the goal was to keep working with intermediaries but also to regain control of the organization of the supply chains. The aim was to build intermediated supply chains whose rules are collectively established. The authors show the scope of the tasks required to reach this goal by identifying three processes that they call qualification, pricing, and fluidification. For each of them, they show that not letting intermediaries organize the market requires collective negotiation and learning.