TY - JOUR
T1 - Assembling sustainable territories
T2 - space, subjects, objects, and expertise in seafood certification
AU - Vandergeest, Peter
AU - Ponte, Stefano
AU - Bush, Simon
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - The authors show how certification assembles ‘sustainable’ territories through a complex layering of regulatory authority in which both government and nongovernment entities claim rule-making authority, sometimes working together, sometimes in parallel, sometimes competitively. It is argued that territorialisation is accomplished not just through (re)defining bounded space, but more broadly through the assembling of four elements: space, subjects, objects, and expertise. Four case studies of sustainability certification in seafood are analyzed to show that ‘green gabbing’ is not necessarily the central dynamic in assembling sustainable territories, and that certification always involves state agencies in determining how the key elements that comprise it are defined. Whereas some state agencies have been suspicious of sustainability certification, others have embraced it or even used it to extend their sovereignty.The authors call for more nuanced understandings of sustainability certification as made up of multiple logics beyond the market.
AB - The authors show how certification assembles ‘sustainable’ territories through a complex layering of regulatory authority in which both government and nongovernment entities claim rule-making authority, sometimes working together, sometimes in parallel, sometimes competitively. It is argued that territorialisation is accomplished not just through (re)defining bounded space, but more broadly through the assembling of four elements: space, subjects, objects, and expertise. Four case studies of sustainability certification in seafood are analyzed to show that ‘green gabbing’ is not necessarily the central dynamic in assembling sustainable territories, and that certification always involves state agencies in determining how the key elements that comprise it are defined. Whereas some state agencies have been suspicious of sustainability certification, others have embraced it or even used it to extend their sovereignty.The authors call for more nuanced understandings of sustainability certification as made up of multiple logics beyond the market.
KW - green grabbing
KW - seafood
KW - sustainability certification
KW - territorialization
U2 - 10.1177/0308518X15599297
DO - 10.1177/0308518X15599297
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84946846921
VL - 47
SP - 1907
EP - 1925
JO - Environment and Planning A
JF - Environment and Planning A
SN - 0308-518X
IS - 9
ER -