Towards an agrarian question of circulation

Walmart's expansion in Chile and the agrarian political economy of supply chain capitalism

Bibliographic Data

ID2285751
AuthorsMartín Arboleda (0000-0002-8612-763X, School of Sociology Universidad Diego Portales Santiago Chile, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume20
Issue3
Pages345-363
Publication date2020-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Agrarian Change (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1471-0358 • E-ISSN: 1471-0366
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/joac.12356
OpenAlexW3004801405
LanguageEN
Citations received21
References cited43

The central role that infrastructures of circulation and connectivity-logistical, financial, and digital-have come to perform in the reproduction of agro-food systems calls for an expanded conception of agriculture that integrates dialectically the production of economic value and its subsequent realization in the sphere of exchange. Through the case of Walmart's expansion in Chile, and on the basis of a critical theorization of the circulation of capital, this paper proposes an agrarian question of circulation in which the apparently distinct realms of food production, transport, storage, and consumption are brought together into a contradictory and yet unitary whole. The case of Walmart Chile is illustrative of how the reconfiguration of spaces of urban mass consumption and the organizational restructuring of agro-industrial hinterlands constitute each other in intricate ways. An agrarian question of circulation, the paper concludes, bears important political implications for rethinking the scope and extent of contemporary discussions on agrarian reform being put forward by transnational rural organizations

Agrarian reform · Agrarian society · Agrarian system · Agriculture · Capital (architecture · Capitalism · Cash crop · Circulation (fluid dynamics · Consumption (sociology · Economic system · Economics · Geography · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Production (economics · Restructuring · Social science · Sociology · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development · Global trade, sustainability, and social impact · Political Economy and Marxism · Finance

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