Voluntary sustainability standards linking conventions, engagements, and multi-stakeholder politics

Cheyns Emmanuelle. 2024. Voluntary sustainability standards linking conventions, engagements, and multi-stakeholder politics. In : Handbook of economics and sociology of conventions. Diaz-Bone Rainer (ed.), de Larquier Guillemette (ed.). Cham : Springer, 1-28. ISBN 978-3-030-52130-1

Résumé : Growing social and ecological criticism of industrial agriculture in the early 2000s led to the increasingly frequent use of voluntary certification schemes to guarantee standardized sustainable or ecological production. Multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) have emerged to set these voluntary standards of sustainability for sensitive commodities. They claim to guarantee properties that extend to fundamental rights at work, the protection of the environment and of peoples, human and land rights, and so on. They portray to give equal standing to all categories of stakeholders. Their horizontal forms of government however require very specific observations of contemporary, and sometimes invisible, forms of exercise of power. Economics and sociology of conventions (in short, EC/SC or convention theory) contributed to re-politicize these forms of coordination, by examining the politics behind the technical processes, the exclusion of some participants linked to the legitimized forms of evidence and knowledge, and the exclusion of certain valuations of human relationships with their environment. More recently, studies referring to the sociology of engagement emphasize how the liberal political model of the balance of interests shapes forms of participation, while excluding others. MSIs reduce pluralism to the expression of interests, making it difficult to engage in the justification regime (in qualifying the common good) and considering people's attachments. Some works also underline the role that very local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) play in accommodating the voices of vulnerable communities in multi-stakeholder initiatives, by being close to them and by restoring their dignity through a work of care.

Mots-clés libres : Convention theory, Voluntary sustainability standards, Multi-stakeholders, Certification, Sustainability

Auteurs et affiliations

• Cheyns Emmanuelle, CIRAD-ES-UMR MOISA (FRA)

Source : Cirad-Agritrop (https://agritrop.cirad.fr/609043/)

Métriques

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