Suchergebnisse

Frontmatter -- Inhalt -- Danksagung -- Vorwort -- Organisation und Bewertung von sichtbar gewordenen Lebensmittelabfällen -- Plattform versus Lebensmitteltafel -- Wertzuschreibungen durch Food-Waste-Apps -- Nachhaltige Energie oder verstromtes Essen? -- Food-Waste-Management im Supermarkt -- »Und die Eimer füllen sich mit Unmengen an Essen, die der Gast nicht konsumierte« -- Vom Konsumieren zum Kochen -- Wie das Abfallprodukt in den Warenkorb kommt -- Warum Kreislaufwirtschaft allein nicht genügt -- Die soziale (Nicht-)Essbarkeit von Fleisch -- Epilog -- Autor*innenverzeichnis

AbstractTransnational sustainability governance often builds upon standards. Considering that the rise of transnational governance has blurred accountability relations, this article interrogates how and with what consequences a standards development organization (SDO) mobilizes standards for the sake of accountability. Following a partial organization perspective, standards are conceptualized as combinations of organizational elements that enhance accountability both retrospectively and prospectively. A historical case study of the Fairtrade program details the argument and shows how the SDO modified standards aligned with institutional expectations. As the alteration of one organizational element led to a chain reaction, the standards unintentionally transformed from an organizationally lenient tool into a sophisticated blend of organizational elements. Thus, the standards strengthened the accountability of those being governed, while accountability to the public was enhanced by changes in the organizational structure of the SDO. The article contributes to a nuanced understanding of the link between accountability and standards, highlighting their contingency and context dependency.

Aus einer organisationssoziologischen Perspektive untersucht Nadine Arnold die bewegte Geschichte des Fairen Handels in der Schweiz (1973-2014) und die exemplarische Entwicklung der Fair Trade Standards - hat sich die freiwillige Standardisierung doch zu einer zentralen Organisationsform unserer Gesellschaft entwickelt. Der graduelle Standardisierungsprozess hat dem Fairen Handel beeindruckende Wachstumsraten und eine hohe Popularität beschert, doch zeigt die Autorin auch dessen unerwartete Konsequenzen auf, die von sozialwissenschaftlicher und gesellschaftspolitischer Relevanz sind. Der Inhalt Standards und Standardisierung Nachhaltigkeitsstandards Geschichte des Fairen Handels in der Schweiz Entwicklung der Fair Trade Standards (Un)erwartete Konsequenzen der Standardisierung Die Zielgruppen Dozierende, Studierende und WissenschaftlerInnen der Organisationssoziologie sowie im Bereich der Standardisierungs- und Fair Trade-Forschung Praktiker, die sich für den Fairen Handel und Nachhaltigkeitsstandards interessieren Die Autorin Nadine Arnold forscht am LISIS (Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Sciences Innovations Sociétés) an der Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée und lehrt an der Universität Luzern

Society overflows with waste, and waste and discard studies emphasize the social construction and contingency of waste, outlining it as the negatively valued. However, organizational sociology currently does not reflect these insights and rarely accounts for waste. Therefore, this article asks what kind of theory is required to capture waste in organized contexts. By searching for waste in Scott and Davis' well-accepted three perspectives on organizations (as rational, natural, or open systems), it becomes evident that each perspective conceptualizes waste based on its theoretical conception of organizations (rational: disorder; natural: disintegration; open: overdetermination) that is mirrored in different accounts of waste. While these perspectives assign negative value to different organizational conditions, they offer little insight into how organizations themselves disvalue entities and generate waste. To overcome this shortcoming, the article introduces an integrative perspective that incorporates the three prevalent perspectives, conceptualizing organizations as closed and open systems (COS) based on Luhmann's system concept and observation theory. The COS perspective explains how organizations construct waste through their selective indication of values and disvalues. It thereby identifies waste as a contingent yet inevitable part of any organization and shifts attention from the study of symptomatic waste to its underlying origins.

The qualities of standardised products are often perceived as naturally stable. This article scrutinises this perceived stability and investigates which aspects of standardised quality remain stable, and which change in the longer term. Our conceptual framework, anchored in the literature on standards and valuation studies, suggests that while standardised qualities appear to be stable over time and space, it is in these spatial and temporal dimensions of qualification that controversies and changes are expected. Empirically, we investigate the organic quality which has been maintained in the German mass market since the 1970s by the standard-setter Bioland. Searching our archival data for disruption that refers to events, which were interpreted by Bioland as reasons for adjusting the qualification, the data show that Bioland reacted swiftly to manifold disruption triggered by actors located along the production and distribution chain as well as outside it. Pooling Bioland's responses, we identify four shifts in terms of the (1) meaning, (2) focus, (3) organisation, and (4) relationships of quality. Due to these long-term shifts, little except the name of the standardised quality remained stable. Thus, the article concludes that standardised qualification must be dynamic and changeable if it is to be stably relevant in markets.

Globally, standards govern and organise the production and exchange of food. This article uses insights from science and technology studies to study the translation of multiple standards in the Ghanaian pineapple industry. The data demonstrate a translation process that is best described as nesting. Nesting is the process through which producers translate multiple standards into a locally contingent network of human and non-human actors, which is represented materially by the perfect fruit. For nesting to take place, producers develop intra-organisational collective practices that we call: prioritising standards, enrolling additives, and creating residues. The concept of nesting explains how food producers translate multiple standards, while simultaneously regaining agency. While nesting enables us to speak about what it means to implement the multiple standards that materially embody the consumers' vision of perfection, it also contributes to the sociology of standards, the literature on standards adoption, and organisation studies.

An unclear occupational orientation is characteristic of sociological training. How research-based learning in sociology nevertheless creates occupational references is the leading question of this article. The authors bring together findings from the literature on research-based learning with studies on sociology as a profession and use findings from an empirical case study to answer the question. They show that three stages of the research process create occupational references: 1) Raising funds, 2) Identification of a research question with novelty value and 3) Communication of research results through scientific articles. The authors argue that these occupational references can only be realized if research-based learning is practiced holistically.

AbstractHave Swiss Alternative Trade Organizations (ATOs) valorized economic aspects at the expense of their social mission for the longer term? From a historical perspective (1974–2013), this article shows how these social enterprises have maintained their social purpose and inhibited the course of organizational economization. We identify three deceleration strategies: involving volunteers, direct trading partnerships with producers, focusing on the sales niche. The article shows how and why economization processes are malleable and not inevitable.

Voluntary standards are a ubiquitous phenomenon in modern society that has recently started to attract sociologists' profound interest. This paper concentrates on formal standardization over the long term and seeks to understand its effects on the coordination of an organizational field. Using an institutional approach we see standards as a form of governance that can be analytically distinguished from other modes of coordination, such as markets and hierarchical organizations. To empirically ground our understanding of formal standards' consequences on field-level governance, we conducted a case study of the historical development of the Swiss fair trade field since the 1970s. Evidence used in this case study is drawn from 28 expert interviews, documentation and fair trade standard documents. While a formal set of voluntary standards was absent in its early development, in 1992 fair trade organizations started to use written standards as a means of achieving their objectives. Paradoxically, the introduction of a rational standardization system has led to escalating governance structures in the field. In the long run the launch of formal standards has caused more organizations, more markets, and even more standards. The use of standards as a means of creating differentiation instead of generating uniformity is thereby seen as the main reason for increased coordination demands. As a consequence, this article highlights standards' potential to boost additional governance efforts and directs attention to the mutual enforcement of distinct modes of coordination.

Voluntary standards are a ubiquitous phenomenon in modern society that has recently started to attract sociologists' profound interest. This paper concentrates on formal standardization over the long term and seeks to understand its effects on the coordination of an organizational field. Using an institutional approach we see standards as a form of governance that can be analytically distinguished from other modes of coordination, such as markets and hierarchical organizations. To empirically ground our understanding of formal standards' consequences on field-level governance, we conducted a case study of the historical development of the Swiss fair trade field since the 1970s. Evidence used in this case study is drawn from 28 expert interviews, documentation and fair trade standard documents. While a formal set of voluntary standards was absent in its early development, in 1992 fair trade organizations started to use written standards as a means of achieving their objectives. Paradoxically, the introduction of a rational standardization system has led to escalating governance structures in the field. In the long run the launch of formal standards has caused more organizations, more markets, and even more standards. The use of standards as a means of creating differentiation instead of generating uniformity is thereby seen as the main reason for increased coordination demands. As a consequence, this article highlights standards' potential to boost additional governance efforts and directs attention to the mutual enforcement of distinct modes of coordination. ; + ID der Publikation: unilu_28027 + Sprache: Englisch + Letzte Aktualisierung: 2019-06-24 20:33:20

Standards are strongly intertwined with values in economic contexts, which goes far beyond economic value. Standards' diversity is expressed in local spaces where standards are made, put into action, circulate and commensurate. In these mutually linked and globally distributed spaces, we can analyze the ways in which standards and value(s) encounter each other and what consequences this brings for individuals, organizations, communities, and societies. Examining different settings of food production and organization brings new insights into the sociological explanations and understandings of how standards are guided by values and create value(s). These insights highlight new tensions between global and local social dynamics and offer two ways forward for the sociology of standards. First, is the importance of intermediation between the values of the standards and the governance effects of these same standards. Second, is the relevance of valuelessness, where the prioritization of some values devalues others or loses them completely.