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Beyond economic and ecological standardisation
Author(s) -
Tsing Anna
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
the australian journal of anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.245
H-Index - 25
eISSN - 1757-6547
pISSN - 1035-8811
DOI - 10.1111/j.1757-6547.2009.00041.x
Subject(s) - supply chain , capitalism , variety (cybernetics) , deregulation , diversity (politics) , profit (economics) , ethnography , geography , business , ecology , environmental resource management , economy , economic geography , political science , economics , sociology , market economy , anthropology , archaeology , biology , marketing , artificial intelligence , politics , computer science , law , microeconomics
Supply chain capitalism forages among the ruins of military and industrial landscapes—and so do real foragers, such as Southeast Asian refugees picking wild mushrooms in the US Pacific Northwest for commercial shipment to Japan. This essay explores how supply chain dynamics thrive on deregulation and diversity, encouraging cultural and ecological variety as a source of profit. Supply chain values are created through diversity—and sometimes, disaster. I aim to provoke anthropologists to revive ethnography for the challenge of studying supply chains, as these erupt like mushrooms after a rain in the cracks of economic and ecological standardisation.