Social Construction of the Market(s) for Genetically Modified and Nonmodified Crops
2001
Bender, Karen L. | Westgren, Randall E.
Social processes drive the current market turbulence and the eventual future for biotechnology products in agriculture. We examine those processes using central ideas from the sociology of markets: Markets are socially constructed by buyers and sellers, and markets are embedded in the broader sociopolitical environment in which they exist. Those seeking to construct a market for genetically modified soybeans using the existing commodity market as a platform conflict with the sociopolitical environment that withholds normative and regulatory legitimacy from this outcome. We conduct a content analysis on recent public dialogue about the problems and solutions in constructing the market(s) for genetically modified soybeans, and we apply a model traditionally used in the social construction literature for expost analyses of technology adoption. The model proves valuable for identifying pathways for resolving the conflict.
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