Beyond the farm gate: Production-consumption networks and agri-food research

The term agri-food research has become a convenient shorthand term to descr ibe an expansion of sociological interest over the last to or so years in t he relationships between agricultural production and: increasingly industri alized networks of food production, processing, distribution and retailing; the development of transnationalized modes of regulation and governance; e nvironmental discourse, policy and social movements; and competing understa ndings and uses of 'rural' space. This paper critically reviews two theoret ical approaches that have challenged the dominant theoretical trends that h ave underpinned this reorientation of the 'rural' social research agenda-ac tor-network theory and vertical analysis. It is argued that applications of both approaches have frequently failed to transcend the very shortcomings they identify in agri-food studies, and suggestions are made as to how prod uction-consumption relationships may be more adequately theorized and inves tigated.