The cotton commodity chain, women, work and agency in India and Japan: Theease for feminist agro-food systems research

This paper centers gender to advance alternative theoretical explanations i n agrofood systems research and develops a methodology, feminist commodity chain research. The theory and methodology are put to work in the historica l context of cotton in India and Japan to illuminate similitude and disrupt ion when agrarian economies articulate with the global forces of colonialis m, I then present a case study of contemporary south India to argue that a respect for history, differentiating between forms of transgressionary and feminist agency, and listening to women's theories, speak to the current di sjuncture by acknowledging "winners," "losers," and new possibilities for w omen and workers. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.