Global change is threatening the production and livelihoods of millions of smallholders. The capacity of smallholders to deal with such changes is influenced by the increasingly complex trade networks that connect them to local and global markets. Moreover, the social relationships (e.g., trust, reciprocity) in which these trade networks are embedded likely influence smallholders’ capacity to respond to change. However, the prevalence and influence of such “social embeddedness” of trading across different fisheries and agricultural small-scale food systems is still largely unknown. Here, we characterize the social embeddedness of trade networks in small-scale food systems across different production and institutional contexts. We then explore how actors in small-scale food systems could respond to environmental changes in relation to their existing trade networks. We used a methodology based on the qualitative comparison of three different case studies of small-scale fisheries and agriculture in Mexico and South Africa. We analyzed and compared expert interviews among case studies and against the backdrop of embeddedness theory and a previous empirical study. We found key similarities in the level of social embeddedness of trade networks across cases. For example, business relationships characterized by stability and trust prevailed, whereby smallholders are often interdependent through networks of connected traders. There were also differences across cases, such as the higher formalization of business relationships in the agricultural cases, and the influence of institutional and country-specific factors on trade structures. Actors mostly responded to environmental change based on their existing trade networks, although these networks were also subject to change. The findings allowed us to propose more detailed hypotheses outlining how social embeddedness in trade networks play different roles in responding to environmental changes. These hypotheses aim to inspire future research toward the improved understanding of trade networks’ influence on small-scale food systems’ resilience.

The post Small-scale fisheries and agricultural trade networks are socially embedded: emerging hypotheses about responses to environmental changes first appeared on Ecology & Society.

全球变化正在威胁数百万小农的生产和生计。小农应对此类变化的能力受到将他们与本地和全球市场连接起来的日益复杂的贸易网络​​的影响。此外，这些贸易网络所嵌入的社会关系（例如信任、互惠）可能会影响小农应对变化的能力。然而，不同渔业和农业小规模粮食系统之间的这种“社会嵌入”贸易的普遍性和影响仍然很大程度上未知。在这里，我们描述了不同生产和制度背景下小规模粮食系统中贸易网络的社会嵌入性。然后，我们探讨小规模粮食系统的参与者如何应对与其现有贸易网络相关的环境变化。我们使用的方法基于对墨西哥和南非小规模渔业和农业三个不同案例研究的定性比较。我们在嵌入理论和之前的实证研究的背景下，对案例研究中的专家访谈进行了分析和比较。我们发现不同案例中贸易网络的社会嵌入程度存在关键相似之处。例如，以稳定和信任为特征的商业关系盛行，小农往往通过互联贸易商网络相互依赖。不同案例之间也存在差异，例如农业案例中商业关系的正规化程度更高，以及制度和国家特定因素对贸易结构的影响。参与者大多根据现有的贸易网络​​对环境变化做出反应，尽管这些网络也可能发生变化。这些发现使我们能够提出更详细的假设，概述贸易网络中的社会嵌入如何在应对环境变化方面发挥不同的作用。这些假设旨在激发未来的研究，以更好地了解贸易网络对小规模粮食系统弹性的影响。这些发现使我们能够提出更详细的假设，概述贸易网络中的社会嵌入如何在应对环境变化方面发挥不同的作用。这些假设旨在激发未来的研究，以更好地了解贸易网络对小规模粮食系统弹性的影响。这些发现使我们能够提出更详细的假设，概述贸易网络中的社会嵌入如何在应对环境变化方面发挥不同的作用。这些假设旨在激发未来的研究，以更好地了解贸易网络对小规模粮食系统弹性的影响。

小规模渔业和农业贸易网络已融入社会：有关环境变化反应的新兴假设首先出现在《生态与社会》上。