Agri-Food Restructuring in the Australia Beef Industry

The sociology of agriculture and related disciplines have provided useful insights into the restructuring process of agri-food systems. However, the contribution is usually divided between political economy of agriculture and sociocultural analyses of production and consumption of food. This book integrates both analyses into a single analytical framework. In doing so, the author offers an original contribution by skilfully broadens the theoretical framework developed by the sociologist Manuel Castells on his work ‘The Network Society''. This book answers compelling questions associated with institutional and organisational aspects as well as social meaning and identity, all of which influence relationships between production and consumption of agri-food commodities. In particular, this book analyses the transformation of the Australian beef industry and shed lights on the new trends in the restructuring of the global agri-food sector. The analysis and research findings in this book are especially helpful for social scientists concern with changes power relations along the agri-food chain, current supermarket power, and recent regulation and governance of agri-food systems.