Skip to main content

LUP Student Papers

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Self-Organized Community Institutions: A Way to Strengthen Local Social Sustainability? A Case Study of PGS Viêt Nam

Böttinger, Carla LU (2019) SIMV29 20191
Department of Political Science
Graduate School
Master of Science in Development Studies
Abstract
Over the last years, the conventional agricultural system has increasingly been pointed out as one of the most problematic sector for the environment and the global public health. At the same time, the organic farming sector has more and more been presented as a sustainable answer to that problem. However, its implementation comes with numerous challenges, such as the procuration of a third-party based organic farming certification which is too costly for small-scale farmers. Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) can be a good alternative to that since they are local, voluntary-based processes of monitoring and evaluation of food production and therefore enable a low-priced transition towards organic farming. In this thesis, I will argue... (More)
Over the last years, the conventional agricultural system has increasingly been pointed out as one of the most problematic sector for the environment and the global public health. At the same time, the organic farming sector has more and more been presented as a sustainable answer to that problem. However, its implementation comes with numerous challenges, such as the procuration of a third-party based organic farming certification which is too costly for small-scale farmers. Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) can be a good alternative to that since they are local, voluntary-based processes of monitoring and evaluation of food production and therefore enable a low-priced transition towards organic farming. In this thesis, I will argue that such self-organized community systems can also enable the strengthening of social links within a community and participation in the public life. This research aims at analyzing the social impacts that PGSs have had on the development of organic farming and will take the Vietnamese PGSs as a focus. The findings show that participatory guarantee systems have had the following social impacts on the community they were implemented in; they enhanced participation in the community’s life and build trustful relationship between the community’s members, thus offering an efficient alternative where the Vietnamese organic farming regime has failed in its lack of involvement of the different actors within the safe food certification process and its lack of trust-building social relationships between them. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
@misc{8998336,
  abstract     = {{Over the last years, the conventional agricultural system has increasingly been pointed out as one of the most problematic sector for the environment and the global public health. At the same time, the organic farming sector has more and more been presented as a sustainable answer to that problem. However, its implementation comes with numerous challenges, such as the procuration of a third-party based organic farming certification which is too costly for small-scale farmers. Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) can be a good alternative to that since they are local, voluntary-based processes of monitoring and evaluation of food production and therefore enable a low-priced transition towards organic farming. In this thesis, I will argue that such self-organized community systems can also enable the strengthening of social links within a community and participation in the public life. This research aims at analyzing the social impacts that PGSs have had on the development of organic farming and will take the Vietnamese PGSs as a focus. The findings show that participatory guarantee systems have had the following social impacts on the community they were implemented in; they enhanced participation in the community’s life and build trustful relationship between the community’s members, thus offering an efficient alternative where the Vietnamese organic farming regime has failed in its lack of involvement of the different actors within the safe food certification process and its lack of trust-building social relationships between them.}},
  author       = {{Böttinger, Carla}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Self-Organized Community Institutions: A Way to Strengthen Local Social Sustainability? A Case Study of PGS Viêt Nam}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}