The Multidimensional Definition of Quality

Since the 1990s, the developing global economy has experienced important changes in market structures and governance regimes, meaning the ways of competition and of coordination within economic actors, entrepreneurs, professions, civil organizations, the states, and local governments. Trade liberalization and the decline of institutional prices in the agrofood sectors were major driving forces leading to a change in the competition regime. Contractual regulation by voluntary standards partly substitutes state regulation within the agrofood economy. Principal features of this change we consider here encompass: (i) the internationalization of food provision systems; (ii) a ‘quality turn’ or ‘services turn’ in commodities markets; (iii) a dematerialization of the food production process both upstream with the patenting of genes and downstream with the promotion of intangible qualities as related to modes of production, circulation or delivery; (iv) the multiplication of market quality standards and of standard setting organizations (SSOs); (v) and, finally, a de-corporatization of agrofood chains. This evolution gave opportunities for affirming various policies related to food qualities, both in developed and emergent countries, and for developing local multi-actor initiatives. The regional level in general, in Asia, Europe or Latin America (at both the supranational level and the provincial or regional level inside European or Latin America countries), plays a key role in designing, managing or supporting these policies and initiatives embedded in global production networks, mobilizing varieties of stakeholders.