Journal of Rural Social Sciences, 25(3), 2010, pp. 193–225. Copyright © by the Southern Rural Sociological Association SUSTAINABLY PERFORMED: RECONCILING GLOBAL VALUE CHAIN GOVERNANCE AND PERFORMATIVITY*

Merging theories of performativity with Global Value Chains (GVC) analysis, I explore how standards are used within GVCs to govern interactions among actors and to perform a multiplicity of ‘sustainabilities.’ Specifically, this paper presents four case studies of certified tea production in Tanzania (i.e., the Ethical Tea Partnership, Fairtrade, Organic, and Rainforest Alliance) to reveal how visions of sustainability are enacted by different actors in each certified value chain. This analysis reveals that, while the Rainforest Alliance and Ethical Tea Partnership ‘sustainabilities ’ are ‘generically ’ performed, the Fairtrade and Organic ‘sustainabilities’ are ‘effective ’ in enacting multiple versions of sustainability that have facilitated changes to practices in the tea value chain. This attention to the enactment of values in the practice of agrifood production allows for a more nuanced understanding of governance in value chains and suggests a way to shift discussions of GVC governance away from the primary focus on ‘drivenness’. In 2005, Unilever (PG Tips and Lipton) began an initiative, starting in Kenya and Tanzania, to make its tea supply chain “sustainable ” by 2015 (Unilever 2007). Unilever is the main buyer of black tea (camellia sinensis) from Tanzania, it is a key1 player in the global consumer market buying 12 percent of the global black te