Governing agricultural practices in Tanzania: Reflections on standards as governance devices

International audienceStandards that codify sustainability, such as Ethical Trade, Fairtrade, Organic and Rainforest Alliance, have become a common means for value chain actors in the Global North to make statements about the values of their products and the practices of producers in the Global South. This case study of Tanzanian tea value chains engages the dialogue with the current literature on performativity and the recent debate in science and technology studies over the relevance of this approach in developing country contexts. I argue that in order to understand how the value of codified sustainability is being practiced in countries that were not party to its codification, we must take seriously how sustainability is enacted in the various local contexts that constitute its actor-network. Social, environmental and economic development are considered core indicators of certified sustainability and practices in Tanzanian tea value chains illustrate that sustaining the enterprise, sustaining the tea quality and sustaining adaptability constitute multiple ‘sustainabilities’ in practice. This case study illustrates the value of performativity analysis in understanding practices in multiple and diverse locales