Commodity subsectors are social networks of human and non-human actors organized around a given commodity. They are a type of vehicle for transforming a commodity, and social relations and nature surrounding that commodity. This dissertation research is designed to improve our understanding of how a given subsector creates and maintains uniformity in a commodity through technical change. It uses the case of the rapeseed subsector in the People's Republic of China (PRC) since 1949 as an example. Each human actor in the subsector defines uniformity differently. Thus, technical changes for creating uniformity in a commodity reveal negotiations among conflicting interests in and values for that commodity in a subsector. The project follows rapeseed from production to consumption by using two complementary methods: (l) historical studies of the subsector and (2) interviews with participants. This award allows the dissertation student to undertake the documentary and field work research in the PRC needed to understand how the actors involved have negotiated the social and technical directions of rapeseed innovation.
