Studying the market values and worths of the producers of organic products in Bulgaria by using the ideas of the French Convention School has enabled me to identify not just different market situations; it has enabled me to distinguish within each one of them different combinations of worths that coordinate the market exchange depending on the marketplace where it is done. What is more, using this concept has also enabled me to distinguish some local specifi cities such as “the impossible markets” and “markets (non-) encouraged by EU subsidies”, which can probably be found in other countries, too – but this is subject to future research.
The study of combinations of worths allows me to conclude that the market of organic products in Bulgaria is, in essence, a non-homogeneous structure that is coordinated simultaneously by different orders of worth. Their combination depends on the market situation and marketplace just as much as it depends on the
interpretations and judgments of the actors involved. In this sense, the identifi ed combinations of worths are stable over time insofar as the situations of exchange and the context of the marketplaces are stable; but they are also potentially liable to change at any moment depending on the actors’ interpretations and situation.
It is noteworthy that with the exception of the conventional marketplaces at which organic products are also sold (the supermarkets), the sharing of the civic worth of the importance and principles of organic production is one of the main coordinating mechanisms of market exchange. This principle takes priority even over the question of prices (the market order), and very often also over that of the worths of the industrial order (certifi cate and tests). This means that most of the market situations in which organic products are exchanged are dominated by socially-mediated mechanisms, and that the markets for organic products are (mostly) social in nature. Regardless of the political ambitions to place this social nature of the organic market under control by constant regulation, by labels, requirements for certifi cates, registers, and so on, because it has emerged as a social movement based on collectively shared values and worths this market remains dominated by the social – that is, by the situational, the subjective, and the variable – not by the transparency of objectifi ed standards and rules. This may be due to the underdevelopment of the organic market in Bulgaria as well as to the ideology of the organic farming principles which has been mastered by the actors and has become part of their discourse, but the data I have at my disposal do not allow me to discuss those hypothetically possible reasons explaining the state of the market of organic products in Bulgaria as established in this study.
References
Allen, P. and M. Kovach (2000) The capitalist composition of organic: The potential of mar- kets in fulfi lling the promise of organic agriculture. Agriculture and Human Values, 17 (3): 221-232.
Alrøe, H. F. and E. Noe (2008) What makes organic agriculture move – protest, meaning or market? A polyocular approach to the dynamics and governance of organic agriculture.
International Journal of Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology, 7 (1-2): 5-22. Apostolov, S. (2012) Bulgaria: Boom of Organic Agriculture. In: Willer, H. and L. Kilcher
(eds.), The World of Organic Agriculture. Statistics and Emerging Trends 2012. Fi- BL-IFOAM Report. Bonn: FiBL, Frick, and IFOAM, 216-220.
Banks, J. and T. Marsden (2001) The nature of rural development: The organic potential.
Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, 3 (2): 103-121.
Bioselena Foundation (2008) Ogranichavane na razprostranenieto na hrani sas zabluzh- davashta informatsia za biologichen produkt [Limiting the distribution of food-stuffs with a misleading information for organic products]. Sofi a: Bioselena Foundation. Boltanski, L. and L. Thévenot (1991) De la Justifi cation. Les économies de la grandeur.
Paris: Gallimard.
Buck, D., C. Getz and J. Guthman (1997) From Farm to Table: The Organic Vegetable Commodity Chain of Northern California. Sociologia Ruralis, 37 (1): 3-20.
Burch, D. and G. Lawrence. (2005) Supermarket own brands, supply chains and the trans- formation of the agri-food system. International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food, 13 (1): 1-28.
Campbell, H. and R. Liepins (2001) Naming Organics: Understanding Organic Standards in New Zealand as a Discursive Field. Sociologia Ruralis, 41 (1): 21-39.
Chavdarova, T. (2010) Informally Self-employed Young Bulgarians: Social Networks and Market Anonymity. In: Chavdarova, T., P. Slavova and S. Stoeva, Markets as Net- works. Sofi a: St. Kliment Ohridski University Press.
Darnhofer, I., S. Bellon, B. Dedieu and R. Milestad (2010) Adaptiveness to enhance the sustainability of farming systems. A review. Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 30 (3): 545-555.
Dicon Group (2006) Podkrepa za razvitieto na organichno zemedelie v Bulgaria chrez podsilvane na distributorskata mrezha na organichni produkti [Support for the devel- opment of organic farming in Bulgaria through reinforcement of supply networks]. Sofi a: Dicon Group.
Dzhabarova, Y. (2007) Izsledvane povedenieto na potrebitelite na pazara na biologichni hrani v Balgaria [A study of consumer behavior towards organic in Bulgaria. Ikonomika i upravlenie na selskoto stopanstvo [Agricultural Economics and Management], 52 (6): 44-49. Available at: http://www.jaem.info/2007/06-07-07.pdf [accessed 20 April 2016]. Favereau, O. and E. Lazega (eds.) (2002) Conventions and Structures in Economic Organi-
zation: Markets, Networks, and Hierarchies. Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA:
Edward Elgar.
Gil, J. M., A. Gracia and М. Sánchez (2000) Market segmentation and willingness to pay for organic products in Spain. International Food and Agribusiness Management Re- view, 3: 207-226.
Institute of Sociology (2007) Myastoto na biohranite v potrebitelskata koshnitsa na balga- rina [The place of organic foods in the consumer’s market basket in Bulgaria]. Sofi a: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.
Ivanova, D., E. Vassileva, S. Stefanov and N. Tipova (2012) Biologichnite produkti v Bulgaria [Organic products in Bulgaria]. Sofi a: University of National and World Economy. Karpik, L. (2007) Economie des singularités. Paris: Gallimard.
Kings, D. and B. Ilbery (2014) The Lifeworlds of Organic and Conventional Farmers in Cen- tral-southern England: A Phenomenological Inquiry. Sociologia Ruralis, 55 (1): 62-84. Kozhuharov, H., E. Vassileva and D. Ivanova (2004) Balgarskiyat biologichen produkt – el-
ement ot integratsionnia protses kam Evropeyskia sayuz [The Bulgarian organic prod- uct – an element of the integration process to the European Union]. Sofi a: University of National and World Economy.
Lahire, B. (2002) Portraits sociologiques. Dispositions et variations individuelles. Paris: Nathan.
Lockie, S. and D. Halpin (2005) The “Conventionalization” Thesis Reconsidered: Struc- tural and Ideological Transformation of Australian Organic Agriculture. Sociologia Ruralis, 45 (4): 284-307.
MAF (2014) Razvitie na biologichnoto zemedelie v Balgaria [Development of organic farming in Bulgaria]. Sofi a: Ministry of Agriculture and Food. Available at: http:// www.mzh.government.bg/MZH/bg/ShortLinks/BiologichnoZemedelie/Actualno. aspx [accessed 20 April 2016].
Michelsen, J., U. Hamm, E. Wynen and E. Roth (1999) The European Market for Organ- ic Products: Growth and Development. Organic Farming in Europe: Economics and
Policy, Volume 7. Stuttgart-Hohenheim: Universität Hohenheim.
NPDOFB (2006) National Plan for Development of Organic Farming in Bulgaria 2007- 2013. Sofi a: Ministry of Agriculture and Food. Available at: http://www.mzh.govern- ment.bg/MZH/Libraries/Organic_Farming/NOFAP_FINAL_en.sfl b.ashx [accessed 20 April 2016].
Panchev, H., А. Georgiev, B. Vassileva and М. Georgiev (2014) Sastoyanie na pchelarstvo- to. Fokus kam transgranichnia region: Sofi yska oblast i oblast Montana [State of bee- keeping. Focus on the cross-border region: districts of Sofi a and Montana]. Available at: http://www.bgrsbee.eu/lot%201%20-%20fi nal.doc.pdf [accessed 16 February 2015]. Paradeise, C. (1984) La marine marchande française: un marché du travail fermé? Revue
française de sociologie, 25 (3): 352-375.
Pickard, D. (2016) Collective Forms of Social Action: The Case of Organic Farming in Bulgaria. In: Stoeva, S., P. Slavova, D. Pickard and Z. Georgieva, Organic Farming in Bulgaria (1990-2012): Sociological Interpretations. Sofi a: St. Kliment Ohridski Uni- versity Press, 167-203
Radman, М. (2005) Consumer consumption and perception of organic products in Croatia.
British Food Journal, 107 (4): 263-273.
Renard, M. C. (2003) Fair Trade: quality, market and conventions. Journal of Rural Studies, 19 (1): 87-96.
Slavova, P., H. Moschitz and Z. Georgieva (2016) Development of Organic Agriculture in Bulgaria (1990-2012): Actors, Relations, and Networks. Sociologia Ruralis, DOI: 10.1111/soru.12134.
Stoeva, S. (2016) Creating Opportunities for Development of Organic Entrepreneurship in Bulgaria. In: Stoeva, S., P. Slavova, D. Pickard and Z. Georgieva. Organic Farming in Bulgaria (1990-2012): Sociological Interpretations. Sofi a: St. Kliment Ohridski Uni- versity Press,25-79
Stolze, M. and N. Lampkin (2009) Policy for organic farming: Rationale and concepts.
Food Policy, 34 (3): 237-244.
Thévenot, L. (2002) Conventions of co-ordination and the framing of uncertainty. In: Ed- ward, F. (ed.), Intersubjectivity in Economics. London: Routledge, 181-197.
Thorsøe, M. (2014) Credibility of Organics – knowledge, values and trust in Danish organ- ic food networks. PhD Dissertation. Aarhus University.
Vitosha Research (2009) Proizvodstvo, razprostranenie i potreblenie na biologichni pro- dukti v Balgaria [Production, distribution and consumption of organic products in Bul- garia]. Sofi a: Vitosha Research.
Wilkinson, J. (1997) A new paradigm for economic analysis? Recent convergences in French social science and an exploration of the convention theory approach with a consideration of its application to the analysis of the agrofood system. Economy and Society, 26 (3): 305-339.
Willer, H., J. Lernoud and L. Kilcher (eds.) (2013) The World of Organic Agriculture. Statis-
tics and Emerging Trends 2013. FiBL-IFOAM Report. Bonn: FiBL, Frick, and IFOAM.
Zagata, L. (2010) How Organic farmers view their own practice: results from the Czech Republic. Agriculture and Human Values, 27 (3): 277-290.