Matthew J. Zinsli - Research

Matthew J. Zinsli

Peer-reviewed Journal Articles

Zinsli, Matthew J. (2023). Authorizing the ‘taste of place’ for Galápagos Islands coffee: Scientific knowledge, development politics, and power in geographical indication implementation. Agriculture and Human Values. 40(2), 581-597. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10460-022-10364-9

Book Reviews

Zinsli, Matthew J. (2022). Review of Cultivating knowledge: Biotechnology, sustainability, and the human cost of cotton capitalism in India by Andrew Flachs (University of Arizona Press, 2019), Rural Sociology, 87(1), 332-335. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ruso.12432

Zinsli, Matthew J. (2020). Review of On the backs of tortoises: Darwin, Galápagos, and the fate of an evolutionary Eden by Elizabeth Hennessy (Yale University Press, 2019), Island Studies Journal, 15(1), 274-276. https://www.proquest.com/docview/2416913857

As a scholar, I use food as a lens to explore the role of science and technology in evolving forms of global governance, economic development, and environmental sustainability. As such, my work speaks to several fields, including development studies, international relations, agrofood studies, science and technology studies, and environmental studies.

My dissertation, Terroir technopolitics: The legitimation of geographical indications in the Global South, draws on interview, ethnographic, and archival data collected across multiple sites in France and Ecuador. Geographical indications (GI) are state-protected product standards that tie quality or reputation to named geographical origins (e.g., Champagne). Since the 1990s, GI have been central to international trade disputes, food system governance, and the agendas of major development institutions. European states and agencies promote GI to the Global South, yet this development project has been critiqued as neocolonial and neoliberal. I use the case of Ecuador’s recent initiatives to investigate how the legitimacy of GI as development policy and practice is maintained despite growing evidence against it.

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