Fields of Friction - Swedish Farmers’ Negotiations of Fairness, Contradictions and Value in the Context of the EU-Mercosur Trade Agreement

Sammanfattning

This thesis examines how Swedish farmers experience and interpret the EU-Mercosur Trade Agreement, and what these perceptions reveal about broader tensions in the EU agricultural governance. Through an anthropological lens, the findings indicate that concerns are not primarily driven by opposition to trade, but by perceptions of unequal regulatory conditions, contradictory policy goals and reduced farmer autonomy. Drawing on theoretical frameworks regarding friction, audit culture, value and interdependence, this thesis argues that the Mercosur agreement exposes broader tensions between sustainability, market integration and agricultural livelihood. Farmers describe experiences of unfair competition and regulatory asymmetry, they find that the theory of the regulations cannot be made to work in practice and attempts to modify the regulations fall on deaf ears. This results in attempts to make local concerns heard at the European level, through protests and lobbying efforts. The agreement becomes a lens through which larger transformations in EU agriculture are made visible.