Neoliberal transformation of sovereignty over seed and the counter-movement

The subject of this thesis is the relationship between the process of neoliberal transformation of sovereignty over seeds and plant genetic resources and the protectionist counter-movements against this transformation. This study aims to reveal the relationship within the double movement on seeds and plant genetic resources with a holistic and relational analysis. For this purpose, in the first chapter of the thesis, Karl Polanyi's concept of double movement, the political economy of agriculture and food and the neoliberal transformation of sovereignty are introduced as a conceptual framework. In the second chapter, the general conceptual framework discussed in the first chapter has examined in terms of seeds and plant genetic resources, and the neoliberal transformation of sovereignty and the commodification of seeds have been evaluated. In the third chapter, the international and national counter-movements that emerged against the effects of this transformation have been exemplified within their different practices and discourses including the international organizations, the legal arrangements of particular states and the initiatives developed by the civil society organisations. This thesis concludes that the relationship within the double movement on seeds and plant genetic resources affirms Harriet Friedmann's complex approach - one of three main approaches to the neoliberal food regime described in the first chapter. According to the complex approach, the interrelationship within the double movement has been shaped in a complex structure with multiple actors and levels; and the actors within this structure continuously change and develop while interacting with each other.