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Journal Articles by Anders Riel Muller

European Journal of Cultural Studies, 2022

This article critically interrogates media coverage of Claus Meyer, Danish gastroentrepreneur, fo... more This article critically interrogates media coverage of Claus Meyer, Danish gastroentrepreneur, founder of New Nordic Cuisine, and co-founder of the restaurant noma. The article analyzes how the Danish press has constructed Meyer as an exemplary social entrepreneur on a mission to take on established agro-industrial interests and change the ways we produce and consume food. We argue that uncritical media narratives, that positioned Claus Meyer as the little man who successfully took on the establishment, in fact helped to produce brand value for his company in part by glossing over his close ties to state and corporate interests as well as Meyer's quite conventional business practices. The media's portrayal of Meyer as an entrepreneur on a social mission constitutes an uncritical celebration of the social entrepreneur and the marketization of society.

This article provides a critical intervention into South Korea's recent effort to promote its 197... more This article provides a critical intervention into South Korea's recent effort to promote its 1970s authoritarian-era rural modernization program, Saemaul Undong (New Village Movement), as the 'iconic' model of its international development assistance. To better understand how this movement has been represented, this article examines the policy narratives that have been produced by the Korean govern-ment's Knowledge Sharing Program (KSP) and circulated through multiple development cooperation initiatives. These narratives portray Saemaul as the key to Korea's developmental success: a mental revolution in values that inculcated the 'can-do' spirit in poor rural villagers and allowed them to escape poverty and stagnation. We argue that the emphasis of this narrative on the spiritual, voluntary, and value-oriented nature of the movement has been used to 'render technical' Korea's development experience: i.e. to reduce it to a question of how development experts successfully cultivated the spirit of development in the Korean people and, by extension, how developing countries might do the same. We show how this narrative neglects the contested history and Cold War context of Saemaul, raising questions about the 'brand' of development assistance that has been built upon it.

Social Kritik, 2015

This article explores the media representations of Danish food entrepreneur and co-founder of New... more This article explores the media representations of Danish food entrepreneur and co-founder of New Nordic Cuisine Claus Meyer. The article argues that media coverage of his rise to celebrity status becomes representative of the Neo-liberal Social Entrepreneur - a figure that comes to embody the marketization of the social and individulization as regulatory technologies Dey (2010; 2011).

The Journal of Environment & Development, Jun 2014

Environmental aid has become a major component of development aid. We analyzed the contingent cha... more Environmental aid has become a major component of development aid. We analyzed the contingent characters of environ mental aid of Japan and South Korea using the
definition of Williams, which regards aid policy as donor driven and autobiographical of the donor agencies and societies from which they sprang. Both Japan and South
Korea consider environ mental aid as an important tool of their diplomacy.
A combination of a moral obligation and domestic, international, political, and economic interests underpin both countries’ environmental aid policy. Seen from the
stated policies and practices, both countries use accounts of their past as once developing countries trying to catch up in their aid narrative. In this manner, the environmental aid of Japan and South Korea is autobiographic, reflecting their interpretation of their own development history and position in global politics.

Book Chapters by Anders Riel Muller

Alternative Food Politics: From the Margins to the Mainstream, 2018

New Nordic Cuisine (NNC) has undoubtedly placed Scandinavia on the culinary map. This region, whi... more New Nordic Cuisine (NNC) has undoubtedly placed Scandinavia on the culinary map. This region, which before the 2000s was a black spot on the global gastronomic food map, has now become a site of pilgrimage for foodies from around the world who praise the values of a locavore, vegetable-focused Nordic cuisine with an innovative culinary expression and an emphasis on place-based sustainable production. It has also gained much attention at a political level and sparked a renewed interest in food politics in the region. But how much has NNC really changed Nordic food practices?

New Challenges to Food Security: From Climate Change to Fragile States, Nov 20, 2014

South Korea is one of the major economic successes of post-war reconstruction and development. Mu... more South Korea is one of the major economic successes of post-war reconstruction and development. Much has been written about the successful role of the state in designing industrial policies and keeping tight control of business and finance. But the state not only tightly managed strategic industrial sectors, it was and still is deeply involved in food supply management. This is an often overlooked and perhaps less successful aspect of the South Korean developmental state. This chapter outlines how government policies for food and agriculture have changed over time, highlighting the strong role of the state, the challenges of securing food supplies, and the framing of food supply management in national (food) security terms. The findings are that food security is a concept that in effect has been used as a matter of national security concern by the state to mobilize the people, but that the particular challenges that food security policy tried to address have changed significantly.

Dissertation by Anders Riel Muller

Fair Trade kaffe har gennem det seneste årti opnået en maerkbar popularitet blandt forbrugere i E... more Fair Trade kaffe har gennem det seneste årti opnået en maerkbar popularitet blandt forbrugere i Europe og Nord Amerika, men endnu vigtigere har Fair Trade betydet en vigtig økonomisk indsprøjtning for Mexico's hårdt traengte små kaffeproducenter, som i de senere år har lidt hårdt under den internationale kaffekrise. Der er dog en problematisk forståelse af sammenhaengen mellem Fair Trade som et økonomisk system og Fair Trade som en udviklingsmodel. Højere priser kan ikke defineres som vaerende udvikling i sig selv. I denne rapport argumenteres der for, at en forståelse af sammenhaengen mellem Fair Trade og udvikling, må anse kaffe kooperativet som det institutionelle link mellem Fair Trade og udvikling. Det er kombinationen mellem et mere retfaerdigt handelssystem og lokal decentraliseret udvikling gennem den kooperative bevaegelse, der gør det til en saerlig udviklingsmodel. Studier af Fair Trade har dog en tendens til udelukkende at fokusere på den økonomiske side af modellen. Kooperativet har dog udover sin økonomiske dimension, en vigtig funktion som udbyder af sociale ydelser til producenterne og som et kollektivt forum for "empowerment", laering og kapacitetsudvikling. Gennem case studier af to mexicanske kaffekooperativer forsøger vi i denne rapport at redegøre for relationen mellem disse tre dimensioner af kooperativet som institution og derved bidrage til en dybere forståelse af relationen mellem Fair Trade og udvikling.

This dissertation asks the research questions, “What historical trajectory can explain South Kore... more This dissertation asks the research questions, “What historical trajectory can explain South Korea’s rising food import dependence and how did this import dependence lead to a perception of a food security crisis that required an overseas agricultural strategy?” In answering this research question the dissertation challenges a central assumption in much media, policy, and scholarly analysis of the global food price crisis of 2007-8 (and the subsequent period): that the crisis necessarily represented a “food security” crisis for food import-dependent states, and that those states would naturally respond to that crisis by investing in overseas agricultural production. This narrative and these assumptions have played a key role in much of the academic literature on the “global land grab” that has emerged since 2010. This thesis, however, demonstrates both that those connections are not in fact automatic ones, and that in South Korea in particular they have emerged out of a specific national history.
The dissertation pays particular attention to the rise of beef production and consumption and the consequences meatification of diets and agriculture has impacted food import dependence as well as how Hanwoo beef has become a symbol of nationalism.

Papers by Anders Riel Muller

DIIS Working Paper 2013:08

"Environmental aid has become a major component of foreign aid, as environ- mental degradati... more "Environmental aid has become a major component of foreign aid, as environ- mental degradation and climate change have arisen as global concerns. Japan contends it has committed itself to the protection of the global environment since the 90s, and environmental aid has been an important part of that effort. South Korea has recently become an emerging actor in the development aid community and has also started to market its green diplomacy through pro- grams such as the Global Green Growth Institute. Meanwhile, both Japanese aid and Korean aid have been criticized for being driven by their economic in- terests rather than altruism and that they focus too strongly on infrastructure projects. Against this background, we aim to analyze and compare Japanese and Ko- rean environmental aid to shed light on the influence that emerging agents of aid such as South Korea can bring to the political dynamics and the overall governance of environmental aid. In our analysis, we refer to the definition of Williams (2002), which regards aid policy as an ‘autobiography’ of donor coun- tries. Using an ‘autobiography’ approach we examine five elements of Japanese and Korean environmental aid: The bureaucratic and institutional imperatives, the internal procedures and processes, the stated policies, the practices and particular attitude that underlie them, and the broader impulse behind aid. By moving away from an altruistic/self-interest dichotomy, this analysis seeks to understand autobiographic trajectories of Japanese and Korean environmental aid rather than to evaluate them."

Paper presented at UNEP Risoe Centre September 2012. South Korea’s national Low Carbon Green Gro... more Paper presented at UNEP Risoe Centre September 2012.

South Korea’s national Low Carbon Green Growth has been heralded as one of the most ambitious national development plans to address climate change and environmental destruction. Nevertheless, the plan is hotly contested within Korea for not being green enough and replacing the sustainable development paradigm with a green growth paradigm. In this paper I seek to highlight these critiques and put them into the context of Korean politics. Is the green growth plan really green or it is rather old economic development strategies in green bottles?

DIIS Working Paper 2013:08, 2013

There has been many reports of large scale land investments by South Korean companies most notabl... more There has been many reports of large scale land investments by South Korean companies most notably the now infamous Daewoo Madagascar deal in 2008, but very little actual research has been done on the scale, scope and nature of South Korean overseas agricultural investments. The findings show that the scale and scope Korean government supported agricultural activities overseas is lower than reported in international media, and that Korean is not a major player in overseas agricultural activities still dominated by large private actors. Secondly, we seek to provide a deeper understanding of Korean activity, the historical origins of South Korean food import dependence, and how it has led to the current focus on overseas food production and trade. Finally, we provide a review of the Korean government's 10 Year Plan for Overseas Agricultural Development, the main support policy for Korean overseas agricultural projects.