Co-constructing sustainability: Agencing sustainable coffee farmers in Uganda

This article explores the sustainability initiatives undertaken in a non-certified market involving an indigenous Southern firm and smallholder coffee farmers in Uganda. In response to recent calls, we take a performative approach to sustainability and employ an agencing lens to ask the question: how are sustainable coffee farmers constituted in concrete situations, and what role do they play in co-constructing sustainability? The ethnographic study undertaken reveals the proactive and interactive participation of farmers in co-constructing sustainability. Also unveiled, are the continuous and iteratively emergent agencing processes involving firms, farmers, and market devices, which collectively create variably-agenced sustainable farmers who perform diverse versions of sustainability.