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Tomi Lehtimäki (2019)The International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food, 25(1), pp. 545–563Abstract. This article examines how organic agriculture has been justified as a public issue. Using Boltanski’s and Thévenot’s pragmatic sociology, the article examines media discussions on organic agriculture in two Finnish newspapers. During the periods under examination (1982–1988, 1995–2000, 2008–2012), organic agriculture grew from a marginal movement into an established part of agricultural policy. The results show that different justifications for organic and conventional agriculture were connected to differing conceptions of collectivities and the common good. According to the analysis, issues related to the economic, environmental and technical aspects of agriculture have been the most dominant ones. These different ‘orders of worth’ have provided differing possibilities for actors to make connections between general principles and particular claims. In addition, a central way of structuring justifications has been a national conception of food and production, which has influenced conceptions of common good. Whereas advocates of organic agriculture constructed their justifications according to the opposition between organic and conventional, critiques conceptualized the issue as an opposition between organic and domestic production. This national framework has both downplayed the relevance of organic agriculture and framed it as an economic issue. Therefore, the study concludes by suggesting elaborations for the understanding of the organic–conventional dichotomy as well as on economic justifications in the politics of organic agriculture, interpreting both through theconceptions of collectivity and the common good.Excerpt. Pragmatic sociology, or conventions theory, has been applied in numerous agri-food studies (e.g. Murdoch and Miele, 1999; Raynolds, 2004; Rosin and Campbell, 2009; Andersen, 2011; Sage and Goldberger, 2012). These studies have emphasized the multiple qualities of (organic) agriculture and food (Murdoch et al., 2000) as well as the different forms of practical coordination needed beyond official certification (Seppänen and Helenius, 2004; Truninger, 2008; Bernzen and Braun, 2014). According to Ponte (2016), two strands can be identified in agri-food studies using conventions theory: the ‘worlds of production’ framework, based primarily on Salais and Storper’s (1992) work; and the ‘orders of worth’ approach by Boltanski and Thévenot. Here, I will focus on the latter, examining how conventionalized principles justify and legitimize different forms of agriculture. While authors have argued for the usefulness of Boltanski and Thévenot’s approach on the analysis of ‘quality’ production (Murdoch et al., 2000; Ponte, 2009), here I will emphasize their focus on political sociology (e.g. Blokker, 2011; Thévenot, 2011, 2014; Luhtakallio, 2012; Blok, 2013; Gladarev and Lonkila, 2013) as an important strand of research. This strand also focuses on conventions of qualification, but emphasizes that the different conventions of justification are debates about the common good.p. 549Link to the review (PDF in open access)