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Map a supply chain backwards

You’ve been walking, documenting contamination, looking at what emerges from disturbance. Now I want you to do something different: trace value backwards through a chain of translation.

Imagine this idea from Tsing’s book: Matsutake mushrooms move from Oregon forests → Japanese wholesalers → Tokyo restaurants. At each point, the mushroom is re-valued. What it “is” changes. A picker sees food/money. A wholesaler sees inventory/risk. A chef sees tradition/season. The mushroom is the same object, but its meaning gets translated at each node.

She calls this “salvage accumulation”—capitalism extracting value from non-capitalist spaces by translating across incommensurable systems. The matsutake has value because it connects worlds that don’t speak the same language.

Your task:

Pick ONE object you can buy in Berlin that connects to the Middle East. Not “Middle Eastern food” (too general, too obvious). Something weirder: a cheap plastic toy, a specific spice, a building material, fabric, a phone card, a remittance service, knock-off electronics, cooking oil, cement, …

Then trace it backwards:

  1. Where/how did you encounter it? (Which shop, which neighbourhood, what context?)
  2. Who sold it to you? What did they say about it/price it as?
  3. Where did THEY get it? (Ask them. Actually ask. Document the conversation.)
  4. Keep going back: distributor → importer → manufacturer → materials

At each translation point, document:

  • How is value measured here? (price? weight? authenticity? legality? convenience?)
  • What does the object “mean” at this node? (What category does it belong to?)
  • What knowledge is required to make this translation work? (Whose metis?)
  • What gets lost/transformed in the translation?

The challenge: You probably can’t trace the whole chain. You’ll hit a wall—someone who won’t tell you, records that don’t exist, a border where information stops. Document where the chain becomes opaque and why.

What could be worth to bring to the next sessions:

  • Your map/diagram of the chain (visual, not just text)
  • One paragraph: What does this object’s journey teach you about how value crosses incommensurable worlds?
  • One question: Where in this chain does Scott’s “legibility” break down—and who benefits from that opacity?


Nur der Text ist unter der Lizenz Creative Commons Namensnennung 4.0 International nutzbar. Alle anderen Elemente (Abbildungen, importierte Anhänge) sind „Alle Rechte vorbehalten“, sofern nicht anders angegeben.


OpenEdition schlägt Ihnen vor, diesen Beitrag wie folgt zu zitieren:
Victoria Mummelthei (12. Januar 2026). Map a supply chain backwards. Keine Disziplin – No Discipline. Abgerufen am 9. März 2026 von https://doi.org/10.58079/15hlq


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