Constructing categories, shaping transitions: the institutionalization of bioinputs in Argentina

Bioinputs have gained prominence in agricultural policy debates in Latin America as part of broader bioeconomy agendas. In Argentina, they have been promoted as environmentally friendly alternatives to synthetic agrochemicals, yet their institutionalization unfolded within a highly entrenched agrochemical regime. This article analyzes how bioinputs emerged and stabilized as a policy category, and what this process reveals about socio-technical transitions in agro-export-oriented economies. Drawing on socio-technical transitions scholarship and Science and Technology Studies (STS), the article conceptualizes bioinputs as a performative socio-technical category the meaning of which is actively constructed through policy instruments, advisory arenas, and actor coalitions. The analysis is based on semi-structured interviews and documentary research covering the period 2012–2024. The findings show that bioinputs were institutionalized through mechanisms of incremental stabilization, selective accommodation, and discursive reframing rather than through disruptive technological substitution. While these processes rendered bioinputs visible and governable, they also constrained their transformative potential. The article argues that sustainability transitions in agro-export economies may advance less through regime displacement than through the institutionalization of flexible categories that enable coexistence and partial change within dominant regimes.