Institutions, cultural politics and the destabilizing Malaysian pig industry

Rising demand for meat has led to changing modes of production in the livestock industry and prompted varied institutional and regulatory changes. For the most part, the latter are enabling measures not fundamentally aimed at restraining the overall growth of the industry. In other words, specific institutional changes are meant to reduce uncertainty by providing a structure to everyday life although at a broader spatial scale, an institutional approach suggests that (a region’s) social infrastructure can help or hinder economic growth. In tracing recent developments in the Malaysian pig industry, this paper highlights an institutional regime that is stable on the surface but is in actuality prone to destabilization. Specifically, the role of cultural politics in shaping, sustaining and destabilizing institutional behavior and regimes will be examined, using the case study of the Malaccan pig industry. In explicating how institutional regimes and development are stabilized and destabilized, the paper argues that cultural politics might be an intractable stumbling block to the future growth and development of the industry.