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point is an object rather than a pre-defined social group, offer opportunity for political work

by pushing against capitalist tendencies to obscure the social and material biography of

commodities. The multiplication of institutions through bureaucratisation, the splintering of

knowledge in relation to the division of labour, and the increased medley of transnational

networks and infrastructure are some of the developments that add to the complex layers and

opacity of society (Teurling & Stauff 2014, p. 4). Our relationship with marine environments

is particularly fraught with obscurity for reasons just mentioned as well as the physical

separation that exists. To render visible otherwise hidden social, technological and ecological

dimensions can thus be a political intervention into these conditions. As Teurlings and Stauff

put it ‘transparency is not a given but must be created, and this act of creation involves a

certain degree of contingency and thus also, whether implicitly or explicitly, politics’ (2014,

p. 3). There is certainly creative and political work required (e.g. identifying, defining,

connecting, responding, practicing) in bringing about object oriented multisite ethnography.

At this stage the reader might wonder whether following projects really differ that much from

traceability schemes. What is the difference, for example, between me following and

rendering visible aspects to a tin of tuna, and a traceability scheme implemented through an

eco or fairtrade certification program? In this chapter I demonstrate some of the differences.

Throughout the entire thesis I further reflect on the relationship between following and

traceability in the context of food politics and sustainability debates. I ask what kind of

transparency project is following and how/what might following add to existing transparency

projects that are part of a sustainability assemblage?

Scholars who were pushing the boundaries of ethnography in the 1990s called for

other scholars to undertake multisite research with the people whose lives are intertwined

with the production, trade, purchase, use and disposal of things (followthethings n.d., para.

2). Cook et al. responded by vigorously taking up and developing the project within the field

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