Observing trade flows at a Southern African border reveals that different commodities move differently, raising the question of why some commodities stop when others flow, and why some flows move faster when others experience speed reductions and stoppages. This paper is concerned with presenting a theoretical framework – the flow regime framework – to make sense of the uneven rhythms and manners of the flow of commodities. Building on a review of four economic geography trends (transport geography, logistics studies, thing-following studies, and scalar analysis) and of the orderings and dichotomies they create, I argue that we need a non-hierarchical way to understand the complexity and variability of trade flows and traders’ strategies along different paces and rhythms. The flow regimes, defined as lasting socio-technical agencements of practices, actors, infrastructure uses, and ideologies, comprise the proposed theoretical solution to make sense of the variability of commodities’ paces. This theoretical framework is illustrated empirically through the examples of the three flow regimes identified in the Central African Copperbelt, based on 11 months of ethnographic fieldwork: the off-road regime, characterised by modular and flexible rhythms; the spare-wheel regime, whose flows are subjected to state-induced accelerations and stoppages; and the power-steering regime, based on costly public and private technologies allowing for fast and fluid commercial movements. Without attempting to describe a particular scale of action, the concept of regimes makes it possible to analyse head-on activities that are usually studied separately (such as “small” border trade and flows driven by large logistics firms). I conclude by suggesting that the flow regimes framework allows to highlight how the globalisation of flows features irregularity and lumpiness.

中文翻译：

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使用流动状态框架去层次化商业运动的分析：来自中非铜带的案例研究

观察南部非洲边境的贸易流动表明，不同的商品流动方式不同，这就提出了一个问题：为什么有些商品在其他商品流动时停止，而为什么有些商品在其他商品减速和停止时流动得更快。本文关注的是提出一个理论框架——流动状态框架——来理解商品流动的不平衡节奏和方式。基于对四种经济地理学趋势（交通地理学、物流研究、事物跟踪研究和标量分析）及其产生的排序和二分法的回顾，我认为我们需要一种非等级的方式来理解复杂性和可变性贸易流动和贸易商策略的不同步伐和节奏。流动状态，定义为持久的社会技术代理实践、行为者、基础设施用途和意识形态构成了拟议的理论解决方案，以理解商品步伐的可变性。基于 11 个月的人种学田野调查，通过中非铜带中确定的三种流态的例子经验性地说明了这一理论框架：越野流态，以模块化和灵活的节奏为特征；备胎制度，其流动受到状态引起的加速和停止；以及基于昂贵的公共和私人技术的动力转向制度，允许快速和流畅的商业运动。不试图描述特定的行动规模，制度的概念使得分析通常单独研究的正面活动成为可能（例如“小型”边境贸易和大型物流公司推动的流动）。最后，我建议流动制度框架可以突出流动的全球化如何具有不规则性和块状性。