Aims and Objectives

A growing number of national and international organisations are carrying out research on climate change issues, for example the Tyndall research centre focuses on issues such as informing international climate policy; researching pathways to global de-carbonisation; identifying the limits and thresholds in adaptation that affect resilience to climate change; and how shorelines can be managed for the third millennium. Whilst more work is now being focussed at the sectoral level, including the agri-food sector, the discursive construction of climate change (Pettenger 2008) is only now emerging as a field of research, and is mainly focussed on the international climate regime. Private sector activities are predominantly researched at the level of multinational organisations and, as political activities, aim to influence binding collective decision-making (Kolk / Pinkse 2007). There is a lack of studies a) on actors from the food sector and b) on how their frames and discourses shape responses to governance and practice in the sector.

Given the sensitivity of the food sector to climate change, the existing uncertainty and the economic and social importance of this sector, there is a strong need to improve our understanding of how climate change impacts are translated into social meanings that orient food practices, management and governance. This translation will be decisive for the adaptive capacities of the agri-food sector.

The discursive construction of climate change has significant relevance for future patterns of food consumption and production and will determine the viability and sustainability of business models in the sector. Our approach, therefore, also focuses on what needs to change in the thinking of those within business, and in public sector management (as key business customers and stakeholders), to allow for various paths towards mitigation or adaptation, thus bringing to the fore another key BRASS theme - Responsible management thinking.

The objective of the research project will be to address a number of key questions including:

• Who along the food supply chain is publicly addressing and recognising climate change?

• How do the different actors along the chain, as well as public, private and regulatory bodies, frame and conceptualise climate change (e.g. as a moral or as an economic issue)?

• What practices do actors suggest or develop in the context of climate change, e.g. is it a matter of making energy-efficient choices or participating in a trading scheme?

• What changes (of context, governance, management, technology and behaviour orientation) in food and farming and the supply chain are envisaged by the various actors?