Tipping the scales of the blue transition: Framing the geography of a Norwegian seafood mission

Abstract

Sustainability transitions and innovation policy research has studied barriers and drivers of structural change at different spatial scales, but lacks attention to how scale is discursively invoked by actors to (il)legitimate such change. We address this gap by studying how scale is framed by actors in the issue field of a Norwegian seafood mission. Based on an analysis of ‘scale frames’ in consultation submissions to the mission's proposed implementation, the case highlights that environmental problems do not fit the jurisdictional boundaries of policy and thus induce negotiation over the geography of missions. We show that scale constitutes a crucial discursive strategy used by actors to secure their interests in the mission discourse and that attempts to depoliticize this discussion through science-based policy remain contested due to the constructed nature of scale. Future research can benefit from constructivist conceptualizations of scale and enrich our understanding of geography with institutional and power perspectives.