Agri-food in search of sustainability: cognitive, interactional and material framing

Abstract

The agri-food sector is under pressure to move towards sustainability and broad socio-technical changes are needed. In such encompassing innovation processes that concern the whole agri-food chain, actors with different institutional backgrounds are confronted with each others interests, ideas and perspectives. Framing, then, may both support and hinder the alignment of actors and interests. In this paper we investigate how framing occurs in multi-actor innovation projects and how it facilitates or hinders the continuity of these projects. We first review the broad literature on framing, which leads to a typology of three levels of framing: face-to-face interaction (between individuals), global discourse (within society) and localised collective (in projects). In addition, we add a third category to the traditional distinction between ‘cognitive’ and ‘interactional’ framing. We argue that in socio-technical innovations also ‘material’ framing occurs. In an empirical case study, based on in-depth interview...