444 Localized Food Systems
investment industry is typically being researched within the accounting and
finance disciplines (e.g. Gray et al, 1995).- Changing consumer demand for ethically and environmentally acceptable
products and the response of companies to demands for such products, new
information and new marketing approaches is typically being researched by
the marketing and economics disciplines (e.g. Menon and Menon, 1997). - The evolution of environmental and social regulation and its impact on firms
is typically researched within the legal and public policy discipline (e.g. Gar-
rod, 2000). - The implications of sustainability in terms of industry structure and infra-
structure is typically a focus of research in the planning, geography and public
policy disciplines (e.g. Ogu, 2000). - And, the influence of global capital flows and governance standards is prima-
rily researched within the law, finance and international relations disciplines
(see Brack, 1995).
Yet, in all these areas environmental social science, and more specifically rural social
science, has a potentially important role to play, particularly in understanding how
these changing business, government and community relationships are spaced and
re-spaced. In the food sector, for instance, the contested competitive spaces between
conventional and alternative supply chains is occurring in a broader context of a
reduced reliance simply upon legal compliance as a justification and legitimization of
actions. In this sense de jure regulation is not enough. Also, there is a broadening
amongst many firms of the ‘stakeholder concept’ whereby companies are increas-
ingly having to respond not just to customers and investors, but also those with a
physical stake in their actions, including the communities within which they operate
and NGOs representing myriad interests (Polonsky, 1995). We see this empirically,
for instance in the redefinition of UK Forestry Commission policy and the new sets
of relationships developing with government agencies. Moreover, consumer groups
and governments have traditionally championed consumer rights in terms of choice,
value and safety of products. Yet concerns over the sustainability and social respon-
siveness of businesses has led to an increased interest among stakeholders about the
methods and consequences of production (Peattie, 1999). This is most easily observ-
able within the food industry, where concern is centred on issues relating to produc-
tion practices – such as the use of chemicals, the use of genetically modified organisms
and the constituents of animal feedstuffs, pollution and the destruction of habitats.
These trends suggest, at the very least, a set of key research questions:
- How are changing patterns of demand leading to the development of more
sustainable and socially responsible strategies, products and technologies? - What types of new market and institutional structures (e.g. supply loops and
networks) will develop in response to product take-back, as businesses are
required by legislation and consumer pressure to become even more account-
able for the life cycle of their products?