Unidad

 What are the difficulties and satisfactions of doing this?

 What is driving this agenda?

 What are the challenges ahead?

 Anything to add?

Source: The Author

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The three methods of data generation resulted in three data sets: the description of policy for social sustainability in the food supply, plus 135 Data Extraction Sheets and 27 interview transcripts. The task then was to analyse the material in ways that respected the nature of the data sources, related the information to the Research Questions, and led inductively to

‘descriptive explanations’ (Mason 1996: 137) of the phenomena being studied.

Theoretical sampling is closely linked methodologically to grounded theory (or theorising), where explanatory theories arise from the data and are refined in an iterative process as data collection progresses (Bryman 2001; Corbin and Holt 2011). This approach seemed attractive. According to Hammersley and Atkinson (2007), it rejects both a model in which ideas are taken from the literature and then tested against data, and also the contrasting conception of research as ‘dredging through an inert mound of data to produce descriptions of what is there’ (Hammersley and Atkinson: 159). In practice, the analysis did proceed in tandem with data generation, in a recursive way, and theories arose that could be explored by more data collection.

However, grounded theorising is heavily dependent on the application of consistent codes or categories across the whole body of data (Blaikie 2009). This was problematic, given three very different bodies of data. It also felt reductive, and it was feared that if strict coding was applied to all the data, the result would lack coherence.

As an alternative, thematic analysis was used to analyse all three types of data. Thematic analysis also uses coding – or indexing, in Mason’s phrase (1996) – but more flexibly. Data are scanned for striking ideas, repetitions and patterns, and these form the basis of the themes that guide the analysis (and inform ongoing data generation). The approach was chosen partly because of the researcher’s background in literature as well as policy, and was based on careful, critical reading, re-reading and cross-checking (a version of ‘close reading’, Empson 1961 [1930]) of the three types of texts collected: policy documents, Data Sheets and transcripts. No analytical software was used, for two reasons. The first one concerned the time and logistical difficulties presented by mastering and accessing the relevant software. The second was that apart from the interview transcripts, the documentary data used the researcher’s own language, with quotations from the websites and policy

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documents. It was feared that analytical software might not yield consistent and dependable results when applied across the three data sets, and only applying it to the interviews would be distortive. The researcher had in the past conducted thematic analysis (of both policies and interview transcripts) by the methods used, and was confident they would be dependable.

The analysis also made use of elements of Discourse Analysis, which pays attention to (among other things) texts. All of the data finally took the form of texts, and the websites and policy documents pre-existed as texts that were not produced by the researcher.

Beyond this, the thesis takes the approach that governance itself is a form of discourse, as discussed in Chapter 3. Texts such as policy documents and websites are discursive tools of governance, both reflecting and shaping social practice (Fairclough 1992). Close attention to the use of language (terms and words chosen or avoided, recurrent phrases, narratives and arguments) formed part of the analysis process.

Guided by the Research Questions, in all cases, the data was scanned for:

 Definitions of social sustainability, within and separately from sustainability;

 Interpretations (other than explicit definitions) of social sustainability;

 Attributes, themes and concerns associated with social sustainability;

 Attributes, themes and concerns elsewhere associated with social sustainability but not so labelled in this data source;

 Other labels and headings under which these concerns were addressed;

 Actions to implement social sustainability (policies, practices, interactions, tools, initiatives, etc.)

The policy documents were thematically analysed, but the data was not broken down into separate thematic documents. Rather, the themes were highlighted in a single descriptive document, which maintained the chronological order in which the policy was published.

The websites were thematically analysed initially at the point of investigation, with the researcher collecting information relevant to the themes identified in the Data Extraction Sheets. The Sheets themselves were then thematically analysed, and the thematic data collated, and eventually integrated with the thematically analysed interview data. To assist

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the process, the 135 Data Extraction Sheets were summarised into Data Tables. This process involved considerable compression of the information, with the selection again guided by careful reading of the Data Extraction Sheets in relation to the Research Questions and emerging themes. Table 4.4 provides some examples of the data summaries used in the Data Tables. The website entities were organised into categories as part of the analysis process, in order both to better understand their activities and interactions, and to help monitor the scope of the terrain and the coverage of interviewees in relation to websites.

This was an iterative process, with categories merging and splitting as new types of actor were identified. The categories are described in detail in Chapter 6, which discusses the nature of the governance actors. The Data Tables were also organised into these categories, and are presented in full in Annex F.

Analysis of the interviews began as they were transcribed. Recurrent ideas, linguistic patterns, patterns in reported activities and omissions were noted in a separate file, with a tag indexing their location in the data. Themes were partly thrown up by the data and partly determined by the Research Questions. Repeated reading and cross-checking of the

transcripts led to more thematic tagging, with relevant passages electronically cut and pasted into thematically organised documents. These were progressively consolidated, and the thematic documents eventually integrated with the themed analysis of the website data.

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Table 4 4 Examples of website data summaries included in Data Tables Actor Type of organisation Prominence of

sustainability

Scope of activity:

Examples of social themes / concerns / aspirations

Operationalisation:

Examples of how social themes were acted on

Iglo Group Manufacturer of branded frozen food products – in UK, mainly Bird’s Eye.

Ethical trading (not engaging in practices detrimental to workers’

rights)

Provided labelling to enable healthy choices;

Counted the supply of frozen vegetables as a social benefit on the grounds of their healthiness;

Required suppliers to register with Sedex, using 3rd party auditing;

Required suppliers to comply with Iglo Group Code of Practice Lidl Discount retailer, 600+

stores in UK. Part of one of largest European food retail chains. Family-owned private company (Germany)

Not prominent Respectful treatment of customers, employees and business partners;

The ‘Fairglobe’ scheme addresses workers’ livelihoods in supplier countries

Had Codes of Conduct to operationalise commitments to staff, customers and business partners;

Had its own fair trade designation, Fairglobe, ‘to allow customers to help producers in Africa, Asia and Latin America ... and help raise awareness of sustainable production’;

Supported a children’s cancer charity Compass Contract foodservice (and

facilities management)

Not prominent ‘Our people’;

Sustainable sourcing;

Worker safety and development;

The Purchasing Policy said the company had a ‘moral

responsibility to consider the social impacts of our activities’

Provided apprenticeships;

Provided training via Chefs Academy and Services Management Academy;

Disseminated nutrition and healthy eating information via packaging and an online platform;

Promoted healthy options and reformulated foods to improve nutritional profile;

Used UK and Irish products where possible;

Avoided animal products from sources that did not observe the ‘Five Freedoms’;

100% of sugar and bananas were Fairtrade;

Had its own Development charity, Eatfair, which supported projects in Uganda

Unite the Union

Union for workers in food retail, food service,

manufacturing, horticulture and farming

Not prominent Equity;

Pay;

Discrimination at work;

Worker and workplace rights

Organised protest against food logistics company Kuehne &

Nagel over proposed restructuring and relocation of workforce;

Campaigned against zero-hours contracts Benchmark

Holdings

Group of food supply chain sustainability consultancies

Developed a food supply sustainability framework based on

‘3Es’ -- environment, economics and ethics;

Ran the Food Animal Initiative, promoting sustainable food

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animal production, with commercial research farms in UK, Brazil and China;

Conducted livestock farm modelling, e.g. for McDonald’s Europe and Chinese government by the EHI Retail Institute, a German research

Workers’ rights based on ILO criteria;

Procedural issues such as provision of payroll records;

Training

Ran a voluntary (but widely required) standard for agricultural production, with some social criteria;

Since 2011, ran GRASP (Risk Assessment on Social Practice) as an optional add-on to the main standard

Business in company, part of the Prince of Wales’s Charities, a group of non-profits of which the Prince is president

Promoted ‘marketplace sustainability’ (where businesses prosper by producing goods or providing services that contribute to high-quality, sustainable lifestyles;

Disseminated the above idea through networking, sharing best practice, toolkits (e.g. ‘Sustainable Business Toolkit’);

Ran the CR Index, a framework enabling companies to benchmark their responsibility performance;

Ran awards for CSR and a Community Investment standard;

Ran a grant-giving body to support sustainable rural livelihoods Bonsucro

Developed and ran a standard for production and primary processing of cane sugar;

Helped suppliers / processors to meet criteria

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4.7 Some limitations of the chosen research methods

A caveat has already been mentioned about the use of websites, which are ephemeral and dynamic, and where the information is often unsourced or unverifiable (although this may also be true of other textual sources). It is also the case that basing research on websites necessarily limits it to entities that have websites; however, in the chosen area this did not seem to be a serious problem, as only one of the entities targeted for information proved to have too basic a website to sustain examination.

A strength of theoretical and snowball sampling is that because they are open-ended and prospective, they help avoid the pitfall of definer bias, identified in the literature as a hazard in studies of social sustainability, where the researcher in effect sets out to look for a pre-defined phenomenon and then either does or does not find it (McKenzie 2004). However, a risk of the methods is that they may lead off in tangents, resulting in misleading

observation. For example, because the chains of inquiry lead from one entity to another, there may be a danger that entities not in any way linked to those being investigated might be missed. Hence, although the research found many organisations dedicated to facilitating business sustainability, it is possible that it missed organisations entirely hostile to this activity. To guard against this, the data sources were continually checked for relevance, categorised and re-categorised (to form an evolving map of the terrain under investigation), and efforts were made to be open-minded in seeking and checking data sources.

Another inherent feature of the methods is that the research can seem endless. Although theoretical saturation was reached within categories, new categories and sub-categories could have been further investigated if more time had been available.

It is also the case that the theoretical sampling method led the research away from areas well understood by the researcher, into terrain that called for new expertise. This was useful – one of the lessons of the study was that some knowledge of the business ‘mentality’ is essential to understanding business practice on sustainability; but it was also challenging, requiring the researcher to acquire basic knowledge of company law.

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The selection of interviewees was necessarily opportunistic. Although the researcher assessed the suitability of each potential interviewee, in some cases first preference interviewees were unavailable and had to be substituted. Overall, though, it was felt that good coverage of the terrain had been achieved.

However, beyond this, the selection of interviewees may also colour the nature of the findings. Interviewees with some seniority were chosen because they were expected to provide (and did provide) detailed and confident assessments of their organisations’

activities. But the point of view of more junior staff members might have been different, and is not expressed. It is also possible that the selection of interviewees from within the branches of organisations that worked on sustainability may have given a ‘pro-sustainability’

bias to the discussions. A different view might be gained from interviewing employees in the same organisations responsible not for sustainability but for finance (several interviewees pointed out that this is where much decision-making power lies). As noted at the end of the thesis, it would be interesting to repeat the interview component of the study, talking to financial officers.

With these limitations, the methods were found to provide an abundance of relevant data that yielded answers to the Research Questions.

4.8 Ethics

Ethical approval for the research was granted by City University’s Senate Research Ethics Committee (Annex G).

To avoid risk, the interviews were conducted in a variety of public or semi-public settings, such as university offices, the interviewees’ places or work, or cafés. All interviewees were advised of procedures for withdrawing from the process, and gave written consent to be interviewed, recorded, and for the data to be anonymised, stored and used as part of this thesis.

All documentary data was collected from public, online sources, so no copyright issues arose.

The main ethical issue that was anticipated concerned confidentiality. In some cases, the interviewees were senior members of organisations that were commercial rivals, so the

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attribution of commercially sensitive information (e.g. about sourcing practices) was a cause for concern. Other interviewees came from organisations that could be termed ‘governance rivals’ – they had hostile or competing agendas (such as meat processors and animal welfare campaign groups, or sugary drinks manufacturers and healthy eating campaigners). To allay interviewees’ fears that they might be identifiable, anonymity was guaranteed and was strictly observed, as described in section 4.5.3 above.

In keeping with the requirements of the Ethical Approval, the digitised interviews and transcripts will be stored securely for seven years, then destroyed.

4.9 Presentation of the findings

This chapter has described the methods used to investigate the research problem set out in Section 4.1 above. The next six chapters present the findings of the research. They are organised broadly around the themes of the research questions, beginning with Chapter 5, which presents government thinking and action on social sustainability in the food supply, as it emerged from the policy documents analysed. Subsequent chapters describe the non-state governance actors (Chapter 6), their constructions and interpretations of social sustainability (Chapter 7), the various methods and tools they used to implement their interpretations (Chapters 8 and 9), and finally, from the interviewees, some reflections on the motives, objectives and effects of these governance efforts (Chapter 10).

In all of the following chapters, the data sources are identified as follows:

Policy data refers to the policy documents, identified by short citations in the text (e.g. HM Government 2005), with full references at the end of the thesis.

Website data refers to the relevant Data Extraction Sheet, referred to by the short name of the entity described (e.g., Unilever or Ethicalquote), as listed in Table 4.1.

Interview data refers to the relevant transcript, identified by the abbreviation ‘I.’ followed by the number of the interview, as indicated in Table 4.2 above, e.g. I.6.

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