Toggle Main Menu Toggle Search

Open Access padlockePrints

Profit, reputation and ‘doing the right thing’: convention theory and the problem of food waste in the UK retail sector

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Jo SwaffieldORCiD

Downloads


Licence

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).


Abstract

In 2014, Tesco – one of the world’s largest food retailers – revealed that it had generated almost 57,000 tonnes of food waste in its UK operations over the previous twelve-month period. This shocking statistic added to existing evidence of a significant environmental and social problem in the UK and across the world. This paper utilises convention theory to examine the role of major retailers in the context of this global problem and assesses their motivations for acting on food waste. Drawing on interviews with key stakeholders (including major retailers), the analysis investigates their main justifications for action on food waste. It finds that retailers mostly appealed to three conventions or ‘orders of worth’ (civic, market and opinion) and used these as a basis for their commitment to food waste reduction. We argue that the combination of these different justifications is feasible and necessary in the context of the retail sector but that they may also lead to some unintended consequences (in the retail sector and beyond). Crucially, we demonstrate how the dilution of civic justifications (by their financial and reputational counterparts) might produce negative outcomes and inaction as retailers attempt to adhere to the so-called ‘food waste hierarchy’. The paper highlights the continuing significance of convention theory as a framework for analysing possible responses to the social and environmental challenges confronting global agro-food systems.


Publication metadata

Author(s): Swaffield J, Evans D, Welch D

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Geoforum

Year: 2018

Volume: 89

Pages: 43–51

Print publication date: 01/02/2018

Online publication date: 30/01/2018

Acceptance date: 03/01/2018

Date deposited: 08/02/2018

ISSN (print): 0016-7185

ISSN (electronic): 1872-9398

Publisher: Elsevier

URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2018.01.002

DOI: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2018.01.002


Altmetrics

Altmetrics provided by Altmetric


Funding

Funder referenceFunder name
ESRC
ES/L00514X/1

Share