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Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies
  • Research Essays
  • Thinking Critically about Academic–Industry Collaborations
Researching (with) Major Food Retailers
Leveling and Leveraging the Terms of Engagement
David Evans
Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies, Vol. 15 No. 3, Fall 2015; (pp. 33-39) DOI: 10.1525/gfc.2015.15.3.33
David Evans
University of Manchester
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Abstract

This paper considers the relationship between social science and the food industry, and it suggests that collaboration can be intellectually productive and morally rewarding. It explores the middle ground that exists between paid consultancy models of collaboration on the one hand and a principled stance of nonengagement on the other. Drawing on recent experiences of researching with a major food retailer in the UK, I discuss the ways in which collaborating with retailers can open up opportunities for accessing data that might not otherwise be available to social scientists. Additionally, I put forward the argument that researchers with an interest in the sustainability—ecological or otherwise—of food systems, especially those of a critical persuasion, ought to be empirically engaging with food businesses. I suggest that this is important in terms of generating better understandings of the objectionable arrangements that they seek to critique, and in terms of opening up conduits through which to affect positive changes. Cutting across these points is the claim that while resistance to commercial engagement might be misguided, it is nevertheless important to acknowledge the power-geometries of collaboration and to find ways of leveling and/or leveraging them. To conclude, I suggest that universities have an important institutional role to play in defining the terms of engagement as well as maintaining the boundaries between scholarship and consultancy—a line that can otherwise become quite fuzzy when the worlds of commerce and academic research collide.

  • food retail
  • transactional data
  • research ethics
  • stakeholder engagement
  • consumption
  • © 2015 by The Regents of the University of California

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Vol. 15 No. 3, Fall 2015

Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies: 15 (3)
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Researching (with) Major Food Retailers
Leveling and Leveraging the Terms of Engagement
David Evans
Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies, Vol. 15 No. 3, Fall 2015; (pp. 33-39) DOI: 10.1525/gfc.2015.15.3.33
David Evans
University of Manchester
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Researching (with) Major Food Retailers
Leveling and Leveraging the Terms of Engagement
David Evans
Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies, Vol. 15 No. 3, Fall 2015; (pp. 33-39) DOI: 10.1525/gfc.2015.15.3.33
David Evans
University of Manchester
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Search for this author on this site
  • View author's works on this site
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