Uncovering sustainability storylines from dairy supply chain discourse

Food supply chains are key to ensuring sufficient nourishment of the population. For instance, taking a circular economy approach can help facilitate the adoption of sustainable practices, such as the use of technology to combat food waste issues. Yet, creating intrinsically sustainable production systems remains complex, given differing stakeholder perspectives, structures and approaches that can be entrenched along supply chains.

Based on an empirical investigation conducted in the UK dairy supply chain, and implementing a critical discourse analysis, this paper aims at gaining an understanding how sustainable storylines are either propagated or supressed by different stakeholders. The paper contributes to the theoretical debate on power in supply chains through the lens of cultural hegemony and the discourse coalition concept, leading to the theoretical contribution of this work: an explanation of how a self-perpetuating cycle of legitimacy helps a storyline become, and remain, dominant.