Mitigating Food Waste: Governing and Integrating a Contested Field

Sustainability challenges give rise to new fields where organizations debate and contest the best ways to tackle specific issues. Food waste, whose reduction and prevention are on the sustainability agenda and the focus of our contribution, is a contested issue that sparks tense field formation. However, a stable and consensual field is crucial for achieving desired sustainability outcomes, bringing the topic of field governance to the forefront.

While field governance refers to a combination of public and private, formal and informal systems that exercise control within a system (Scott, 2008), Fligstein and McAdam (2012) highlight the role of governing units that orient and guide activities within the field by creating a level playing field for its inhabitants. Conceptually building on this, and given the view that sustainability challenges are primarily addressed by private actors and soft law, alongside researchers noting a resurgence of governmental involvement, we ask: What kind of organizations govern the food waste field—public, private, or both? Additionally, considering the heterogeneity of these fields, how do these governing units connect actors and create field stability?

We utilize qualitative data from interviews and quantitative data from a survey to conduct a categorical-descriptive examination of the organizations involved, identifying both private and public governing units. We then investigate how the field is governed and structured through multiple correspondence analysis and a block model of exchange relations among these organizations. Our analysis reveals a tension-filled relationship between an older, industrial-rural block and a younger, urban block, the latter also including the governing units. Notably, our findings indicate that it is primarily public governing units that hold the field together through a process we call sedimentation. This process layers older organizations from the rural side with younger organizations from the urban side, each employing distinct measures to address the food waste issue.