Neil Ward and Stakeholder Co-Production: Lessons from a Rural Economy Expert
“For stakeholder co-production to work, you need academics to publish their work, but you must embed the actual research work in the practical challenges of stakeholder groups”
I decided to speak to Neil Ward in the context of the rural economy and stakeholder involvement after attending a series of webinars by the Agri-Food for Net Zero Network. He is a rural economy expert and a senior academic within the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia. He also has a wealth of experience in previous academic posts and in government. In these posts he has produced research which included rural stakeholders and considered their needs.
*All text in this interview is paraphrased and adapted from a conversation with Prof Ward.
What originally motivated you to work in the intersection between agriculture, the rural economy, and the environment? Why do you think this area of work is important?
I grew up in a rural area – West Norfolk - and observed the environmental changes associated with agricultural production there. I also had some experience of the social complexion of the farming economy. Both of my grandfathers were farm workers. I studied geography at University College London (UCL). This is where I became interested in the political economy of the global agri-food system. After my degree, I took a job at UCL’s Rural Studies Research Centre and then later in my research focussed more on the rural economy at the Centre for Rural Economy at Newcastle University. This was a new Centre and the first of its type to really put the rural economy at the centre of its focus. I think that this area of work is important because the UK is quite an urbanised society with a very centralised political structure. As a result, agricultural and rural issues can be distant from a lot of opinion formers in British society. I like to be positioned on the periphery, speaking to the centre.
As well as your academic work, you have worked within policy settings. Taking from both experiences, could you give me an insight about how rural stakeholders interact with academic and policy-based research?
In the early years of my research career, there were always lots of contacts with various rural stakeholder organisations, like the ‘Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE)’, ‘Greenpeace’, ‘House Builders Federation’, and the ‘National Farmers Union’ (NFU) and so on. In 1999, I got seconded into the Cabinet Office to advise the Labour government under Tony Blair on the rural agenda. There were quite a lot of rural problems at the time including a farm income crisis, and a Common Agricultural Policy reform so I worked in a team engaging regularly with stakeholders (RSPB, NFU, WWF, CPRE) to help navigate these issues. The position in the Cabinet Office gave me privileged access to such groups because I was working close to the centre of the power. Overall, I think the agricultural industry and the main stakeholder organisations around farming, land, food, and the countryside are very good at engaging with academic research. In my experience, they have always been very interested in getting involved and being open about issues in food and farming.
Could you tell me about the Agri-Food-for-Net-Zero network (AFN network) and how they include stakeholders in research?
The AFN Network was a response to a call from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) to build a community of practice across academic disciplines and with stakeholders focusing on net zero and the agri-food system in the UK (https://www.agrifood4netzero.net/). I joined a team bidding for this initiative, and it has been a great opportunity to collaborate with a group of people that I had never worked with before. The team are very experienced in stakeholder engagement and the co-production of research with stakeholders. From the Network you learn that for stakeholder co-production to work, you need academics to publish their work, but you must embed the actual research work in the practical challenges of stakeholder groups. The Network currently has over 1,200 members across all main spheres associated with land, food, farming, and environment, and is growing all the time. There’s a strong ethos within the Network about getting stakeholders and academics around the table to think about research prioritisation around net zero. The Network also hosts a series of open webinar-based discussions about agriculture, food, and environmental issues.
Using the lessons you’ve learnt throughout your career, what would your main piece of advice be to young researchers looking to include rural stakeholders in their work?
Guard against the risk of retreating behind the ivory towers and take every opportunity to get out into the real world and meet people to talk and engage. There is a balance to be struck because if you are developing a career in academia, there is a set of hurdles you have to pass to progress professionally, but my experience has been that engaging with stakeholders helps you enrich your academic insights. If your just reading scientific papers and academic reports, you lose a richness and a sort of inspiration for your academic work.
Who are the most interesting people to read on co-production and collaborative research?
I enjoy the work of Michel Callon, who’s a French sociologist who wrote about science and public engagement as well as new models of knowledge production. There is also an interesting little book called “Another Science is Possible” by a Belgian philosopher called Isabel Stengers. These are two books that I would recommend to anyone interested in co-production in scientific research.
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