Sweetness and power, Interview data

Ackrill, Robert W and Kay, Adrian (2017). Sweetness and power, Interview data. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Archive. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-852742

This research uses historical institutionalism to analyse the dynamics and drivers of recent developments in public policies targeting agricultural commodity production, where such production has competing uses as food and energy: specifically biofuels. There is a long history of public policy intervention in food production, but concerns over energy supply security and the environmental impact of energy production have seen public policies promoting ‘alternative’ energy supplies. These end-uses thus compete for inputs. Trade liberalisation has also increased the scope for these effects to be transmitted across national borders. These issues give rise to the primary research question for this project: What explains the dynamics of policy change in biofuels policies, and related agricultural commodity sectors, where there is also international trade?

The sole method of primary data collection has been semi-structured elite interviews.

Data description (abstract)

This collection includes all bar one of the interviews conducted for this project. Those interviewed represent a cross section of leading actors in bio fuels policies in the EU (10, excluding one), US (14) and Brazil (6).

Data creators:

Creator Name	Affiliation	ORCID (as URL)
Ackrill Robert W	Nottingham Trent University	http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0739-1812
Kay Adrian	Australian National University	http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5854-4516

Sponsors:

Economic and Social Research Council

Grant reference:

RES-000-22-3607

Topic classification:

Natural environment
Politics
Economics
Trade, industry and markets

Keywords:

Ethanol, Biodiesel, Policy, EU, USA, Brazil

Project title:

Sweetness and Power: The political economy of sugar policy change

Grant holders:

Robert Ackrill

Project dates:

From	To
1 June 2009	30 September 2011

Date published:

28 Jul 2017 12:51

Last modified:

28 Jul 2017 12:51

Coverage and Methodology

Access and Administration

Data sourcing, processing and preparation:

Transcription of interviews. Most were direct transcriptions of recorded interviews. In some cases, interviewees did not want to be recorded. In these cases, the transcripts are based on notes written during the interviews. Oral consent was obtained from all participants. In all cases but one, names were removed from transcripts. Only one interviewee stated they were happy to be named. Other minor edits were made to the transcripts to remove the most obvious information that could be used to identify individuals. One EU interview is excluded from this collection, given the extremely sensitive nature of the information provided.

Rights owners:

Name	Affiliation	ORCID (as URL)
Ackrill Robert W	Nottingham Trent University	http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0739-1812
Kay Adrian	Australian National University	http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5854-4516