Self-Description and the Agro-Industry's Response to Environmental Crises

This article explores how self-descriptions can orient organisations towards trajectories that sustain activities that contribute to environmental crises while simultaneously acknowledging both the crises themselves and the need for transformative responses. Existing research on organisational responses has shown how environmental crises are framed, mediated and interpreted in ways that confine responses within a business-as-usual approach. This study develops and demonstrates an alternative, sociological approach for analysing organisational responses that focuses on how the constitution of an organisational 'self' shapes the organisation's interpretation of and involvement in environmental crises. This approach provides more foundational insights into how the conditions are enacted in which organisational responses can emerge and be recognised as such. Empirically, the paper focuses on the main agricultural industry association in Denmark, examining how it describes the conventional Danish agro-industry in relation to environmental crises. The analysis identifies three key elements in the self-description and explores how they shape the organisational response. The findings show that this self-description positions the agro-industry as a solution rather than a driver of environmental crises, thereby legitimising the continuation of existing production practices as a form of response.