ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the conceptual approach adopted for the rest of the book. It outlines the relative roles of social and natural sciences in understanding climate change and agriculture’s environmental challenges and introduces the concepts of sociotechnical systems and technological momentum from science and technology studies. It briefly outlines the key tenets of neoliberalism when it comes to economic policy, regulation and consumerism, and introduces cosmopolitanism as a contrary political philosophy associated with moderating individual behaviour for the sake of concerns about others. It discusses recent thinking in public policy to promote behaviour change and the limits to a focus on individual behaviour.
