Logics of (dis)engagement: mapping variation in non-government norms and approaches to alcohol, ultra-processed food and related industries - a case study from Australia
Files
(Published version)
Date
2026
Authors
Townsend, B.
Collin, J.
Cullerton, K.
Lauber, K.
Arnanz, L.
Martin, J.
Baum, F.
Friel, S.
Editors
Advisors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Type:
Journal article
Citation
Globalization and Health, 2026; 22(1):36-1-36-14
Statement of Responsibility
Belinda Townsend, Jeff Collin, Katherine Cullerton, Kathrin Lauber, Liz Arnanz, Jane Martin, Fran Baum and Sharon Friel
Conference Name
Abstract
Background: A central question in contemporary health governance is how to prevent undue corporate influence. There is limited practical guidance beyond the tobacco control model. Global partnership approaches have continued to promote alcohol and ultra-processed food (UPF) industry engagement, and these industries have influenced policy and governance in ways that benefit their interests, often to the detriment of strong health regulation. In Australia industry influence has delayed the introduction of mandatory alcohol health warning labels and ensured voluntary rather than mandatory front of pack food labelling. This qualitative study is the first to our knowledge to map underlying institutional logics shaping variation in the interactions of NGOs who are not reliant on industry core funding with alcohol, UPF and related industries. Results: Drawing on thirty interviews with senior policy and advocacy staff from nongovernment organisations active in alcohol and/or UPF advocacy in Australia, we find shared opposition to partnerships with the alcohol industry and significant variation towards approaches to interactions with the UPF industry. All interviewees spoke of challenges in delineating the interests of other industries that may work with alcohol and UPF, such as supermarkets and retailers, advertising agencies and public relation firms, and banks and investment entities. We identify four institutional logics for disengagement with alcohol and UPF industries: a logic of reputational risk, a logic of delegitimation, an FCTC logic, and a logic of competing interests. In contrast, we find two logics for limited engagement with alcohol and UPF industries: a logic of intelligence gathering, and a logic of ‘acting reasonable’. Finally, we identify two logics for engagement with a wider range of industries: a logic of partnership and a logic of revenue raising. Only a small number of organisations had formal written policies on conflicts of interest. Conclusions: We find that many organisations have conflicting internal logics creating challenges for organisational coherence. The development of internal risk assessments by some organisations indicate efforts by staff to prevent undue corporate influence. We recommend greater transparency of policies by NGOs on preventing corporate influence, preventing conflicts of interest, and approaches to engaging a variety of corporate actors, and the establishment of a global community of practice for sharing innovative tools and approaches to preventing undue corporate influence.
School/Discipline
Dissertation Note
Provenance
Description
Access Status
Rights
© The Author(s) 2026. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.