The author adopts a regional innovation systems approach to examine how subnational governance is implicated in the promotion of multifunctional agricultural strategies in England. Multifunctionality has been advocated as a pivotal concept for orchestrating the promotion of so-called ‘postproductivist’ agricultural policies, with researchers identifying different interpretations in European states based upon national political priorities and production structures. However, to date no attempt has been made to conceptualise the institutional capacities required to deliver this innovative policy mandate, or to assess the challenges confronting regional governance in the translation of opaque multifunctional discourses into concrete, implementable, policies. These critically important research issues are examined with the aid of primary and secondary datasets derived from the English East Midlands.
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