In this case study, Irish academics reflect on our involvement in a project--Transformative Engagement Network (TEN). This project aims to transform the nature of the engagement between the various stakeholders impacted by or concerned with climate change and to insert the voice and concerns of the most vulnerable food producers into climate change debates. Throughout the project, the Maynooth University team has become increasingly aware of the complexities of development and of the practical and intellectual challenges to the assumptions and beliefs that underpin our disciplines.