Beyond food for thought : directing sustainability transitions research to address fundamental change in agri-food systems

Dominant agricultural and food systems lead to continuous resource depletion and unacceptable environmental and social impacts. While current calls for changing agrifood systems are increasingly framed in the context of sustainability transitions, they rarely make an explicit link to transition studies to address these systemic challenges, nor do transition scholars sufficiently address agri-food systems, despite their global pertinence. From this viewpoint, we illustrate several gaps in the agri-food systems debate that sustainability transition studies could engage in. We propose four avenues for research in the next decade of transition research on agri-food systems: 1) Crossscale dynamics between coupled systems; 2) Social justice, equity and inclusion; 3) Sustainability transitions in low- and middle-income countries; 4) Cross-sectoral governance and system integration. We call for a decade of new transition research that moves beyond single-scale and sector perspectives toward more inclusive and integrated analyses of food system dynamics

Unraveling the politics of ‘doing inclusion’ in transdisciplinarity for sustainable transformation

Transdisciplinary research and innovation (R&I) eforts have emerged as a means to address challenges to sustainable transformation. One of the main elements of transdisciplinary eforts is the ‘inclusion’ of diferent stakeholders, values and perspectives in participatory R&I processes. In practice, however, ‘doing inclusion’ raises a number of challenges. In this article, we aim to contribute to re-politicizing inclusion in transdisciplinarity for transformation, by (1) empirically unraveling four key challenges that emerge in the political practice of ‘doing inclusion’, (2) illustrating how facilitators of inclusion processes perform balancing acts when confronted with these challenges, and (3) refecting on what the unfolding dynamics suggests about the politics of stakeholder inclusion for societal transformation. In doing so, we analyze the transdisciplinary FIT4FOOD2030 project (2017–2020)—an EU-funded project that aimed to contribute to fostering EU R&I systems’ ability to catalyze food system transformation through stakeholder engagement in 25 Living Labs. Based on 3 years of action-research (including interviews, workshops and feld observations), we identifed four inherent political challenges to ‘doing inclusion’ in FIT4FOOD2030: (1) the challenge to meaningfully bring together powerful and marginalized stakeholders; (2) combining representation and deliberation of diferent stakeholder groups; (3) balancing diversities of inclusion with directionalities implied by transformative eforts; and (4) navigating the complexities of establishing boundaries of inclusion processes. We argue that by understanding ‘doing inclusion’ as a political practice, necessitating specificity about the (normative) ambitions in diferent inclusion settings, facilitators may better grasp and address challenges in transdisciplinarity for transformation

Transforming research and innovation for sustainable food systems-A coupled-systems perspective

Current research and innovation (R&I) systems are not equipped to fully serve as catalysts for the urgently needed transformation of food systems. Though research on food systems transformation (first order: ‘what?’) and transformative research (second order: ‘how to’) are rapidly gaining traction in academic and policy environments, current efforts fail to explicitly recognize the systemic nature of the challenges associated with performing transformative second-order research. To recognize these manifold and interlinked challenges embedded in R&I systems, there is a need for a coupled-systems perspective. Transformations are needed in food systems as well as R&I systems (‘how to do the “how to”’). We set out to conceptualize an approach that aims to trigger double transformations by nurturing innovations at the boundaries of R&I systems and food systems that act upon systemic leverage points, so that their multisystem interactions can better support food system transformations. We exemplify this coupled-systems approach by introducing the FIT4FOOD2030 project with its 25 living labs as a promising multilevel boundary innovation at the cross-section of R&I and food systems. We illustrate how this approach paves the way for double systems transformations, and therefore for an R&I system that is fit for future-proofing food systems

FIT4FOOD2030: Future-proofing Europe’s Food Systems with Tools for Transformation and a Sustainable Food Systems Network

Food systems are not fit for purpose, transgressing planetary boundaries, causing unhealthy consumption patterns and are rife with inequality. Research and Innovation (R&I) are central to tackling these food systems challenges, yet R&I systems are equally not fit for purpose, often lacking systemic and participatory approaches to food systems transformation. Therefore, there is a need for novel R&I approaches that adopt systemic and more participatory methods to engage with a wider range of food systems stakeholders. However, the lack of competencies and tools concerning novel R&I approaches for food systems transformation is a key hindrance to the deployment of such approaches in practice. These competencies and tools are vital for guiding and supporting food systems stakeholders dedicated to contributing to its transformation whether they are policymakers, researchers or citizens. This article presents the tangible results of the European (EU) Horizon 2020 funded FIT4FOOD2030 project. As a response to the challenges food and R&I systems face as well as the gap in competencies and tools surrounding these issues, the project has developed a growing online hub of Tools for Transformation applicable to a broad range of transformation challenges and contexts (e.g. food, health or energy) and a Sustainable Food Systems Network to equip food system stakeholders with practical hands-on materials to ‘do’ food systems transformation