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. 2021;13(4):761-780.
doi: 10.1007/s12571-021-01178-4. Epub 2021 Jun 18.

How food systems change (or not): governance implications for system transformation processes

Cees Leeuwis  1 , Birgit K Boogaard  1 , Kwesi Atta-Krah  2
Affiliations

How food systems change (or not): governance implications for system transformation processes

Cees Leeuwis et al. Food Secur. 2021.

Abstract

This paper argues that supporting food system transformation requires more than obtaining science-based understanding and analysis of how components in the system interact. We argue that changing the emergent properties of food systems (what we call food system synthesis) is a socio-political challenge that is affected by competing views regarding system boundaries and purposes, and limited possibilities for central steering and control. We point to different traditions of 'systems thinking' that each emphasize particular types of interventions for achieving system change, and argue that food systems are best looked at as complex multi-dimensional systems. This implies that we need to move beyond rational engineering approaches to system change, and look for approaches that anticipate and accommodate inherent social tensions and struggles in processes of changing food system dynamics and outcomes. Through a case study on the persistence of an undesired emergent property of food systems (i.e. poverty) we demonstrate that a multi-level perspective (MLP) on system transformation is useful in understanding both how food system transformation has happened in the past, and how desirable transformations is prevented from happening today. Based on such insights we point to key governance strategies and principles that may be used to influence food system transformation as a non-linear and long-term process of competition, negotiation and reconfiguration. Such strategies include the creation and nurturing of diversity in the system, as well as process interventions aimed at visioning, destabilization and formation of discourse coalitions. Such governance interventions imply a considerable re-orientation of investments in food system transformation as well as a rethinking of the role that policy-makers may play in either altering or reproducing undesirable system outcomes.

Keywords: Food systems transformation; Governance; Intervention; Policy recommendations; Systems thinking; Transition.

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Conflict of interest statement

This research has been funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) as part of the project “Towards Inclusive, Sustainable, Nutritious and Efficient Food Systems” coordinated by Wageningen Economic Research (project number 2282500376). The authors declared that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Emergent properties and synergy: ‘the whole is more than the sum of the parts’ (source: own elaboration)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Different actors do not have the same conception of the system (source: ‘The blind men and the elephant’, inspired by an Indian parable)
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Two different ways of conceptualising a food system. a. The role of farm animals in a circular food system (Van Zanten et al., 2019). b. Food supply chains and food environments (adapted wheel concept from Ranganathan et al., in HLPE, 2017)
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
The multi-level perspective on system innovation (adapted from Schot & Geels, 2008)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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