IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/agrhuv/v38y2021i4d10.1007_s10460-021-10218-w.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Food democracy: possibilities under the frame of the current food system

Author

Listed:
  • Marta López Cifuentes

    (University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences)

  • Christina Gugerell

    (University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences)

Abstract

Food democracy is a concept with growing influence in food research. Food democracy deals with how actors may regain democratic control over the food system enabling its sustainable transformation. Following multi-level perspective framework's connotations, food democracy research has so far mainly focused on the niche level of the food system. An integrative approach that includes the perspectives of both the regime and the niche is still missing. This study addresses this research gap and proposes a new conceptual framework for food democracy that includes actors from the niche and the regime level. Furthermore, we apply our conceptual framework to the urban food system of Vienna (Austria) to explore the deeper meaning and practice of food democracy. Finally, we have conducted semi-structured interviews with actors at niche level (10) and regime level (25) within Vienna’s urban food system. Findings from this research broaden the perspective on food democracy and illustrate actors’ contributions at niche and regime level such as promoting organic food, re-localizing food provision, and procuring environmentally sustainable public food. Barriers to food democracy were also identified, e.g.: actors’ self-enhancement values, market-orientation, and capitalist alignment or lack of transparency. We conclude that actors at the niche and, to some extent, at the regime level may contribute to a process of on-going changes that fosters a transformation of established structures within the food system.

Suggested Citation

  • Marta López Cifuentes & Christina Gugerell, 2021. "Food democracy: possibilities under the frame of the current food system," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 38(4), pages 1061-1078, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:38:y:2021:i:4:d:10.1007_s10460-021-10218-w
    DOI: 10.1007/s10460-021-10218-w
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10460-021-10218-w
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10460-021-10218-w?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Norwood, F. Bailey, 2015. "Understanding the Food Democracy Movement," Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 30(4), pages 1-5, November.
    2. Smith, Adrian & Raven, Rob, 2012. "What is protective space? Reconsidering niches in transitions to sustainability," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 1025-1036.
    3. Christina Gugerell & Marianne Penker, 2020. "Change Agents’ Perspectives on Spatial–Relational Proximities and Urban Food Niches," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-18, March.
    4. Charles Levkoe, 2006. "Learning Democracy Through Food Justice Movements," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 23(1), pages 89-98, March.
    5. Roberta Sonnino & Terry Marsden, 2006. "Beyond the divide: rethinking relationships between alternative and conventional food networks in Europe," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 6(2), pages 181-199, April.
    6. Anna R. Davies & Agnese Cretella & Vivien Franck, 2019. "Food Sharing Initiatives and Food Democracy: Practice and Policy in Three European Cities," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(4), pages 8-20.
    7. Basil Bornemann & Sabine Weiland, 2019. "Empowering People—Democratising the Food System? Exploring the Democratic Potential of Food-Related Empowerment Forms," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(4), pages 105-118.
    8. Annelie Sieveking, 2019. "Food Policy Councils as Loci for Practising Food Democracy? Insights from the Case of Oldenburg, Germany," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(4), pages 48-58.
    9. Jana Baldy & Sylvia Kruse, 2019. "Food Democracy from the Top Down? State-Driven Participation Processes for Local Food System Transformations towards Sustainability," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(4), pages 68-80.
    10. Hermans, Frans & Roep, Dirk & Klerkx, Laurens, 2016. "Scale dynamics of grassroots innovations through parallel pathways of transformative change," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 285-295.
    11. Beate Friedrich & Sarah Hackfort & Miriam Boyer & Daniela Gottschlich, 2019. "Conflicts over GMOs and their Contribution to Food Democracy," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(4), pages 165-177.
    12. Geels, Frank W., 2002. "Technological transitions as evolutionary reconfiguration processes: a multi-level perspective and a case-study," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(8-9), pages 1257-1274, December.
    13. Jennifer Wilkins, 2005. "Eating Right Here: Moving from Consumer to Food Citizen," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 22(3), pages 269-273, September.
    14. McFadden, Brandon R. & Stefanou, Spiro, 2016. "Another Perspective on Understanding Food Democracy," Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 31(1), pages 1-6, February.
    15. Joëlla van de Griend & Jessica Duncan & Johannes S. C. Wiskerke, 2019. "How Civil Servants Frame Participation: Balancing Municipal Responsibility With Citizen Initiative in Ede’s Food Policy," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(4), pages 59-67.
    16. Colin Ray Anderson & Janneke Bruil & Michael Jahi Chappell & Csilla Kiss & Michel Patrick Pimbert, 2019. "From Transition to Domains of Transformation: Getting to Sustainable and Just Food Systems through Agroecology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-28, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Vivica I. Kraak & Kim L. Niewolny, 2024. "A Scoping Review of Food Systems Governance Frameworks and Models to Develop a Typology for Social Change Movements to Transform Food Systems for People and Planetary Health," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-22, February.
    2. William Lacy, 2023. "Local food systems, citizen and public science, empowered communities, and democracy: hopes deserving to live," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 40(1), pages 1-17, March.
    3. Tanita Northcott & Mark Lawrence & Christine Parker & Phillip Baker, 2023. "Ecological regulation for healthy and sustainable food systems: responding to the global rise of ultra-processed foods," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 40(3), pages 1333-1358, September.
    4. Letizia Bindi & Angelo Belliggiano, 2023. "A Highly Condensed Social Fact: Food Citizenship, Individual Responsibility, and Social Commitment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-22, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Basil Bornemann & Sabine Weiland, 2019. "Editorial: New Perspectives on Food Democracy," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(4), pages 1-7.
    2. Rosalba Ortiz & Jordi Peris, 2022. "The Role of Farmers’ Umbrella Organizations in Building Transformative Capacity around Grassroots Innovations in Rural Agri-Food Systems in Guatemala," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-25, February.
    3. Jeroen J. L. Candel, 2022. "Power to the people? Food democracy initiatives’ contributions to democratic goods," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 39(4), pages 1477-1489, December.
    4. Karen Bassarab & Jill K. Clark & Raychel Santo & Anne Palmer, 2019. "Finding Our Way to Food Democracy: Lessons from US Food Policy Council Governance," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(4), pages 32-47.
    5. Aintzira Oñederra-Aramendi & Mirene Begiristain-Zubillaga & Mamen Cuellar-Padilla, 2023. "Characterisation of food governance for alternative and sustainable food systems: a systematic review," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 11(1), pages 1-32, December.
    6. Sara A. L. Smaal & Joost Dessein & Barend J. Wind & Elke Rogge, 2021. "Social justice-oriented narratives in European urban food strategies: Bringing forward redistribution, recognition and representation," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 38(3), pages 709-727, September.
    7. Marletto, Gerardo & Sillig, Cécile, 2019. "Lost in Mainstreaming? Agrifood and Urban Mobility Grassroots Innovations with Multiple Pathways and Outcomes," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 88-100.
    8. Annemarie Groot-Kormelinck & Jos Bijman & Jacques Trienekens & Laurens Klerkx, 2022. "Producer organizations as transition intermediaries? Insights from organic and conventional vegetable systems in Uruguay," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 39(4), pages 1277-1300, December.
    9. Adanella Rossi & Mario Coscarello & Davide Biolghini, 2021. "(Re)Commoning Food and Food Systems. The Contribution of Social Innovation from Solidarity Economy," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-30, June.
    10. Sébastien Boillat & Raphaël Belmin & Patrick Bottazzi, 2022. "The agroecological transition in Senegal: transnational links and uneven empowerment," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 39(1), pages 281-300, March.
    11. Jana Baldy & Sylvia Kruse, 2019. "Food Democracy from the Top Down? State-Driven Participation Processes for Local Food System Transformations towards Sustainability," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(4), pages 68-80.
    12. Eleftheria Vasileiadou & Boukje Huijben & Rob Raven, 2014. "Crowdfunding niches? Exploring the potential of crowdfunding for financing renewable energy niches in the Netherlands," Working Papers 14-11, Eindhoven Center for Innovation Studies, revised Nov 2014.
    13. Pigford, Ashlee-Ann E. & Hickey, Gordon M. & Klerkx, Laurens, 2018. "Beyond agricultural innovation systems? Exploring an agricultural innovation ecosystems approach for niche design and development in sustainability transitions," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 116-121.
    14. David Gibbs & Kirstie O'Neill, 2014. "Rethinking Sociotechnical Transitions and Green Entrepreneurship: The Potential for Transformative Change in the Green Building Sector," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 46(5), pages 1088-1107, May.
    15. Annelie Sieveking, 2019. "Food Policy Councils as Loci for Practising Food Democracy? Insights from the Case of Oldenburg, Germany," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(4), pages 48-58.
    16. Brem, Alexander & Radziwon, Agnieszka, 2017. "Efficient Triple Helix collaboration fostering local niche innovation projects – A case from Denmark," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 130-141.
    17. Rachel Greer & Timo Wirth & Derk Loorbach, 2023. "The Circular Decision-Making Tree: an Operational Framework," Circular Economy and Sustainability,, Springer.
    18. André Sorensen & Anna-Katharina Brenner, 2021. "Cities, Urban Property Systems, and Sustainability Transitions: Contested Processes of Institutional Change and the Regulation of Urban Property Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-19, July.
    19. Jain, Sanjay, 2020. "Fumbling to the future? Socio-technical regime change in the recorded music industry," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    20. Mock, Mirijam & Omann, Ines & Polzin, Christine & Spekkink, Wouter & Schuler, Julia & Pandur, Vlad & Brizi, Ambra & Panno, Angelo, 2019. "“Something inside me has been set in motion”: Exploring the psychological wellbeing of people engaged in sustainability initiatives," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 1-11.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:38:y:2021:i:4:d:10.1007_s10460-021-10218-w. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.