Civil Society in Sustainability
Transitions of Food Systems
Rachael Durrant
Spru DPhil Day conference
24/05/11
The ‘good society’
Non-state
Not-for profit
Associational life
or ‘public sphere’
Reform or
revolution
Brundtland triad:
Environmental
integrity, social
equity & human
wellbeing
Voluntarism
Civil Society
Activism &
participation
Trade justice &
development
Transition
Sustainability
Climate
change
Food
systems
Globalism &
Localism
Food security
& food
sovereignty
Poverty
Resource
depletion
Health &
nutrition
The theory bit: A multi-level perspective
Socio-technical’
landscape
Sociotechnical
regime
Transition contexts
Landscape developments
put pressure on existing regime,
which opens up,
creating windows
of opportunity for novelties
Markets, user
preferences
Industry
Science
Policy
Culture
New socio-technical
regime influences
landscape
Case B:
Regime Contestation
Technology
Socio-technical regime is ‘dynamically stable’.
On different dimensions there are ongoing processes
New configuration breaks through, taking
advantage of ‘windows of opportunity’.
Adjustments occur in socio-technical regime.
Elements are gradually linked together,
and stabilise in a dominant design.
Internal momentum increases.
Case A:
Technological
niches
Grassroots Innovations
Learning processes take place on multiple dimensions.
Different elements are gradually linked together in a seamless web.
Time
Source: Geels (2002)
How do civil society actors contribute towards
Sustainability transitions of food systems?
Research questions
Data gathering
Discourse and perception
• How do civil society actors perceive the future of food systems?
• How do they perceive themselves in relation to this and to each other?
• What are the underlying discourses that structure these perceptions?
• To what extent do these discourses influence the strategies for action
employed by civil society actors?
Phase one (6 months)
• Literature review
• Five exploratory interviews
per case
• Exploration of documents
Diffusion
• How do some representations come to prevail over others?
• Under what conditions do these representations and innovations
diffuse into the regime?
• How, and by whom, is their diffusion empowered or constrained?
• To what extent does diffusion entail modification?
• When is this more or less prevalent?
Roles
• To what extent does this fit with the key roles found in the literature?
• To what extent do actors perform these different roles simultaneously?
• How do actors performing these different roles co-exist?
• Under what circumstances is the relationship harmonious or
antagonistic?
Phase two (12 months)
• Up to 15 semi-structured
interviews per case, inc. Q-sort
procedure
• Participation and observations
of sector events and networks
Data processing/analysis
• Quant data from Q-sorts will
be analysed using SPSS
• Qualitative data will be
analysed using Nvivo
Civil Society in Sustainability
Transitions of Food Systems
Rachael Durrant
Spru DPhil Day conference
24/05/11