This action research project, funded from April 2021 to March 2022 by the British Academy, will establish a mutual exchange network that will examine and compare conceptions of, approaches to, and strategies for, achieving the just transition of food systems in four contexts (Brazil, Zambia, Sierra Leone, and the UK). The network will engage critical food system actors in each context in a series of participatory workshops organised by local civil society organisations (CSOs) concerned with food systems and food justice, who will then share and contrast the collected data in a series of online interregional engagement meetings with a selection of international food system advocacy organisations and the interdisciplinary research team. Outcomes from the project will include academic articles, policy briefs, an online portal presenting the multimedia data collected and all published outputs, and the new interregional network itself, which will continue to grow and connect further food system actors, national and international CSOs, and scholars beyond the period of funding.
Matias Volonterio, based on the exchanges held in the research, reflects why justifying just food transitions only attending its environmental consequences, leaves key topics out of the scope
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Yeali Sowa, director of Green Earth Sierra Leone, shares how Just Food? workshops allowed farmers and the organisation to reflect on the obstacles that women farmers face to build better food systems
Dr Lidia Cabral reflects on some of the common tendencies and differences between just food transitions on Rio de Janeiro and Brighton
Dr Lidia Cabral reflects on some of the common tendencies and differences between just food transitions on Rio de Janeiro and Brighton (Portuguese version)
This action-research project will establish a mutual exchange network on just food system transitions including food system actors from four usually unconnected geographies. This will be a space for dialogue, exchange and learning between local food system actors working and advocating for justice in the food system. It will include organisations and movements linked to the right to food, women’s rights, and agroecological transitions, as well as the policymakers in each case central to the realisation of just food transitions and European advocacy NGOs important for larger global policy change. The primary goal is to establish a trans-scalar (local, national, international) and interregional (Europe, South America, Southern Africa, West Africa) network of actors engaged in food system transitions, which includes the experiences of many who have yet to be given the attention they deserve in debates about sustainable development.
Primary Research Questions
The project is designed to address three central research questions:
1) How do local food system actors describe their current and their ideal ‘just’ food systems?
2) What steps must be taken to achieve a ‘just transition’ to such ideal food systems?
3) What resources, supports or capacities do food system actors require to achieve a ‘just transition’?
Dr Gearoid Millar
Senior Lecturer and Head of Sociology
University of Aberdeen
www.abdn.ac.uk/socsci/profiles/g.millar
Dr Lidia Cabral
Research Fellow
Institute of Development Studies
www.ids.ac.uk/people/lidia-cabral/
Dr Melanie Levick-Parkin
Senior Lecturer Visual Communication
Sheffield Hallam University
www.shu.ac.uk/about-us/our-people/staff-profiles/melanie-levick-parkin
Dr Iva Pesa
Assistant Professor of Contemporary History
University of Groningen
www.rug.nl/staff/i.pesa/research
Mr Matías Volonterio
Research Assistant
University of Aberdeen
Green Earth Sierra Leone, Sierra Leone
ASPTA - Family Farming and Agroecology, Brazil
The projecs foresees the following outputs:
