Work packages

Drawing on state-of-the art research, the overarching objective of this work package is to define a conception of DPP. We focus specifically on the area of sustainable food policy as a means of thinking through DPP options for sustainability transformation. A key normative consideration will be to show how this conception underpins a commitment to the social inclusion and empowerment of the widest possible range of relevant actors. At the same time, a key practical challenge will be to show how this conception can be used to define empirical measures that underpin the choice of both empirical test cases and empirical measures relevant for assessing “real world” DPPs.

The aim of this work package is to systematically collect information about existing studies and freely available data sources about citizens’ experience of deliberative discussions, their willingness to deliberate, and their capacity for political deliberation and attitudes towards sustainable food systems as well as their degree of climate literacy. Data are collected in each country as well as at the EU level, thus grasping the national and macro-level dimension of the study. Inclusiveness is essential for deliberative democracy, but prior research about political behavior as well as existing studies from the U.S. have demonstrated different challenges such as lacking resources, institutional settings, or specific personality traits for including vulnerable groups into deliberative political processes. The same applies for the attitudes toward sustainable consumption and food systems, where different groups – women, youth, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ’s communities and groups with lower socioeconomic backgrounds – are shown to have more or less favorable attitude than the average population. Moreover, membership of multiple categories will be explored through an intersectional lens. The analysis in this WP therefore provides an overview for understanding whether these listed challenges are similar across the participant countries and what factors might be considered as facilitating positive attitudes towards or participation in deliberative practices and sustainable food systems as well as improving citizens’ climate literacy. While WP2 uses the concepts developed in WP1, the data provided by WP2 will then be used in connection with data generated in subsequent work packages.

The aim of this work package is to develop a system for mapping the food systems arena including productive and distributive actors, trade unions, local institutions, and so forth in order to understand the background conditions that support DPPs of the productive actors such as co-operatives, alternative food organizations (AFOs), consortia of producers, etc. that work in the food system, but also which goals related to sustainable food systems they pursue and what are their experiences and practices given current environmental challenges. This work package will thus look at grasping the meso-level dimension of the study. WP3 aims in particular to reconstruct the patterns of the organizational field including goals, activities, constituencies, and local/international networks in order to analyze the opportunities and constraints that actors in the food system experience when they seek to establish and implement DPPs for promoting the inclusion of citizens in the transformation process towards a fairer, healthier, and more environmentally-friendly food system as envisioned in the FFS.

This work package aims to analyze DPPs that take place in political institutions in the context of food systems. The focus is on the municipal level as cities are key players in food system transformation. We analyze the food policies and initiatives of the seven cities in the national policy context with regard to their practices of deliberation and participation of citizens and stakeholders. The aim is to provide a mapping of the DPPs practices, of innovations and good practice examples, as well as of obstacles and barriers, and to relate them to their respective institutional and politicaladministrative contexts. To harness the potential food-related DPPs have to achieve more sustainable and climatefriendly practices in society, it is important to understand in-depth the functioning and effectiveness of those processes. Further, we aim to explore the perception of political elites of those practices, which is crucial as well for the DPP to unfold their leverage. This work package also serves to establish contacts with political representatives involved in urban food policy for subsequent project work packages.

The aim of this work package is to map, evaluate, and compare selected processes of citizen deliberation and participation in seven cities across the seven countries in our study. We thereby focus on four empirical cases that are particularly suited to scrutinize whether and how differences in characteristics relevant to citizen inclusiveness and empowerment influence the outcomes of these processes: citizens’ assemblies, participatory budgeting, alternative currencies, and e-governance. We will evaluate the empirical cases in terms of their potential to realize citizen deliberation and participation, in particular the extent to which they achieve inclusiveness and empowerment (procedural outcomes). Furthermore, we will evaluate them with regard to their potential contribution to the FFS, which includes studying their social, political, and economic outcomes that are related to the objectives of the FFS (substantive outcomes). The analyses will include all of the four DPPs that exist in one city in each of the seven countries: Bologna (Italy), Brighton (UK), Cologne (Germany), Geneva (Switzerland), Lille (France), Tartu (Estonia), Uppsala (Sweden). The results for each DPP and each city will then be compared both cross-nationally and across the different kinds of DPPs. This work package will enable us to gain in-depth knowledge on important DPPs across seven European cities and nations and on their achievements in terms of major objectives of the EU. In particular, it will help to contribute to assessing the potential of realizing the promises of deliberation and participation for the transformation towards fairer, healthier, and environmental-friendly food systems which will further be developed in subsequent work packages of this project.

The knowledge acquired in WP5 regarding the processes of citizen deliberation and participation in our four empirical cases provides the starting point for this work package, which aims to facilitate the transfer of this knowledge and to expand DPPs. When implemented effectively, DPPs can avoid excluding or marginalizing certain voices and bodies and the reinforcement of existing power imbalances. We will use the report from WP5 to derive a set of questions to be used as the basis for further meta-level deliberation about the best practices for inclusive and empowering DPPs, i.e. DPPs that offer the opportunity for meaningful and equal participation at each of the setup, process, and outcome stages. This will be an open, exploratory, and creative process in which citizens themselves will play a central role in knowledge co-production alongside civil society organizations, social enterprises, public authorities, and the research team in a living lab. There are three main objectives here: (1) To connect and collaborate with alternative food organizations and private enterprises with an interest in consolidating or developing DPPs. (2) To encourage knowledge exchange between researchers, practitioners, policy-makers and citizens on organizing and implementing DPPs that draws on different types of expertise and different forms of communication. (3) To foster a resilient and open network between these organizations who will continue to exchange information and ideas on the transformation to alternative food systems that are fairer, healthier, and sustainable, and with which local citizens can feel a sense of ownership.

The aim of this work package is to generalize and test the policy uptake potential at the national level. Given deliberations are carried out at the local level, it may be that the localities are in some way unique or that the makeup of the citizens that engage in them is also special. By conducting a nuanced survey based on the findings of the DPPs we can put some of the key lessons from our research to the test. The survey seeks to establish the policy uptake in terms of both procedural and substantive outcomes in relation to sustainable food systems. In particular, we seek to identify to what extent different groups of citizens are motivated to engage in DPPs that take different forms e.g. in decision-making processes at the municipal level, citizens’ assemblies, participatory budgeting, alternative currencies, or e-governance. In addition, we analyze to what extent different social groups are supportive of the solutions identified in DPPs for the transformation towards sustainable food systems. In particular, this work package will analyze data through an intersectional lens mindful of multiple categories of exclusion.

The aim of this work package is to further investigate the existing, as well as possible, uptake of the European Union’s FFS in our seven countries of study on the basis of knowledge obtained throughout the work packages of the project. It will use the results presented in the integrated reports of each of the previous work packages (WP2 to WP6) to compare existing local food policies (as described in prior WPs), in particular those related to the FFS. Answering questions such as do these policies, or initiatives, go in the same direction as the EU’s policy? Are they complementary to the EU’s policy and do they pursue compatible or opposed goals with the FFS? The overall goal is then to list the propositions for how to facilitate, support, and speed up the implementation of policies which share the goals of the FFS. This will also lead to the identification of elements that may be more difficult to implement given resistance on the ground again also based on the prior WPs.

This work package aims to ensure effective dissemination and exploitation of the results in order to guarantee the highest possible impact. The plan for the dissemination and exploitation of the project’s results includes measures addressing the full range of potential users and uses in relation to the project’s objectives and research questions, including policymakers, practitioners, and end-users; the general public; and the scientific community. In addition, it involves making the data generated by the project accessible for verification/re-use.

This work package aims to ensure an effective communication of the research findings to different audiences. This involves all activities related to transferring the knowledge produced through the project to policy-makers and practitioners and the scientific community, both at national and international levels. This WP also aims at translating the research findings into a language accessible to non-specialists so as to sensitize public opinion to the issues at stake and to reach a wider audience. Finally, this WP includes all activities relating to spreading knowledge produced through the project among the scientific community, both national and international level.

This work package deals with the technical and administrative management of the project. Our technical management strategy aims at ensuring the timely and efficient implementation of the work plan. It involves all activities relating to keeping the scientific and coordination activities aligned with the work plan, including the technical and financial reporting to the EC. Our administrative management strategy aims at supporting the timely and efficient implementation of the work plan. This involves all activities relating to the non-scientific management of the project, including the financial reporting to the EC.