1. Civil Society in Sustainability Transitions of Food Systems Rachael Durrant Spru DPhil Day conference 24/05/11

2. Civil Society Food systems Sustainability The ‘good society’ Associational life or ‘public sphere’ Non-state Not-for profit Voluntarism Globalism & Localism Health & nutrition Climate change Brundtland triad: Environmental integrity, social equity & human wellbeing Trade justice & development Food security & food sovereignty Resource depletion Poverty Transition Reform or revolution Activism & participation

3. The theory bit: A multi-level perspective Source: Geels (2002) Case A: Grassroots Innovations Transition contexts Case B: Regime Contestation

4. Research questions 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? 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? How do civil society actors contribute towards Sustainability transitions of food systems? Data gathering Phase one (6 months) Literature review Five exploratory interviews per case Exploration of documents 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

5. Civil Society in Sustainability Transitions of Food Systems Rachael Durrant Spru DPhil Day conference 24/05/11