Advancing Food System Transformation and Addressing Conflicts Through Transdisciplinary Methodologies: Strengths and Limitations of the Community Voice Method, T-Labs, Film-Making and the Miracle Question

Abstract

Food systems are changing through various socioeconomic and policy processes. For example, in France, following concerns over the effects of pesticides on ecosystems and health, the French government launched the “Ecophyto II+” plan in 2019 that aims for a 50% reduction in the use of pesticides by 2025. This top-down food system transformation is leading to conflicts between stakeholders over how to enact such a policy, and its implications for farmers and their practices. By adopting a transdisciplinary research approach, we explore conflicts linked to food system transformations in the context of three case studies in France. The case studies revolve around conflicts over pesticide use and reduction in three agricultural settings in Bourgogne Franche-Comté, namely (a) water management near Auxerre, (b) apiculture-agriculture relations in the Jura, and (c) viticulture-local resident relationships near Macon. We use four innovative transdisciplinary techniques to integrate inclusively the viewpoints of diverse stakeholders with the aim of generating actionable responses to transform food systems. First, the Community Voice Method (CVM) includes filmed semi-structured interviews and integrates a number of opportunities for participation and successive rounds of data analysis. Second, the interviewees were asked a “miracle question” that encouraged them to step back from conflicts and practices toward their ideal vision of agriculture and food systems. Third, the CVM resulted in the production of four films that relate the visions and perception of each case study interviewees in their own words and in their own setting. Finally, Transformation Labs (T-Labs) conveyed the main results of the CVM knowledge synthesis through the films produced and opened a dialogue toward the development of solutions. We review the four techniques, how they were implemented in the three case studies, and with which outcomes. Thus the aim of this paper is to offer reflections and lessons learnt from different transdisciplinary processes as a means of strengthening their application in other contexts. We argue that such methodologies, whilst resource-consuming, are essential to fully understand the complexity of food system transformations from the often-conflictual perspectives and competing knowledge claims of the multiple actors involved. In addition, we highlight the role of these techniques in building long-term trust between researchers and other stakeholders, and the benefits in terms of opening up dialogue and developing long-term solutions, as determined by the stakeholders themselves.

Transformations towards Sustainable Food Systems : Pathways, Governance, and Actors in a Swedish and European Union Context

“…While several scholars emphasise the importance of embracing diversity in processes that seek to identify common goals and acknowledge that multiple pathways are needed in order to reach the goals (e.g. Blythe et al 2018;Béné et al 2019;Soininen et al 2022;Lécuyer et al 2022;Calla et al 2022) the focus on consensus and stability might obscure power relations and problems that need to be addressed and thus weaken the opportunity to imagine different futures (Muiderman et al 2020). By disregarding the political and normative nature of transformations towards sustainability, the process may become depoliticised.…”

“…The Covid-19 pandemic, Russia's war on Ukraine, and severe climate impacts on agricultural production in the early 2020s have posed severe threats to food security and sustainability (FAO 2022;WTO and FAO 2022;IPCC 2022;Rauschendorfer and Krivonos 2022), which further highlight the importance of studying food systems in all their complexity. Facing up to these unprecedented environmental, societal, and geopolitical challenges calls for an integrated, multidisciplinary, and transdisciplinary approach that is problem and solution oriented and involves academic, societal, and business stakeholders 1 working together (Moser 2016;UN 2015;Mauser et al 2013;Kuenkel 2019;Wibeck et al 2019;Calla et al 2022). The 2030 Agenda further emphasises international cooperation and global governance as necessary for achieving the SDGs (UN 2015), an approach that could be challenged by increasing nationalism, protectionism, and geopolitical tensions (Gottenhuber and Mulholland 2020;Dalby 2020).…”

An Agonistic Perspective on the Challenge of Biodiversity Value Integration

“…Furthermore, it considers that collective identities and worldviews are not coherently derived from broad values but are idiosyncratic configurations of seemingly incompatible values and beliefs [98]. From this follows the involvement of methods including visual and narrative expression and group-forming [99,100], and common or divergent reframing [101,102] that help participants express, imagine, and passionately experience new chains of meaning.…”