Please note this event will take place online via Zoom. Attendees will need to have a Zoom account to access the webinar, a free Zoom account can be set up at registration.
Speaker: Jessica Duncan, Wageningen University
Recognizing the urgent need for food system change and action, in September 2021, the UN convened a Food Systems Summit. The Summit was widely praised for its approach to stakeholder engagement. It was also highly criticized for the same reason.
The debates point to a broader challenge in the emerging landscape of food systems governance: whose voices are heard in food systems governance? Whose voices should be heard? Who decides who gets to speak? And what does all this mean for the future of our food systems?
To start to answer these questions, Dr Jessica Duncan builds on over a decade of research into participation across local and global food governance processes. In her talk, she will reflect on opportunities and challenges of designing participatory policy processes and will share practices and principles for designing more equitable and participatory food systems governance, particularly with respect to the role of researchers.
Jessica Duncan is a researcher and educator committed to social justice. After completing her PhD in Food Policy from City, University of London (2014), Jessica moved to the Netherlands where she now works as Associate Professor in the Politics of Food Systems, in the Rural Sociology Group at Wageningen University. She is widely recognised for her expertise on the politics of sustainable food system transition. Her main research focus concerns the practices and politics of participation in food policy processes, particularly the relationships (formal and non-formal) between governance organizations, systems of food provisioning, the environment, and the actors engaged in and across these spaces.
Jessica has also served as Associate Editor for the journal Food Security and currently sits on the Editorial Board of Sociologia Ruralis. She is a founding member of the Centre for Unusual Collaborations, a project of four Dutch universities committed to strengthening interdisciplinary research for societal impact. She most recently served as an expert on the EU Standing Committee for Agricultural Research’s (SCAR) 5th Foresight report on Resilience and Transformation across Food Systems.
The talk will be followed by an online Q&A session.
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