Haley Parzonko
Academic and research departments
Centre for Environment and Sustainability, School of Sustainability, Civil and Environmental Engineering.About
My research project
Unpacking the meanings, modes, and politics of ‘participation’ in urban food governance arrangements: Farmers, cities, and food policy networks in the US and the UKIn the context of the food system, the notion of stakeholder participation has become increasingly important in governance and policymaking processes. Yet, while the concept of ‘participation’ is generally celebrated in this context, it remains contested in theory and challenging in practice. Urban food governance arrangements, through their multi-actor architecture, elucidate a cogent example of these contestations and challenges. On the one hand, urban food governance arrangements are seen as an inclusive, democratic mechanism that has opened up participation opportunities for non-state actors in response to the concerns around filling ‘democratic deficits’ in the food system. On the other hand, some scholars critique the existing literature on urban food governance arrangements for upholding an overtly celebratory tone that lacks basis in substantial empirical evidence. Critics cite how urban food governance arrangements tend to neutralise power relations through the rhetoric and practice of participation and remain exclusive to the ‘usual suspects’. Amidst this debate, questions arise on what extent, in what ways, and for whose interest the concept of participation is being formulated and implemented in urban food governance. These questions concern not only the structures and processes through which stakeholder participation takes shape but also the meanings and perceptions underpinning different actors' perspectives of participation.
To date, there remains a paucity of research looking to comprehensively understand the meanings, modes, and politics of participation and their interplay in an urban food governance context. Therefore, this dissertation aims to systematically explore how the concept of participation is practised and perceived and what factors shape the modes and meanings of participation in a collaborative governance setting through the lens of ‘urban food governance’. To this end, a comparative case study approach will be adopted to examine non-state private actors in urban food governance arrangements in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Keywords: Urban food governance, cities, stakeholder participation, perceptions, sustainability
Supervisors
In the context of the food system, the notion of stakeholder participation has become increasingly important in governance and policymaking processes. Yet, while the concept of ‘participation’ is generally celebrated in this context, it remains contested in theory and challenging in practice. Urban food governance arrangements, through their multi-actor architecture, elucidate a cogent example of these contestations and challenges. On the one hand, urban food governance arrangements are seen as an inclusive, democratic mechanism that has opened up participation opportunities for non-state actors in response to the concerns around filling ‘democratic deficits’ in the food system. On the other hand, some scholars critique the existing literature on urban food governance arrangements for upholding an overtly celebratory tone that lacks basis in substantial empirical evidence. Critics cite how urban food governance arrangements tend to neutralise power relations through the rhetoric and practice of participation and remain exclusive to the ‘usual suspects’. Amidst this debate, questions arise on what extent, in what ways, and for whose interest the concept of participation is being formulated and implemented in urban food governance. These questions concern not only the structures and processes through which stakeholder participation takes shape but also the meanings and perceptions underpinning different actors' perspectives of participation.
To date, there remains a paucity of research looking to comprehensively understand the meanings, modes, and politics of participation and their interplay in an urban food governance context. Therefore, this dissertation aims to systematically explore how the concept of participation is practised and perceived and what factors shape the modes and meanings of participation in a collaborative governance setting through the lens of ‘urban food governance’. To this end, a comparative case study approach will be adopted to examine non-state private actors in urban food governance arrangements in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Keywords: Urban food governance, cities, stakeholder participation, perceptions, sustainability
News
In the media
ResearchResearch interests
Urban food policy, governance, sustainability, environmental sociology, farmers, urban-rural relationships
Research interests
Urban food policy, governance, sustainability, environmental sociology, farmers, urban-rural relationships
Publications
Highlights
Edwards, F., Sonnino, R., Lopez Cifuentes, M., and Parzonko, H. (2023). Matrix of type and composition of food policy networks, their transformational capacity and their engagement with deprived and vulnerable groups. DOI:10.13140/RG.2.2.22261.35041
Description: Recent years have seen the emergence of novel collaborations between key food system actors, many of whom seek to change policy towards food system transformation. These networks of food system stakeholders – referred to as Food Policy Networks (FPNs) in this report – exist in diverse compositions around the world. For example, in North America, Food Policy Council (FPC) is the most commonly used term, where alternatively other terms include food councils, coalitions, committees, task forces, alliances, partnerships, boards and steering groups (Santo et al., 2020). To date, no comprehensive review has been conducted of the diversity of their compositional forms, their impact on vulnerable and marginal groups, or their capacity to instigate transformation in the food system. This report contributes to Task 2.2 of the EU FoodCLIC project and is led by the University of Surrey. It reviews literature on FPNs through an innovative focus on: 1. The composition of diverse types of FPNs, 2. Attention to the mechanisms that have been deployed to enhance participation of representatives from vulnerable and deprived groups; and, 3. Highlights their capacity to initiate and support change in the urban food environment as a leverage point to transform the city-regional food system. Insights from this task are synthesised into a matrix with global geographical coverage, with examples from North America, Asia, Africa, Europe and beyond to showcase the diversity and location of these FPNs. Furthermore, text boxes of detailed FPN examples are provided throughout the report to emphasise their important characteristics, such as their composition, age, scale, location and topic, their focus on vulnerable and marginal groups and their transformational capacity. By synthesising this research into the matrix and the text boxes, this report will form the basis of discussion for knowledge-sharing workshops with the FoodCLIC Living Lab teams (based in Åarhus, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Brașov, Budapest, Capannori and Lisbon) to support the development and scaling-up of empowered FPNs (in WP3). It will also provide a base from which to identify a sample of different types of FPNs for interviews and case studies for subsequent research within this project (as part of Task 2.2).
: Recent debates on transforming the food system toward more sustainable outcomes are increasingly emphasizing the need for participatory and inclusive governance models. In this context, mechanisms such as Food Policy Groups (FPGs), which are designed to enhance the participation of different food system actors, are generally considered critical levers to achieve democratic objectives in food systems. While their transformative capacity and participatory potential have been widely emphasized, the specific mechanisms and strategies that can enable or limit their inclusive potential have remained under-explored. To fill this gap, this article examines the dynamics of inclusion that shape stakeholder participation in FPGs through an in-depth examination of one key stakeholder group: the farming community. Data collected on 25 FPGs from the US and the UK are analyzed through a focus on the interplay between three critical dimensions of stakeholder participation: (i) the “who”, (ii) the “how” and (iii) the “context” (i.e., enablers and barriers to participation). This analysis shows that a range of context-specific dynamics shape participant composition and engagement approaches, while also creating varying opportunities and constraints that influence stakeholder participation. We conclude that for stakeholder engagement strategies to be meaningfully inclusive and sustainable over time, they need to entail dynamic, adaptive and place-based approaches that respond to the needs and circumstances of different stakeholders.