Paper short abstract:

This paper draws on workshops that co-created visions of sustainable future food systems and explored the role of blockchain technology therein. It explores the relation between these visions, broader sociotechical imaginaries, and ostensibly disruptive role of technology such as blockchain.

Paper long abstract:

Blockchain is a proposed solution to various unsustainable aspects of the global food system. It has been asserted that the technology – due to the complex discursive landscape in which it is situated, and/or due to its inherent material characteristics - can help to break open the “crisis of imagination” that plagues efforts to resolve current social and environmental crises. This paper interrogates this contention, drawing on a series of visioning workshops conducted in fall of 2023 as part of the European TRUSTyFOOD project, with participation from a wide range of food system actors. Based on these workshops, we explore 1) the range of visions co-produced therein; 2) the broad sociotechnical imaginaries upon which they drew; 3) the points of contradiction and novelty that emerged; and, finally, 4) how engaging with novel technologies, such as blockchain, influenced these visions. We conclude with reflections on the effect that novel technologies may play in resolving – or reproducing – this creative impasse in the context of sustainable food system transformation