Paper short abstract:

This interactive workshop aims to explore connections and disconnections between agricultural production and food consumption while at the same time critically reflecting on our own roles as researchers (and consumers) in food system transformation.

Paper long abstract:

This interactive workshop will explore (dis)connections in agri-food systems and in related research. By critically exploring these (dis)connections and any underlying assumptions we can improve our understanding of the agri-food system and identify relevant interventions for real change.

The current agri-food system has become so large and complex that it is incredibly resilient to change. Abson et al. (2017) identified a number of ‘deep’ leverage points that are more likely to enable sustainable transformation and emphasized that it is essential to explicitly include values and norms in research processes to produce suitable knowledge that can inform the design and intent of transformation. As transdisciplinary researchers it is especially important to identify and explore our own implicit values so that we understand how underpinning assumptions, norms and values inform and legitimise knowledge production (Horcea-Milcu et al. 2019) and steer transformation.

Food system research covers a broad range of scientific disciplines while also involving a wide variety of social actors. If we are to actually make and do food system transformation we need to re-think how we approach knowledge production and sharing. This workshop will first explore implicit values of the researchers themselves related to agricultural production and food consumption. This will then be used to reflect on the different possible problem framings and solution spaces and to map (dis)connections in the agri-food system. Finally we will identify opportunities for mutual knowledge production and potentially relevant systemic interventions.