General description of the content
This course will focus on the dynamics in food systems globally from a governance and transition studies perspective. We will identify the different actors involved, their roles and interests, and their relationships and interactions. Next, we will focus on processes of transformations towards more sustainable and healthy food systems (at different levels), by (a) identifying and evaluating what food system actors do and can do to foster more sustainable and healthy food production and consumption; (b) analysing tensions and conflicts between actors regarding food system transformation; and (c) analysing more structural conditions that keep food systems in a lock-in situation but also those that can bring about change. We will also evaluate the consequences of these dynamics in food systems in terms of sustainability and health.
The course combines the following learning activities:
Lectures on food system governance and transformation;
Interaction with food system actor representatives during guest lectures;
Tutorials in which literature is discussed, draft versions of assignments are presented and discussed, and in which debates are held;
Group work and self study (reading and individual assignment).