| 1. |
- Almered Olsson, Gunilla, 1951, et al.
(författare)
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City–Region Food Systems: Scenarios to re-establish urban-rural links through sustainable food provisioning
- 2018
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Ingår i: Tomorrow’s Food Travel (TFT) conference, Centre for Tourism – University of Gothenburg, 8–10 October 2018, Gothenburg, Sweden.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- City–Region Food Systems (CRFS) is a cutting-edge concept and an emerging field of research. As a new analytical lens, it offers an integrated and multi-dimensional perspective on food’s origins, how it is grown and the path it follows to our plates and beyond. Building on this concept, this presentation reflects a prospective research project which seeks to explore opportunities for innovative and sustainable food systems in the Gothenburg region of Sweden by focusing on how rural and urban regions, food production and market can be integrated to promote regional food security. The project intends to: 1) develop scenarios with stakeholders for local food production in the region; 2) analyze the consequences of the scenarios on landscape change and biodiversity; 3) explore socio-economic consequences for producers and local communities; and 4) evaluate the sustainability and feasibility of scenarios with stakeholders. Five municipalities in Western Sweden (Gothenburg, Kungälv, Lerum, Alingsås and Essunga) will serve as study areas for the project, selected to reflect different kinds of potential for local food production in terms of dissimilar environmental conditions, prerequisites for farming and economic histories. The project responds to expressed interests and knowledge needs in the region and will be developed and implemented in direct cooperation with local and regional actors such as Västarvet, the Västra Götaland Region, the municipalities and various producer organizations. In sum, there are premises suggesting that recent urban food strategies and plans with sustainability ambitions are embracing several Sustainable Development Goals in the environmental, social, economic, and equity dimensions. This, in turn, is a characteristic of the Transition Movements pathway, in which the utility of food strategies in the work with sustainability transitions seems inevitable. The results are therefore likely to be transferable to other regions.
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| 2. |
- Almered Olsson, Gunilla, 1951, et al.
(författare)
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Food systems sustainability: For whom and by whom? – An examination of different 'food system change' viewpoints
- 2018
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Ingår i: Development Research Conference 2018: “Rethinking development”, 22–23 August 2018, Gothenburg, Sweden.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The United Nations identifies the food crisis as one of the primary overarching challenges facing the international community. Different stakeholders in the food system have widely different perspectives and interests, and challenging structural issues, such as the power differentials among them, remain largely unexamined. These challenges make rational discourse among food system actors from different disciplines, sectors and levels difficult. These challenges can often prevent them from working together effectively to find innovative ways to respond to food security challenges. This means that finding solutions to intractable and stuck issues, such as the food crisis often stall, not at implementation, but at the point of problem identification. Food system sustainability means very different things to different food system actors. These differences in no way undermine or discount the work carried out by these players. However, making these differences explicit is an essential activity that would serve to deepen theoretical and normative project outcomes. Would the impact and reach of different food projects differ if these differences were made explicit? The purpose of this initial part of a wider food system research project is not to search for difference or divergence, with the aim of critique, but rather to argue that by making these differences explicit, the overall food system project engagement will be made more robust, more inclusive and more encompassing. This paper starts with some discussion on the different food system perspectives, across scales, regions and sectors but focuses primarily on the design of processes used to understand these divergent and at times contradictory views of what a sustainable food system may be. This paper draws on ongoing work within the Mistra Urban Futures project, using the food system projects in cities as diverse as Cape Town, Manchester, Gothenburg and Kisumu as sites for this enquiry.
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| 3. |
- Dymitrow, Mirek, et al.
(författare)
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Integration and green business development in a trust-building context
- 2018
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Ingår i: Mistra Urban Futures Annual International Conference “Comparative Co-Production”, SunSquare Conference Centre, 5–7 November 2018, Cape Town, South Africa.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The success of social science research and collaboration projects which seek to gain involvement from a particular group of participants are highly reliant upon the quality of social relationships between all stakeholders and actors involved. This means that the quality of these relationships is reliant upon trust and obligations that are inherent within. Trust is a multifaceted process of sensemaking which is developed over time and is created and reproduced though social interactions at both an interpersonal and institutional level. It is argued that the most significant relationship within a project that seeks the engagement of immigrant communities is that between the project team and the gatekeeper. However, empirical examples show that projects focusing on specific kinds of development (like green development) may overshadow the project’s social context in terms of who it is really for. Moreover, such projects may also inadvertently cater to actors already established on the local market (rather than focusing on the neediest) or even breed stereotypes about immigrants (such as that “all” immigrants are farmers, and hence green development is suitable for them). Unsurprisingly, unreflective approaches to themed integration projects are likely to raise suspicion and, probably undeservingly, spawn negative media attention. This presentation focuses on the backside of implementing a themed integration process in a setting marred by low levels of trust in municipal authorities, past difficulties of implementation and general reluctance of key actors. By making use of reflexive autoethnographic methodology, this presentation opens up to both the possibilities and challenges of an integration project aiming to create new jobs within green development. It also includes a number of recommendations for successful implementation.
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| 4. |
- Fermskog, Kristina, et al.
(författare)
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From skipped free school lunches to poverty-induced food deserts: Some thoughts on Gothenburg’s local food strategy – and how to make it happen
- 2018
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Ingår i: Mistra Urban Futures Annual International Conference “Comparative Co-Production”, SunSquare Conference Centre, 5–7 November 2018, Cape Town, South Africa.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The city of Gothenburg is devoted to establishing a local food strategy (GAFS) able to transform the local food system into one of healthy and sustainable food supply to all Gothenburgers, while at the same time decreasing the environmental impact globally. Departing from the Gothenburg municipality’s environmental and climate programs, the GAFS also relates back to the Swedish environmental goals and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As such, GAFS is a municipal mission with global ambitions, but it is also an active testbed within the project Urban Rural Gothenburg with the goal to lay bare GAFS’s preconditions to obtain the desired effect. While the idea is an attractive one and in line with current calls for food sustainability, the practical work process has been marred by loose and indirect interaction between the actors as well as insufficient knowledge of the stakeholders’ preconditions and priorities to secure stronger impact. An important factor in this dimension has been the overwhelming scope of what the food strategy must cover in order to be successful. This presentation focuses on two of them: skipped free school lunches and poverty-induced food deserts. On the one hand, the city of Gothenburg offers free school lunches to all its school children, which nonetheless are surreptitiously skipped due to children’s poor understanding of the nutritious, ecological and just value of such lunches. On the other hand, certain areas of Gothenburg, like Hammarkullen with 8,000 inhabitants, have not had a supermarket since the 1990s due to major food chains’ disinterest in establishing themselves in poor immigrant neighborhoods (due to demand for very cheap foods or certain types of foods, e.g. halal or kosher). Instead the citizens are forced to travel up to 1 hour to procure affordable food (car ownership is extremely low) or to buy small portions of grossly overpriced products from local street vendors. These two examples show how both the use and underuse of political power is problematic in different circumstances, with similarly adverse effects for a sustainable local food strategy. In this presentation, we focus on this worrying divergence by discussing the hidden traps within, but also by bringing forth known success stories as possible ways forward.
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| 5. |
- Fermskog, Kristina, et al.
(författare)
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Gothenburg’s applied food strategy: Meaningful – but how useful?
- 2018
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Ingår i: Development Research Conference 2018: “Rethinking development”, 22–23 August 2018, Gothenburg, Sweden.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Gothenburg’s Applied Food Strategy (GAFS) is both a municipal mission and an active testbed within the project Urban Rural Gothenburg (Stadslandet). While the idea is an attractive one and in line with current calls for food sustainability, the practical work process has been marred by loose and indirect interaction between the actors and insufficient knowledge of the stakeholders’ preconditions and priorities to secure stronger impact. To this backdrop, there is also the dual risk of deception if, despite actor involvement, GAFS will fail to materialize, or, contrarily, if GAFS materializes but will not be as effective as anticipated. As such, GAFS requires both a rethink of what its conceptualization and development really imply for the stakeholders but also spawn a discussion of the strategy’s feasibility of execution. Departing from a psychosocial approach to societal change (focusing on stakeholders’ abilities, preconditions and motivations), the aim of this presentation is to elaborate on the following question: How can we jointly create a food strategy that would make more stakeholders engaged in the effort and thus actually utilize the food strategy? Put differently, is GAFS really a useful idea? Our anchor point forms an important stepping stone for successful realization of both the municipal Environment Management’s mission and for Stadslandet’s establishment as an innovative food project. Only by pursuing a win-win scenario can there be a substantial contribution to global knowledge on food systems, and the much needed engagement, trust and self-confidence involved when realizing such systems.
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| 6. |
- Fermskog, Kristina, et al.
(författare)
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Working with the Gothenburg food system: Civil servants and researchers connected through the Urban Rural Gothenburg Research Forum
- 2019
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Ingår i: 4th Mistra Urban Futures Annual International Conference: “Lessons, Impacts and Outcomes”, Cutler’s Hall, 14–18 October 2019, Sheffield, UK.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Gothenburg’s Applied Food Strategy (GAFS) is both a municipal mission and an active testbed within Urban Rural Gothenburg, a three-year (2017-19) EU-sponsored project for sustainable development with the overarching aim to create improved conditions for green innovation and green business development between the city and the countryside. While a national food strategy is being implemented at the regional level, its municipal counterpart remains functionally independent as the city is reluctant to produce a new strategy document on food in an effort to reduce the number of strategy documents at the city level. However, transforming intentions into actions within the municipality requires that relevant strategy documents are in place. This presentation draws on insights from Mistra Urban Futures’ associated food networks, interactive platforms, scientific publications, a transdisciplinary anthology and a report on sustainable food to build a knowledge base that can help raise concerns, maintain motivation and enhance positive outcomes from food work with the overarching goal to unlock food justice.
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| 7. |
- Florén, Britta, et al.
(författare)
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Förstudie: Smart och klimatmedveten matbutik för morgondagens konsumenter och samhälle
- 2019
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Vid sidan om transporter och bostäder så står maten för en av de stora klimatutmaningarna nu och framöver. Matens del av den totala konsumtionsdrivna klimatpåverkan i Sverige är idag cirka 25 %, ca 2 ton CO2-e per person och år. Genom att underlätta för konsumenter att välja mer klimatsmarta val vid livsmedelsinköp finns en möjlighet att minska klimatpåverkan från livsmedel. I ett nudgingförsök på mat.se sänkte medverkande kunder sin klimatpåverkan från livsmedel med 7 procent baserat på genomsnittliga kg CO2-e per order. Under motsvarande period minskade icke-deltagande konsumenter sitt klimatavtryck med 3 procent med samma beräkningsmetod. Förstudien har undersökt hur information om klimatpåverkan hos olika livsmedel tillsammans med tillgängliggörandet av klimatsmartare alternativ (nudging) kan förändra köpbeteendet hos konsumenten. Målet har varit att minska klimatpåverkan i staden. Förstudien har fokuserat på metoder och parametrar viktiga för att locka fler att medvetet eller omedvetet handla mer miljö-/klimat-smartare mat. Livskraftiga städer som uppmuntrar till hållbara livsstilar kräver innovativa lösningar som underlättar för konsumenten att välja rätt. Projektupplägget har bestått av en kartläggning av nuvarande situation, nudgingförsök samt projektworkshops. Kartläggningen genomfördes för att avgöra vilka produkter som är av specifikt intresse att tillgängliggöra klimatsmartare alternativ. RISE klimatdatabas för livsmedel har varit central i denna del för att identifiera vilka beslutsval som har kapacitet att ge en betydande klimatnytta. Nudgingförsöket har byggts upp i en två-stegs nudgingmodell där konsumenterna först har aktivt fått välja att medverka i projektet (steg 1). För de som väljer att förbinda sig till detta har klimatsmartare alternativ lyfts upp till det först visade alternativet vid vissa specifika sökord (steg 2). Projektdeltagare: - Mat.se, en innovativ aktör inom e-handel som vill utveckla lösningar för en minskad klimatpåverkan från livsmedelskonsumtion.- Göteborg Stad deltog som representant för medborgaren och staden, - Handelshögskolan (GU) med forskningsexpertis inom nudging. - RISE, experter inom livsmedels klimatpåverkan och beteendevetenskap.
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| 8. |
- Haysom, Gareth, et al.
(författare)
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Food systems sustainability: An examination of different viewpoints on food system change
- 2019
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Ingår i: Sustainability. - : MDPI AG. - 2071-1050. ; 11:12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Global food insecurity levels remain stubbornly high. One of the surest ways to grasp the scale and consequence of global inequality is through a food systems lens. In a predominantly urban world, urban food systems present a useful lens to engage a wide variety of urban (and global) challenges—so called ‘wicked problems.’ This paper describes a collaborative research project between four urban food system research units, two European and two African. The project purpose was to seek out solutions to what lay between, across and within the different approaches applied in the understanding of each city’s food system challenges. Contextual differences and immediate (perceived) needs resulted in very different views on the nature of the challenge and the solutions required. Value positions of individuals and their disciplinary “enclaves” presented further boundaries. The paper argues that finding consensus provides false solutions. Rather the identification of novel approaches to such wicked problems is contingent of these differences being brought to the fore, being part of the conversation, as devices through which common positions can be discovered, where spaces are created for the realisation of new perspectives, but also, where difference is celebrated as opposed to censored.
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| 9. |
- Ingelhag, Karin, et al.
(författare)
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Local food strategies for the future: Experiences from Gothenburg
- 2018
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Ingår i: Måltid Sverige: “Livsmedelsforum 2018” Conference, Chalmers University of Technology, Environmental Protection Agency, RISE – Research Institutes of Sweden, Västra Götaland Regional Council, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management; 11 October 2018, Gothenburg, Sweden.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ongoing climate change, demographic pressures, and socio-economic differences are likely to increase vulnerability to food insecurity, whilst the challenge of providing sufficient, nutritious, and affordable food for everyone has never been greater. In this sense, the concept of food justice is gaining prominence in urban strategies and decision making worldwide. Gothenburg, like several other European cities, grapples with significant gaps between its geographical areas and various sectors of society. One of these gaps relates to the need of developing a sustainable food system, which would comprise the whole chain from food production, via processing, distribution and marketing, to consumption. In this dimension, many research studies have identified unutilized social capital and natural resources as the main causes of fragmentation, stressing the need for strengthening bottom-up initiatives through projects that could affect the local food strategy in a positive way. Here, participatory approaches have shown to be useful tools for joint development of possible futures and have laid bare overlooked possibilities for successful implementation of food strategies. In this vein, the City of Gothenburg has developed a project (Urban Rural Gothenburg ) that systematically tests and demonstrates innovative methods for new creative interactions between the city and the country, some of which explore novel developments within food security, food affordability and access to food. This presentation focuses on the role of Gothenburg’s food strategy for local production and logistics, and as a green basis for rural-urban linkages by focusing on the employed assumptions and methods set out to create beneficial environmental, social and economic effects.
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