| 1. |
- Eliasson, Karin, 1984-, et al.
(author)
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A spatially explicit approach to assessing commodity-driven fertilizer use and its impact on biodiversity
- 2023
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In: Journal of Cleaner Production. - : Elsevier. - 0959-6526 .- 1879-1786. ; 382
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Global demand for food, including rising consumption of meat and dairy products, is increasing pressure on the environment and natural resources, often in locations distant from points of consumption. To identify and quantify consumer driven impacts and the components of the supply chain where sustainability interventions will be most effective, spatially explicit consumption-linked indicators that encompass environmental risks are required. Large amounts of phosphorus fertilizers are used in Brazilian soybean cultivation, which potentially cause eutrophication and impact freshwater species. We use a sub-national trade model to develop a spatially explicit approach for assessing commodity-driven phosphorus fertilizer use and its potential impact on biodiversity linked to four key consumers. The use of phosphorus for embedded consumption per capita of Brazilian soybean in China, the EU, the UK, and Sweden are estimated at municipal level and combined with metrics that influence losses of phosphorus to create a normalised relative risk index. The relative risk index is presented in geospatial visualisations to explore geographical patterns of risk to freshwater biodiversity and make the link between consumer and producer countries less obscure. The results indicate high phosphorus-linked species risk in municipalities within Mato Grosso, Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná, and Goiás. Sweden and the UK generate the highest relative risk and the geographical patterns of risk differ between the investigated consuming countries, showing that smaller countries can have relatively large impacts at a spatially explicit scale. In the Amazon biome, risk of nutrient losses and biodiversity are relatively high, creating concerns as soybean production is expanding into the area. The results and methodological approach can contribute to understanding of accountability, agency, and increased transparency for the governance of global supply chains, necessary for enabling transformations towards sustainable food systems.
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| 2. |
- Eliasson, Karin, 1984-
(author)
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Transformations towards Sustainable Food Systems : Pathways, Governance, and Actors in a Swedish and European Union Context
- 2023
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Food systems are central to global sustainability, while being complex systems where places and people are intertwined over large distances and at different scales. Transformations towards sustainable food systems have been called for in both research and policy, and Sweden and the European Union have declared high ambitions to act as global leaders in these transformations. While food production in Sweden and the European Union is often portrayed as largely sustainable in a global context, the region is highly dependent on food imports, with relatively large environmental footprints globally. This thesis aims to explore transformative pathways towards sustainability, with a particular focus on sustainable food systems, in a Swedish and European Union context. The thesis specifically studies the following research questions: (1) What constitutes transformations towards sustainability, and in particular sustainable food systems, from the perspectives of Swedish stakeholders, including food system practitioners, and European Union policy frameworks? (2) What roles, responsibilities, and agency do Swedish stakeholders, including food system practitioners and European Union policy frameworks, attribute to different actors? (3) How can interconnections and accountability in global food systems be understood and governed in light of societal transformations towards sustainability? (4) What are the implications for transformative pathways towards sustainability? The thesis builds on four papers that use focus group methodology (PI and PII), involving Swedish stakeholders, including food-system practitioners, analyses of European Green Deal policies (PII and PIII), and quantitative investigation of phosphorus fertiliser use in Brazilian soybean production and related biodiversity impacts (PIV). Four overarching conclusions are drawn from the findings: (I) Shared goals and consensus are emphasised as essential, while a diversity of transformative pathways and understandings of challenges and priorities needs to be recognised, with attention being paid to how specific choices might include and exclude pathways and actors. (II) Emerging shifts in how food is valued open up opportunities for transformative change in which the ‘true’ cost of food is acknowledged, alongside a recognition of non-economic values of food, which presupposes alignment at the practical, political, and personal levels. (III) The identified pathways comprise public accountability regimes, incentives for more sustainable consumption, regulations to reduce resource use and impacts of food production. (IV) The attribution of accountability to trading operators in the accountability regime proposed by the European Union highlights an extended focus from food production and consumption towards regulating flows and intermediate actors in food systems.
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| 3. |
- Eliasson, Karin, 1984-, et al.
(author)
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Transformations towards sustainable food systems: contrasting Swedish practitioner perspectives with the European Commission’s Farm to Fork Strategy
- 2022
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In: Sustainability Science. - Tokyo, Japan : Springer. - 1862-4065 .- 1862-4057. ; 17, s. 2411-2425
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This study explores features of food system transformations towards sustainability in the Farm to Fork Strategy in relation toperspectives of Swedish food system practitioners. Transformations towards sustainable food systems are essential to achievethe United Nations’ 2030 Agenda and the need for more sustainable food systems has been recognised in the European GreenDeal and its Farm to Fork Strategy. The Swedish ambition to act as a global leader in achieving the 2030 Agenda and theEuropean Commission’s aspiration for Europe to lead global food system transformations offer a critical opportunity to studytransformational processes and agents of change in a high-income region with externalised environmental and sustainabilityimpacts. Drawing on theories of complex systems transformations, this study identifies features of food system transformations,exploring places to intervene and examines the roles, responsibilities, and agency related to these changes. The resultsof this study provide three main conclusions highlighting (i) alignment of high-level policy and the perspectives of nationalpractitioners at the paradigm level, especially concerning how food is valued, which is a crucial first step for transformationalprocesses to come about (ii) a lack of clarity as well as diversity of pathways to transform food systems although commonobjectives are expressed, and (iii) governance mechanisms as enablers for a diversity of transformations. Moreover, theseprocesses must acknowledge the contextual and complex nature of food systems and the level of agency and power of actors.
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| 4. |
- Grundel, Ida, PhD, 1979-, et al.
(author)
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ELABORATOR co-creation playbook : Deliverable 2.3
- 2024
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Other publication (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The ELABORATOR project aims to support cities across Europe in their transition to climate neutrality by promoting the implementation of mobility interventions towards inclusive, sustainable, safe and affordable mobility. The project aims to provide tools and methods to support a truly collaborative and participatory approach in achieving inclusive transport infrastructure development in 12 cities in Europe. The deliverable of T2.3, the ELABORATOR Co-creation playbook provides practical guidelines to engage groups of stakeholders and citizens in the development of qualitative data collection methods, comprising community-based and citizensscience research to ensure that the final methods and tools have legitimacy for all the parties involved in new and innovative urban interventions’ design and deployment. The playbook provides a solid foundation for the cities to work with co-creation methodologies to support the involvement of stakeholders and citizens, especially focusing on the inclusion of VRUs in co-creation processes. Hopefully these guidelines will also prove fruitful for other cities working with collaborative methods.
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| 5. |
- Wibeck, Victoria, 1974-, et al.
(author)
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Co-creation research for transformative times : Facilitating foresight capacity in view of global sustainability challenges
- 2022
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In: Environmental Science and Policy. - : Elsevier. - 1462-9011 .- 1873-6416. ; 128, s. 290-298
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper explores the potentials and limitations of transdisciplinary research on sustainability issues characterized by extensive uncertainty and complexity. Transdisciplinary approaches that support the co-creation of knowledge in collaboration between science and society are advocated in research that aims to explore pathways for societal transformations towards sustainability. However, there is limited research on how co-creation research plays out in practice and what are its implications, in particular with regards to how data collection and analysis can be developed to increase the quality and reliability of the research, and to the roles that researchers themselves play in shaping the research. This paper makes two contributions: First, it offers insight into the design and implementation of co-creation endeavors based on scholarly literature as well as experiences from a research program that seeks to support foresight capacity for sustainable development under geopolitical uncertainties. Second, the paper elaborates methodological support for co-creation research by highlighting the potential of co-dissemination for transdisciplinarity and arguing for a systematic approach to reflection and self-reflexivity. Specifically, the paper reflects on experiences from the ongoing Mistra Geopolitics research program, which explores the intersections between geopolitics and sustainable development, and where co-creation has been at the core since the start of the program. We explore three stages in transdisciplinary research: (i) co-design of the research agenda, (ii) co-production of knowledge, and (iii) co-dissemination. Specifically, we examine the role of non-academic partners, the role of knowledge brokers and facilitation, and the need for flexibility, adaptability and reflexivity throughout the process.
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