Blind spots in agri-environmental governance: some reflections and suggestions from Switzerland

Jérémie Forney ()
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Jérémie Forney: Anthropology Institute, University of Neuchâtel,Neuchâtel, Switzerland

Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies, 2016, vol. 97, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Attempts of making our food systems more sustain-able have (partly) failed. Food production still contributes sig-nificantly to biodiversity losses, global warming and depletionof natural resources. Based on the postulation that this failurein the governance of environmental issues in agri-food sys-tems relates notably to social and cultural aspects, this paperexplores the literature in the social sciences looking for expla-nations. A first statement is that research around agri-environmental governance (AEG) issues remains globallysplit into two subgroups, one focusing on public policies andthe other on the civil society or market aspects of environmen-tal certification, with very little exchange or transversal anal-ysis between the two. Drawing on the literature and on long-term fieldwork and research in Switzerland, I identify threedimensions of AEG that open new paths towards more sus-tainable food systems: an encompassing approach of the foodsystem; the encouragement of collective knowledge creationand the promotion of autonomy. Joining other emergingscholarships, this paper calls for developments in the researchon AEG that produce encompassing theoretical frameworks,which transcends pre-existing categories in order to allow newconceptualisation of governance practices in complex or hy-brid systems. The integration of the food, knowledge and au-tonomy dimensions should help in creating innovative andtransformative governance instruments.

Keywords: Environmental; governance.Food; system.Autonomy.Knowledge.Social; transformation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:rae:jouraf:v:97:y:2016:i:1:p:1-13

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