The power to convene: making sense of the power of food movement organizations in governance processes in the Global Nor
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The power to convene: making sense of the power of food movement organizations in governance processes in the Global North Jill K. Clark1 · Kristen Lowitt2 · Charles Z. Levkoe3 · Peter Andrée4 Accepted: 21 August 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Dominant food systems, based on industrial methods and corporate control, are in a state of flux. To enable the transition towards more sustainable and just food systems, food movements are claiming new roles in governance. These movements, and the initiatives they spearhead, are associated with a range of labels (e.g., food sovereignty, food justice, and community food security) and use a variety of strategies to enact change. In this paper, we use the concept of relational fields to conduct a post-hoc analysis of nine cases, examining how social movement organizations and other actors actively create new deliberative governance spaces. We argue that successes are related to the “power to convene,” a process-oriented approach that increases movements’ capacity to mobilize; leverage different types of power; and integrate, coordinate, and build a systems-oriented vision. The power to convene and create deliberative spaces is demonstrated in a variety of contexts and often results in outcomes that further movement aims, including policy change and repositioning food movement actors visà-vis others in the field. Our findings suggest that success is not only measured as policy outcomes, but as an advantageous repositioning of social movement actors that enables them to be part of governance processes beyond simple policy advocacy. Keywords Food movements · Governance · Sustainable food systems · Interactive governance · Relational fields · Deliberation Abbreviations AOC Appellation d’Origine Controlée BFN Batchewana First Nation CSM Civil Society and Indigenous Peoples’ Mechanism CFS Committee on World Food Security FSC Food Secure Canada NWT Northwest Territories OFN Our Food Network Dunedin SON Saugeen Ojibway Nation F2P Vermont Farm to Plate Network YYC YYC Growers and Distributors * Jill K. Clark [email protected] 1
John Glenn College of Public Affairs, Ohio State University, 1810 College Road, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
2
School of Environmental Studies, Queen’s University, BioSciences Complex, Room 3134, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6, Canada
3
Department of Health Sciences, Lakehead University, 955 Oliver Rd, Thunder Bay, ON P7B 5E1, Canada
4
Department of Political Science, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6, Canada
Introduction Food systems are in a state of flux as the result of a wide range of intersecting forces, including consumer and producer/harvester demands, technological changes, financialization, and climate change (Clapp 2016; Andrée et al. 2014). This has led to the instability of the dominant food system, which is premised on industrial methods and corporate control. A major limitation of food systems’ resilience is that food-related policies tend to favor economic development over people’s acc
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