Agri-Food transition and citizenship

Transitions in food systems towards greater sustainability call for the participation of stakeholders involved: policy makers, economic actors and, increasingly, citizens. In addition to protest driven social movements, agricultural and food initiatives are increasingly being driven by citizens, whether individuals or collectives. How are these initiatives unfolding in mountain areas? To what extent do the isolation, altitude and natural resources specific to mountain areas facilitate or hinder the emergence of these initiatives? What are their specific features, particularly in terms of their capacity to enhance their impact on agri-food systems in relation to sustainable production, distribution, marketing and consumption? This session will specifically consider four themes in mountain areas:

• The dynamics of citizen engagement in agricultural and food initiatives, their commitment to these initiatives and the meaning linked to the commitment.
• The governance methods and tools used by citizen groups, including specific interactions with other stakeholders in territorial food governance
• The materiality of these initiatives, in particular their territorial embeddedness: what resources are mobilized, what spatial organization of activities, and what scale of action?
• The monitoring and evaluation of the ‘transformative’ effects and impacts of such initiatives: on individuals, on organizations, on policies, and finally on the agri-food system at different scales.

Throughout the session, we aim to identify the main factors of citizen initiatives emergence in mountains, and their role in agri-food transitions.