Hosted by the Future Earth Knowledge-Action Network on Systems of Sustainable Consumption and Production Working Group on Social Change Beyond Consumerism.

Imagining desirable visions of the future that galvanize support and build consensus is critical for catalyzing social change for sustainability. When visions of the future are contested, the forms and targets of future visions, and the underlying knowledge types expressed and activated by future visions become important fact ors in determining which visions “stick” in the social imaginary. Food is unique in that is a ubiquitous part of our everyday lifeworld̶ eating, cooking, and grazing grocery aisles for example are not only sensuous experiences, but are shaped by habit, culture, policy, and infrastructure.
Encountering plausble and desirable futures through the lens of food can provide rich experiences that have the potential to reacclimate consumers as citizens and co-producers of sustainable food systems. The FEAST Project (20 16-2021, RIHN) conducted transdisciplinary research on sustainable food future s in the context of alternative social practices, food policy, and art & education. This presentation introduces some of these activities and how they point to new directions for research on futures, food, and sustainable social change.

Speaker: Steven McGreevy (University of Twente)

Steven R. McGreevy i s an assistant professor of institutional urban sustainability studies in the Department of Technology, Policy, and Society, Section of Governance and Technology for Sustainability (CSTM). His re search interests include novel approaches to sustainable bioregional revitalization, sustainable agrifood transitions and post-growth food systems, relinking of patierns of food consumption and production through policy and practice, and simulation and serious gaming as a tool for sustainability education and g overnance. He is also a visiting associate professor at the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature ( “RIHN” , Kyoto, Japan) where he led the FEAST Project (2016-2021) on sustainable agrifood transitions i n Asia. s.r.mcgreevy@utwente.nl

Speaker: Max Spiegelberg (Heidelberg University of Education)

Imagining desirable visions of the future that galvanize support and build consensus is critical for catalyzing social change for sustainability. When visions of the future are contested, the forms and targets of future visions, and the underlying knowledge types expressed and activated by future visions become important fact ors in determining which visions “stick” in the social imaginary. Food is unique in that is a ubiquitous part of our everyday lifeworld̶ eating, cooking, and grazing grocery aisles for example are not only sensuous experiences, but are shaped by habit, culture, policy, and infrastructure.
Encountering plausble and desirable futures through the lens of food can provide rich experiences that have the potential to reacclimate consumers as citizens and co-producers of sustainable food systems. The FEAST Project (20 16-2021, RIHN) conducted transdisciplinary research on sustainable food future s in the context of alternative social practices, food policy, and art & education. This presentation introduces some of these activities and how they point to new directions for research on futures, food, and sustainable social change.

Relevant papers:

• Constructing practice-oriented futures for sustainable urban food policy in Bangkok, Futures 2022
• Learning about, Playing with, and Experimenting in Critical Futures through Soft Scenarios: Directions for Food Policy, Environmental Science (in Japanese), 2021.
• New pathways for governing food system transformations: a pluralistic practice-based futures approach using visioning, back-casting, and serious gaming, Ecology and Society, 2019

Relevant websites:

• FEAST Project/NPO
• School Lunch 2050

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