Democratic food governance capacity at the local level: the cases of Livorno and Pisa

Abstract

ABSTRACT The democratization of food governance is considered to be one way of challenging the crisis in the global food system. Local governments have recently emerged as prominent actors in food governance. Despite the increasing interest and action from local institutions, in most countries local food policies are far from being adopted by local governments as systematic policy. This paper explores the democratic local food governance capacity model as both an analytical and normative framework aimed at supporting local governments to set up democratic local food governance architectures based on urban food strategies and food policy councils. The model is used to analyse the Italian case studies of the Municipality of Livorno and the Province of Pisa in order to identify insights and policy recommendations for local governments. The analysis reveals how the construction of local democratic food governance systems is conditioned by multiple factors related to the structural, procedural and socio-cultural support, which also influence the implementation of democratic food governance.