Embedding Futures in Urban Food Governance

Abstract

The urban food system is considered a promising site for transformative change. Participatory approaches are regarded as essential to navigate sustainable urban food systems transformations that are characterised by a high-density diversity of actors. Forward-looking practices are often used to give shape to participatory food governance as these provide futures to steer towards and concrete insights into shaping pathways of change. We unpack the growing popularity of using futuring practices to shape urban food systems and explore the ways in which futures are embedded in urban food governance. We recommend organising and investigating futuring practices in urban food systems by considering and unpacking the following elements: contextual factors for food systems futures, the organisation of futuring processes, the types of futures developed, and evaluation how food systems futures contribute to actionable knowledge and how this is taken up into governance arrangements. We illustrate this with two urban food cases that featured foresight methods in Eindhoven (the Netherlands) and Kyoto (Japan). With these cases we critically examine the role of the (governance) context for the potential of participatory foresight to contribute to transformative change and provide insights into improving the robustness of futures practices.