Technocratic and deliberative governance for sustainability: rethinking the roles of experts, consumers, and producers

Abstract

While there is general consensus regarding the urgent need for sustainability transitions in food and agriculture, tensions exist regarding how to best stimulate and manage them. Generally, there are two competing agrifood governance models for advancing sustainability: technocratic and deliberative democratic procedures. Taking up Fischer’s (Citizens, experts, and the environment: The politics of local knowledge, Duke University Press, Durham, 2000) call to develop new ways of bringing citizens and experts together in governance, this paper examines an integrative sustainability governance system that uses both technocratic and deliberative procedures. Drawing on a case study of a Japanese consumer cooperative, Seikatsu Club Consumer Cooperative, this paper analyzes the ways that technocratic and deliberative governance procedures use different forms of knowledge, measure and assess sustainability differently, and produce different outcomes. The analysis finds that whereas technocratic forms of governance are most effective at monitoring, verification, and compliance assurance, deliberative processes facilitate relationships, mutual understanding, and commitment among stakeholders. For sustainability governance to address not only the technical but also social dimensions of sustainability, the findings on Seikatsu Club Consumer Cooperative’s integrative governance system support the need for deliberative procedures.