How Civil Servants Frame Participation: Balancing Municipal Responsibility With Citizen Initiative in Ede’s Food Policy

Abstract

Contemporary governance is marked by a participatory turn that sees an active role for non-governmental actors in traditionally governmental activities, such as policy-making. This trend has been prevalent across food policy and reflects a key feature of food democracy. While participation of non-governmental actors has been well researched, in this paper we address a gap in the literature by examining the role of governmental actors. We ask specifically how civil servants frame the participation of non-governmental actors in policy processes. Drawing on ethnographic research we introduce the case of civil servants working on an urban food policy for the municipality of Ede. Our analysis uncovers two competing frames: one highlighting the responsibility of the municipality to take a leading role in food policy making, and one responding reflexively to non-governmental actors through a reactive attitude. The analysis provides insights into how the framing of participation by civil servants serves to shape the conditions for participation of non-governmental actors. It further sheds light on related practices and uncovers existing tensions and contradictions, with important implications for food democracy. We conclude by showing how in the short term, a strong leadership role of civil servants, informed by the responsibility frame, may be effective for advancing policy objectives of the municipality. However, the reactive frame illustrates that civil servants worry this approach is not effective for maintaining meaningful participation of non-governmental actors. This remains a key tension of participatory municipal-led urban food policy making.

Food democracy: possibilities under the frame of the current food system

“…However, according to interviewees, citizens' level of food literacy is decreasing. Our results pinpoint a lack of sufficient information about food (e.g., through labeling) within the food system (Hamilton 2005;McFadden and Stefanou 2016;van de Griend et al 2019).…”

“…Regime actors may contribute to FD by increasing the amount of available and affordable sustainable food (e.g., organic food) for citizens (Hamilton 2005;McFadden and Stefanou 2016;van de Griend et al 2019) due to their advantage at reducing prices (Howard 2016), and by promoting the re-localization of food provision. Interest groups, NGOs and, municipal authorities also advocate for and support an environmentally sustainable food provision.…”

“…In this study, we found that retailers, the food industry, and restaurateurs still lack transparency and are unwilling to share specific knowledge (e.g., food quality and origin). In contrast, several regime actors and most niche actors actively contribute to co-learning processes with citizens and other food actors, widening their knowledge about food and the food system and thus contributing to FD (Hamilton 2005;van de Griend et al 2019).…”

“…We argue that FD needs to be critically reflected without dismissing actors at the regime level, such as governments, interest groups, retailers, or producers. While FD contrasts sharply with the current food system, regime actors may contribute to change the food system towards FD by making food available and affordable for citizens, by providing information about food, by promoting organic food, by activating citizens, or by creating spaces for participation (Hamilton 2005;McFadden and Stefanou 2016;Griend et al 2019). In their study, Carlson and Chappell (2015) show how organizations and municipalities contribute to deep democracy by, for example, promoting participatory budgets (Porto Alegre, Brazil) or by facilitating dialogue sessions in rural communities enabling them to participate in climate policy decisions (Minnesota, U.S.A.).…”

“…However, food sovereignty mainly focuses on producers by advocating for sustainable production methods and the right of small producers (e.g., peasants, family farmers, etc.) to control their production; while the focus of FD lies on the reinforcement of the role of citizens to democratize the food system (Carlson and Chappell 2015;van de Griend et al 2019). Although food sovereignty has received more international attention in the last decades, the FD concept also influences food policy research, especially in the Global North (Carlson and Chappell 2015;Davies et al 2019).…”