Participating in food waste transitions: exploring surplus food redistribution in Singapore through the ecologies of participation framework

Abstract

Food waste is a global societal meta-challenge requiring a sustainability transition involving everyone, including publics. However, to date, much transitions research has been silent on the role of public participation and overly narrow in its geographical reach. In response, this paper examines whether the ecologies of participation (EOP) approach provides a conceptual framing for understanding the role of publics within food waste transitions in Singapore. First the specificities of Singapore's socio-political context and its food waste management system is reviewed, before discussing dominant, diverse and emergent forms of public engagement with food waste issues. This is followed by in-depth consideration of how participation is being orchestrated by two surplus food redistribution initiatives. Our analysis finds the EOP beneficial in its elevation of participation within the transitions field. It also provides a useful means to deconstruct elements that comprise participation practices and discuss culture-specific motivations, organisational realities and visceral experiences.

Tools for transitions : An inventory of approaches, methods and tools for stakeholder engagement in developing transition pathways to sustainable food systems

“…• Integral approach: Methods and tools need to support an integral approach (e.g. energy, food), research in this field remains relatively quiet about the participatory processes that bring citizens closer to democratic ideals and inclusive transitions (Rut, Davies, and Ng 2020).…”

Assessing the Transformative Potential of Food Banks: The Case Study of Magazzini Sociali (Italy)

“…In this paper, to explore food redistribution initiatives, we combine the social and the technical dimensions of innovation. In the community-based food assistance initiatives, the social dimension of innovation of connectivity between people and places prevails on the technological one, but these initiatives also stress the role of ICT as an important technology enabling horizontal connectivity and bottom-up participation [60,61].…”

Balancing Sustainability Transitions through State-Led Participatory Processes: The Case of the Dutch North Sea Agreement

“…The most participatory is the egalitarian approach, focusing on the transition process itself rather than on the outcomes of the transitions [39]. If inclusiveness is a goal within the transition management approach, participatory processes are key [40]. Other approaches where processes are less central are, for example, the fatalistic approach, in which no proactive action is taken, or the hierarchic approach, where a dominant group of actors takes the lead in steering the transition, or the individualist approach, based on the idea that individuals need the right conditions to contribute to transitions, and should therefore be stimulated through, for instance, market incentives [39].…”

“…As the agency of government as a single actor was insufficient to produce the required transition process(es) and fully control the transition processes [28,38], the government embarked on a co-evolutionary process [43]. In this, the government switched mode from a hierarchic approach [39], in which a dominant group of actors take the lead in steering the transition, especially the development of OWF, towards a more egalitarian participatory approach [39] where inclusiveness is a goal within the transition management approach [40]. The new deliberative governance process aimed at moving out of this deadlock resulting from intrinsic different and opposing visions of diverse stakeholder groups.…”