FM 26: Inclusive Food System Transitions

Current food systems are increasingly confronted with the need and also the societal demand to provide more sustainable alternatives. Several technological and social innovations aim at contributing to more sustainable patterns of production and consumption. These innovations are mainly discussed with respect to their feasibility, potential for upscaling and their ecological benefits. However, food systems (and their transitions) are interlinked not only with technological and ecological, but also social and societal aspects.

Such system changes, as observers of past transition processes remind us, have major impacts on people related to the system and societies in general. Depending on how transitions are navigated, they do have the potential to contribute to more equal and just systems – but can also run the risk of deepening or creating societal ruptures and disparities.

Therefore, the integrated lecture and seminar – by drawing on and examining selected examples of social and technological innovations in food systems – aims at understanding how benefits and risks are distributed and how they affect different societies and groups. This includes – but is not restricted to – questions of access and distribution, justice and equality in food production and consumption. The basic aim is to reflect (from a normative and empirical angle) on how food system transitions need to be designed in order to provide for more inclusive systems.


Please note, that there is currently construction work going on in our seminar room. If this is still the case at the beginning of the semester, we will have to have the first sessions online. Students will be provided with updated information via moodle in due time before the first session. If you have any questions, please write to christiane.barnickel@hu-berlin.de.

Semester: WiSe 2021/22