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“By investigating the interpretive processes by which community actors collaboratively transform it into place-based knowledge for sustainability in practice, this project has direct relevance to improving the link between expert knowledge and community-led adaptation and innovation for sustainability transitions.“
Understanding place-based knowledge for sustainability transitions
Transforming food production and consumption practices into sustainable food systems requires integrated scientific knowledge with place-based knowledge to generate innovative and scalable solutions. A disconnect often exists between the type of knowledge employed in macro-level expert-led guidance and that employed in community-led initiatives and practices. This project investigates the gap between the two and explores ways in which it can be overcome by embracing knowledge plurality and collaboratively produced transformative solutions.
Integrating science and place-based knowledge
Analyzing modes of use of expert-led guidance on changes to land use (production side) and dietary nutrition (consumption side) for place-based food systems, enables the team to explore interdisciplinary expert knowledge for integrated sustainability transitions. Both the land use and dietary guidelines are holistic, considering the implications for food, land cover, climate, biodiversity, and community health and wellbeing. However, their usefulness in guiding transitions in practice necessitates a further integration into the experiential knowledge that exists and operates in local communities. By investigating the interpretive processes by which community actors collaboratively transform it into place-based knowledge for sustainability in practice, this project has direct relevance to improving the link between expert knowledge and community-led adaptation and innovation for sustainability transitions.
Innovating solutions “in place”
Expert-led national and regional frameworks are usually implemented through either regulatory constraints or voluntary uptakes. Both approaches pressure local communities to figure out their own adaptation strategies. This project provides evidence of an alternative way through which community networks can be empowered to integrate two different types of knowledge (expert-led and community-led) to develop solutions that are appropriate to their place. This should be particularly helpful in addressing the low uptake of sustainable food practices by households, businesses, and farmers due to different knowledge boundaries.
Methodology
The project aims to find place-based solutions to bridge the gap of macro-level guidance and ground-level knowledge on sustainable food transformations by:
- undertaking two case studies in the context of food system transitions in two different places, focusing on sustainable land use (food production) and sustainable nutrition (food consumption). Both call for community adaptation and behaviour change;
- organizing eight focus group discussions (four per place) to investigate how local actors interpret and make sense of expert guidance to implement solutions, using the UK Food, Farm & Countryside Commission’s multifunctional land use framework and the EAT-Lancet Commission’s sustainable nutrition transition guidelines.
Situating this project in the South Coast, UK, creates synergies with other South Coast sustainability initiatives, supported through SSRP and the University of Sussex.
As a Southeast Asian archipelago nation, Indonesia offers a comparative place-based case in the Global South, addressing the country’s critical challenges of land use and public nutrition in achieving sustainable development goals both nationally and globally.
Funding
Funding: Sussex Sustainability Research Programme (SSRP) Round 8 grant awarded: GBP 17,600 (IDR 365,000,000)
Award timeline: January – July 2024
Dr. Bonnie Holligan, Senior Lecturer, School of Law, Politics and Sociology, University of Sussex
Prof. Nicholas Nisbett, Research Fellow, Institute of Development Studies
Khairunnisa, Co-founder & Member, Bakudapan Food Study Group
Monika Swastiyastu, Co-founder & Member, Bakudapan Food Study Group
Ani Himawati, Facilitator & Independent Researcher, Global Ecobrick Alliance
“By investigating the interpretive processes by which community actors collaboratively transform it into place-based knowledge for sustainability in practice, this project has direct relevance to improving the link between expert knowledge and community-led adaptation and innovation for sustainability transitions.“
Understanding place-based knowledge for sustainability transitions
Transforming food production and consumption practices into sustainable food systems requires integrated scientific knowledge with place-based knowledge to generate innovative and scalable solutions. A disconnect often exists between the type of knowledge employed in macro-level expert-led guidance and that employed in community-led initiatives and practices. This project investigates the gap between the two and explores ways in which it can be overcome by embracing knowledge plurality and collaboratively produced transformative solutions.
Integrating science and place-based knowledge
Analyzing modes of use of expert-led guidance on changes to land use (production side) and dietary nutrition (consumption side) for place-based food systems, enables the team to explore interdisciplinary expert knowledge for integrated sustainability transitions. Both the land use and dietary guidelines are holistic, considering the implications for food, land cover, climate, biodiversity, and community health and wellbeing. However, their usefulness in guiding transitions in practice necessitates a further integration into the experiential knowledge that exists and operates in local communities. By investigating the interpretive processes by which community actors collaboratively transform it into place-based knowledge for sustainability in practice, this project has direct relevance to improving the link between expert knowledge and community-led adaptation and innovation for sustainability transitions.
Innovating solutions “in place”
Expert-led national and regional frameworks are usually implemented through either regulatory constraints or voluntary uptakes. Both approaches pressure local communities to figure out their own adaptation strategies. This project provides evidence of an alternative way through which community networks can be empowered to integrate two different types of knowledge (expert-led and community-led) to develop solutions that are appropriate to their place. This should be particularly helpful in addressing the low uptake of sustainable food practices by households, businesses, and farmers due to different knowledge boundaries.
Methodology
The project aims to find place-based solutions to bridge the gap of macro-level guidance and ground-level knowledge on sustainable food transformations by:
- undertaking two case studies in the context of food system transitions in two different places, focusing on sustainable land use (food production) and sustainable nutrition (food consumption). Both call for community adaptation and behaviour change;
- organizing eight focus group discussions (four per place) to investigate how local actors interpret and make sense of expert guidance to implement solutions, using the UK Food, Farm & Countryside Commission’s multifunctional land use framework and the EAT-Lancet Commission’s sustainable nutrition transition guidelines.
Situating this project in the South Coast, UK, creates synergies with other South Coast sustainability initiatives, supported through SSRP and the University of Sussex.
As a Southeast Asian archipelago nation, Indonesia offers a comparative place-based case in the Global South, addressing the country’s critical challenges of land use and public nutrition in achieving sustainable development goals both nationally and globally.
Funding
Funding: Sussex Sustainability Research Programme (SSRP) Round 8 grant awarded: GBP 17,600 (IDR 365,000,000)
Award timeline: January – July 2024
Dr. Bonnie Holligan, Senior Lecturer, School of Law, Politics and Sociology, University of Sussex
Prof. Nicholas Nisbett, Research Fellow, Institute of Development Studies
Khairunnisa, Co-founder & Member, Bakudapan Food Study Group
Monika Swastiyastu, Co-founder & Member, Bakudapan Food Study Group
Ani Himawati, Facilitator & Independent Researcher, Global Ecobrick Alliance
