Democratic Governance, Environmental and Climate Challenges, and Societal Transformation: Deliberation, Inclusiveness, and Citizen Empowerment for Sustainable Food Systems

DEMETRA will demonstrate means to alleviate tensions between democratic governance and climate and sustainability transitions through an analysis of new deliberative participatory processes (DPPs) such as citizens’ assemblies and e-governance. These bottom-up processes can be highly inclusive allowing to afford a genuine political voice to all segments of society. Accordingly, gender and intersectional aspects (e.g., socioeconomic background, ethnicity) will be focused on throughout the project in particular with regard to citizen participation. DEMETRA analyzes the micro-, meso-, and macro-level opportunities for DPPs across Europe supporting the transition towards a more sustainable future; focuses in particular the transformation towards a more sustainable food system as a crucial case study; systematically compares DPPs’ setup, processes, and outcomes to identify best practices that contribute to citizens’ democratic engagement and the co-construction of sustainable societies; identifies DPPs that maximize inclusiveness and empowerment across social groups, particularly those at the margins of society; and identifies widely applicable solutions to engage in the transformation toward sustainable food systems. DEMETRA builds on a multidimensional approach that combines macro- (institutional), meso- (organizational), and micro-level (individual) explanatory factors; a cross-national comparative design that includes European countries with different DPPs experience and different food systems (Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, and UK); and an integrated methodological approach based on multiple sources and methods (including population surveys, semi-organizational survey, semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and public policy analysis). In view of the climate imperative and related environmental challenges, DEMETRA seeks to provide tools for a democratic governance of sustainability transformation.