Redefining power relations in agri-food systems

Reconfiguration of power relations is crucial to transformations in agrifood systems. In this paper, we propose a conceptual basis for understanding this relation, building on the approaches of transition studies and other strands of studies to power. We explore the conditions for reconfigurations to occur by analysing three cases, concerning participatory plant breeding in Italy, public food procurement in France and diversification of agro-food chains in Wales. We highlight the critical importance of creating enabling relational environments, where power reconfiguration can occur. Within this new configuration, new, diverse sources of power are mobilized and new practices and institutions are co-constructed and legitimised, establishing the conditions for new socio-technical trajectories to emerge and for further transformative potential to develop. Our results show that a more variegated and nuanced configuration of power relations is needed. Transformations of agrifood systems depend on the variety of interactions that, in a multi-scale and dynamic dimension and through the play of the different forms of power, may develop among the actors involved. Understanding these processes and the implications that they show in terms of governance is critical