Milestone document - Guidance on Stakeholder mapping

Milestone document M7.1 - Guidance on Stakeholder mapping. A toolbox to tackle frames hindering the transition to healthier and more sustainable food systems. Food systems are extremely complex, and it is too often neglected that topics and concepts involved may not be conceived in the same way by all actors involved. Different stakeholders frame differently even the most fundamental concepts – e.g., sustainability, food security, health, etc. – and these differences may slow down policy implementation and may impede policy formulation. On top of this, how frames are used are unavoidably connected to stakeholders’ interests, which of course differ from one another, so each group will try to use their power to make sure that their preferred frame becomes the dominant one in the setting considered (food system policies in our case). Furthermore, since power and prominence of frames correspond with each other, it is important to understand how actors that have been so far marginalised – small producers, local farmers, vulnerable groups, etc. – can propose counter-frames to the conceptualizations that have so far managed to dominate food system debates and have often not been conducive to sustainability and public health. A policy toolbox could provide those citizens and policymakers that are willing to transition to healthier and more sustainable food systems with the means to counteract those frames that are currently slowing down this process, and to replace them with alternative counter-frames more compatible with FEAST’s goal to shift them in this direction. Therefore, in this document, it is explained how FEAST WP7 will develop a frame analysis to understand how power frames food system debates at different governance levels.Other funding acknowledgements: Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) under contract number 22.00156