Transformations 23 Virtual Poster Session

Student-run Campus Food Systems Alternatives (CFSA) have been proposed as spaces which have the potential to advance Critical Food Systems Education (CFSE) – the objective of which is to motivate students to act toward radical food systems transformation on community and systemic scales. Evidence on how learning dynamics in CFSA drive student participants to develop critical perspectives on food systems is limited, however. This research seeks to address this gap by exploring how critical and transformative learning happens in these non-formal and student-run spaces, by detailing a multi-case study of students’ learning experiences in four student-run CFSA on the McGill University campus. Data on students’ learning experiences was collected through observational field notes of CFSA activities and semi-structured interviewers with student facilitators. Analysis of students’ described learning experiences in CFSA revealed three broad categories of learning dynamics which drive students’ learning about food systems and their willingness to act for food systems change: hands-on work in non-formal spaces, social connection and engagement between student participants, and engagement with the beyond-campus community. Engagement with the beyond-campus community via CFSA, particularly that which involved exposure to food-related injustice in marginalized communities, was found to be particularly important in driving student participants’ critical reflection on food systems and willingness to act toward food justice and sovereignty. A lack of intentional critical reflective practice was however observed in CFSA, calling into question how this practice can be driven in campus food initiatives without compromising their student-run and informal structures.

Zoë Deskin <zoe.deskin@mail.mcgill.ca>

McGill University, Department of Integrated Studies in Education & Bieler School of Environment

critical pedagogy, transformation learning, food systems, food justice, local food, food sovereignty

Wildland-urban interface (WUI) expansion is a pressing phenomenon around the World with impacts to ecological processes, wildfire risk, natural resources management, and social and demographic dynamics. Given its rapid evolution, uncertainty, and the involvement of stakeholders with conflicting values, the expansion of the WUI is a wicked problem. This issue can be addressed through transdisciplinary approaches that embrace complexity, engage communities in decision-making, and support transformative outcomes thorough the co-design of sustainable processes. Transdisciplinarity is, however, easier said than done. The objectives of this study were: 1) presenting the state of the art of WUI planning mechanisms and tools; 2) identifying the barriers and opportunities for the implementation of transdisciplinary approaches in WUI planning; and 3) assessing the feasibility of incorporating stakeholder-informed ecosystem services modelling in WUI planning as a strategy to inform the co-design of sustainable management approaches to WUI expansion and establish partnerships between researchers, policy practitioners, and the general public. With the aim of comparing social-ecological systems affected by WUI expansion in the Southern and Northern hemispheres, I used the province of Neuquén (Argentina) and the State of Colorado (US) as case studies. A normative review was conducted for each site and complemented with interviews with key stakeholders. Then, I evaluated the use of InVEST models in WUI planning based on data availability and existing WUI-related policies for both social-ecological systems. Results suggested that collaboration between stakeholders, interjurisdictional coordination, and financial support are deficient aspects in WUI planning in both social-ecological systems, which results detrimental to the implementation of transdisciplinary approaches. On the other hand, both systems have reflexive WUI policies, which constitutes an opportunity for the introduction of transdisciplinary approaches, including ecosystem services modelling. This study provides insights to transform current interactions between researchers, communities, and policy practitioners into effective transdisciplinary approaches to address WUI expansion.

Clara Mosso

Colorado State University, Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability

Wildland Urban Interface, Ecosystem Services Modeling, Participatory Methodologies

The transformation towards resilient agriculture is essential for climate change adaptation and mitigation. However, transformations are occurring slowly in small-scale agriculture while the global food system remains a significant contributor to climate change and is simultaneously vulnerable to its effects. Social learning, broadly defined as the co-production and exchange of knowledge within a group environment, is often considered an essential mechanism potentially accelerating transformations by changing participants’ understanding about the issues at hand, and ideally, adopting new practices. This poster reflects a recent study conducted to better examine this connection between social learning and transformations in agricultural systems. While there exists many underlying positive assumptions about the role of social learning, little is known about the factors driving social learning processes and how such processes between various stakeholders actually lead to transformative action in food systems. A systematic literature review was conducted to develop an evidence base identifying the role of social learning in these processes of transformations, what drives social learning processes, and what are their outcomes. The study found that while almost all cases lead to participants’ changes in understanding about either climate-related issues or resilient agricultural practices, less than half of the studies noted the sustained adoption of transformative actions. Some of the key factors that influenced these outcomes included participatory on-farm demonstrations and addressing perceived risks from making on-farm changes. This is the basis for a conceptual framework that outlines factors that are more likely to lead to the adoption of transformative actions, taking into account differences in socio-economic contexts of smallholder farmers globally. The results can guide future studies that seek to investigate trans-disciplinary approaches such as transformative social learning processes as a solution to building resilience.

Morgane Batkai

Open University of the Netherlands, Environmental Sciences Department

Social Learning, Resilience, Agriculture, Transformation, Climate Change

Sustainability transformations require rapid and unprecedented change in technologies, systems, and policies. These transformation processes can happen in very different areas, ranging from technical responses, stocks and flows to changing values, attitudes and societal paradigms. Individual behavior is an important lever in these transformation processes. Psychologists usually seek to understand, experimentally test and evaluate how different types of interventions, as well as how individual differences such as values or political orientation shape individual behavior and how behavior changes can be motivated. However, psychological theories have rarely been applied to behavior change for sustainability or explicitly combined with research from sustainability science. We therefore review articles in psychological journals that address sustainability. In particular we assess how psychological research reported in prominent psychological and interdisciplinary journals has studied individual behavior change related to sustainability since the Brundtland Report in 1987. We are interested in how this research investigates topics from sustainability science. We focus on four aspects: (1) Types of behavior change (2) Types of interventions fostering sustainability transformations (3) Samples and places of studies and (4) Theories of change. We give an overview on how research from psychology has been tackling issues from sustainability science and what role theories and interventions from psychology could take to address the pressing needs to shift societies to more sustainable trajectories.

Julius Rathgens <julius.rathgens@gmail.com>

Leuphana University, Lüneburg, Germany

Psychology, Sustainability, Systematic Review