Routledge Handbook of Urban Food Governance

Abstract

This chapter presents an overview of innovation and transition theory to examine urban food systems and their governance. We begin by explaining the relationship between innovation and transition and introduce transition management and ‘sustainability transition’. It is possible to understand production-consumption systems and innovations to transform them at two levels: the vertical (i.e. strategic, system linkages) and the horizontal (i.e. practice, place-based linkages). Social innovation is a key process of change in both levels, particularly the horizontal. We then turn our attention to an increasingly prominent and influential way to enact social and technical change on the ground, namely experimental living labs. This new, more transdisciplinary way of working on governance topics, particularly as a medium to engage constellations of actors in creative forms of urban food governance, is significant. Living labs represent powerful epistemological tools to transform vertical and horizontal relations for citizens, cities and regions. We conclude with reflections on the COVID-19 pandemic, noting increasing calls for systemic changes to food systems and urban environments, and review work on just sustainability and food justice, which opens up important new ground for transition theorists to explore in relation to urban food governance and beyond.

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