Where Next for Integrated Food Policy? Blurring Boundaries in Institutions, Evidence, and Practice

Abstract

With the case for integrated food policy - and its multiple challenges around development and implementation - now widely accepted, new innovative solutions to support an integrated approach are required. This panel proposes to ‘zoom out’ from the policymaking process, and adjust the focus towards previously underexplored themes and their potential role as enablers of policy integration. Examples of less-obvious enablers to foster connected-ness might include: interdisciplinary research; integrated evidence; pedagogical developments; the role of values; or addressing the disconnects between non-governmental actors - such as business and civil society - in the policy process. The panel therefore calls for papers which offer conceptual and empirical insights into both new lenses for study and more pragmatic solutions to support integrated food policy, both within and beyond the direct realm of policymaking, which might improve its chances of success. Papers addressing the following topics are invited: • Insights from empirical research on successfully or unsuccessfully integrated food policies, examining the different degrees of integration and definitions of success and integration • Novel methods or frameworks to study successful and unsuccessful attempts at integrated food policies, in particular those encompassing fragmentation in and between non-governmental stakeholder groups • The use of evidence in food policy making and how it might support integrated approaches • The role of interdisciplinary research in supporting integrated food policy • Pedagogical approaches to foster integrative thinking for food policy