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eat regional eat organic eat well Collaborating towards Berlin Food Policy Exploring civic-state collaboration in current urban food governance in Berlin – The Case of the Berlin Food Strategy Dinah Hoffmann 2 COLLABORATING TOWARDS BERLIN FOOD POLICY EXPLORING CIVIC-STATE COLLABORATION IN CURRENT URBAN FOOD GOVERNANCE IN BERLIN – THE CASE OF THE BERLIN FOOD STRATEGY Student: Dinah Hoffmann Registration Nr.: 930215349050 MaiL: [email protected] Program: MSc Communication, HeaLth and Life Sciences SpeciaLization: HeaLth and Society Wageningen University and Research Supervisor: Oona Morrow Examiner: Prof. dr. ing. J.S.C. Wiskerke Chair grouP: RuraL Sociology Course Code: RSO-80433 May 2019 Background image Source: ALex GaLPerin via UnsPLash (CC0 license) EatBerLin Logo: Bio Company and BerLin Logo via Wikipedia Font: BMF Change and BMF Change Letter © Prof. ALessio Leonardi 3 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis has been a journey on which numerous peopLe provided me with support. First, I want to express my sincere gratitude towards my supervisor Oona Morrow who chaLLenged my views, provided me with useful feedback and guidance through this at times overwheLming thesis process. Thank you for your consistent suPPort, your kindness and patience, your words of encouragement, understanding and aLways having a sympathetic ear for me. A great thanks to aLL the respondents of my interviews who gave me their time and shared with me their views on BerLin food governance, a topic that many engage in with their hearts and minds. My friends and famiLy have been incredibly suPPortive throughout this period as weLL, which I am very thankful for. Julie, thank you for being such a good person, for your radiating caLmness, and for caring about me when I forget to. You were the best thesis room and Lunch break Partner, thank you for the waLks and tiny horse cuddLes and most of aLL, thank you for always Listening to my sudden Loud fLashes of inspiration which simPLy cannot be heLd back. To my friends and famiLy in Wageningen and BerLin, thank you for buiLding such a strong sociaL safety net, for beLieving in me and encouraging me throughout this whoLe process. A speciaL thanks to the UNISG peopLe, thank you for the discussion rounds, the femaLe power dinners and waLks; it has been a pLeasure having you as a part of my life in this time. And finaLLy, a very speciaL thanks to my famiLy who aLways remind me to be ambitious and especiaLLy to my sister DaLiah for supporting me continuously and distracting me when needed. 5 ABSTRACT Urban food poLicy is an area that joins actors from civiL society, academia, the locaL state and the market. To accomPLish sustainable changes of locaL food systems these actors work together in governance arrangements. Two prominent instruments that are used in urban food governance where these actors colLaborate are the food poLicy counciL and the urban food strategy. Both can be initiated through top-down or bottom-up processes or a combination of both with the reLationship of LocaL government and civiL society having an imPact on the success of the initiatives. One of the cities where civiL society and locaL government engage in colLaborative food governance is the city-state of BerLin, the biggest city in Germany, surrounded by the agriculturaL region of Brandenburg. Drawing on data from 11 interviews and 40 documents, this thesis describes and examines the nature of the reLationship and governance arrangement of the two main actors in current BerLin food governance. The colLaborative governance framework, a categorization of civic-state reLationships found in urban food governance and the concepts of integrated food poLicy and institutionaLization were used to guide the anaLysis. The objective of this thesis is to understand how civic-state colLaboration in urban food governance Looks like in BerLin, what impact the locaL context has on the deveLopment of the governance arrangement and what strengths and chaLLenges involved stakehoLders perceive. The two main stakehoLders were found to be the civic food policy counciL Ernährungsrat Berlin and the Berlin Senate Administration for Consumer Protection. It was found that the Ernährungsrat Berlin’s food poLicy activity brought forward a reLationship where they are striving for indePendence but are linked to the government through a secondary agency, being the aforementioned administrative department. ALthough not embedded in municipaL institutions, which has been identified as cruciaL for a food policy councils’ success, the Ernährungsrat Berlin proved to be an agiLe and resiLient structure able to successfulLy be an indePendent advocate for civiL society and a vaLued advisor to the government. Their coLLaboration resulted in the deveLopment of a Berlin Food Strategy. In this thesis I investigate the process of deveLoping this strategy as a form of colLaborative governance. Regarding their governance arrangement around the Berlin Food Strategy, the involvement of the Green Party in the current coaLition was found to have had a big impact on the position the Ernährungsrat Berlin but aLso food policy was able to occupy on the urban agenda. This research identified a number of strengths and chaLLenges of the governance arrangement incLuding a strong interdependence, a strong and long history of civic action, the presence of politicaL food chamPions in the coaLition and the administration, the limiting structure and functioning of the Senate administrations and the Limited incLusiveness and representatives of the Ernährungsrat Berlin. Key words: urban food governance, urban food policy, food policy counciL, urban food strategy, colLaborative governance, BerLin food strategy, Ernährungsrat BerLin, Senate of BerLin 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................................ 5 ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... 6 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................................. 10 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 11 1.1 BACKGROUND: URBAN FOOD GOVERNANCE ................................................................................... 13 1.1.1 THE FOOD POLICY COUNCIL ............................................................................................................... 14 1.1.2 URBAN FOOD STRATEGIES ................................................................................................................. 14 1.1.3 FROM GOVERNMENT TO GOVERNANCE ............................................................................................... 15 1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT/PHENOMENA DESCRIPTION ........................................................................... 17 1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ............................................................................................................... 18 1.4 SOCIETAL & SCIENTIFIC RELEVANCE ............................................................................................... 18 1.5 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK ......................................................................................................... 19 1.5.1 COLLABORATIVE GOVERNANCE ........................................................................................................... 19 1.5.2 TYPOLOGIES OF FOOD POLICY GOVERNANCE .......................................................................................... 21 1.5.3 INTEGRATION AND INSTITUTIONALIZATION: IMPORTANT FOOD POLICY ENABLERS AND OUTCOMES ................. 22 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY ...................................................................................................... 24 2.1 INTERPRETATIVE QUALITATIVE RESEARCH ........................................................................................ 24 2.1.1 INTERPRETATIVE CASE RESEARCH ......................................................................................................... 24 2.1.2 THE CASE ........................................................................................................................................ 25 2.2 RESEARCH POPULATION AND SELECTION OF RESPONDENTS .................................................................. 25 2.2.1 SAMPLING ....................................................................................................................................... 26 2.2.2 PARTICIPANT PROFILES ...................................................................................................................... 26 2.3 DATA COLLECTION..................................................................................................................... 27 2.3.1 INTERVIEWS ..................................................................................................................................... 27 2.3.2 DOCUMENTS ................................................................................................................................... 28 2.4 DATA ANALYSIS........................................................................................................................ 28 2.4.1 ANALYZING A GOVERNANCE ARRANGEMENT ......................................................................................... 29 2.4.2 CODING .........................................................................................................................................