Enacting justice in food systems transitions: A critical lens on governance, power and participation

Abstract

Food systems are characterised by persistent injustices – from exploitative labour and unequal access to healthy food to disproportionate environmental burdens on marginalised communities. These injustices have spurred diverse conceptual frameworks (e.g., food democracy, food sovereignty, food justice), resulting in a fragmented debate around justice that tends to conceptualise it as an ideal outcome, rather than as a process. In this paper, we introduce the concept of “just sustainability transitions” to integrate distributive, recognitive and procedural dimensions of justice within a dynamic, process-oriented approach to food governance. Focusing on Food Policy Networks (FPNs) – i.e., multi‐stakeholder networks operating at the intersection of policy and practice – we conducted 67 semi‐structured interviews across varied institutional and cultural contexts and examined how justice is negotiated, enacted and transformed in everyday governance. Our analysis reveals that distributive justice often remains aspirational rather than structurally embedded, whereas recognitive and procedural justice are pursued unevenly due to local power asymmetries and institutional cultures. Within these constraints, emergent practices – such as reconfigured leadership models and enhanced participatory mechanisms – illustrate how actors experiment with redistributing power and reimagining inclusion. These practices suggest that power redistribution should be understood not merely as a democratic outcome, but as a precondition for achieving meaningful and equitable participation. By framing justice as a plural, contested and evolving process, this study bridges fragmented discourses of justice in food systems research and positions participatory governance platforms such as FPNs as sites where “justice‐in‐the‐making” unfolds.