Transforming Researchers, Transforming Food Systems: The FLEdGE Network of Networks

Networked, intersectoral research partnerships represent one form of universitycommunity collaboration that can respond to and take advantage of the complex and pluralist nature of food systems. Importantly, such partnerships can bring about transformation in many ways: within on-the-ground practice, to scholarly models, and among the perspectives, sense of connectedness, and credibility of individual researchers. This article shares insights on ways in which medium-tolarge–scale research partnerships can optimize their transformational potential, specifically through attention to change at the scale of the individual participant. I draw on a set of semi-structured, qualitative interviews with participants in the Food: Locally Embedded, Globally Engaged (FLEdGE) research network, a seven-year, international partnership that brought together over 50 partner organizations and nearly 200 individual participants. Four thematic categories of effects are depicted: active change (to specific individuals and research contexts); latent change (towards future interactions and insights); distribution of leadership (across multiple sites and people); and potential challenges (that may impede or accelerate desired outcomes). Following J.K. Gibson-Graham’s proposal for deploying “thick description and weak theory” (2014), I draw on a number of elements of network theory to help surface insights about individual transformation. Together, they contribute to the growing discourse around network structure, interactivity, and performativity, as well as modes of supporting longer-term food systems transformation. CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: David Szanto School of Journalism and Communication, Carleton University, CA david.szanto@gmail.com