Food Systems: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Analysis and Learning

Abstract

This paper introduces an innovative, interdisciplinary food systems programme based on an open

source pedagogical model that facilitates learning through the use of technology developed at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC). We begin by explaining the structure and goals of the UOC and briefly introduce the UOC’s e/learning model. We then consider the development of the Department of Food Systems, Culture and Society and explain our rational for focussing on food governance. We focus primarily on a set of mandatory introductory courses for the Master’s Diploma in Food, Society and International Food Governance. These courses, which make up a certificate in Food Systems Analysis, lay out the fundamentals of our approach to the study of food systems. Finally, we consider an analytical framework used to examine the sociopolitical context of contemporary food systems. Here, food systems are approached as an arrangement of activities clustered around trade liberalization, neoliberalized social formations, and a condensed state, which produce complex forms of food governance.