| dc.description.abstract | Societal governance is shifting towards cooperative action (Keessen et al, 2013). Do-It-Yourself governance refers to the increasing involvement of citizens in the production of public services. It creates a shift from citizens having solely the role of consumers, to citizens being actively part of the initiation and production of services (Mees, 2019). Within this shift, it is essential to improve the understanding of which conditions for individual action there are, and how each condition relates to the others, ultimately influencing whether (and how) citizens participate in governance (Mees, 2019). The involvement of citizens in governance often has the form of citizen-led initiatives. Lack of citizens’ involvement in these initiatives hinders their potential effectiveness. At the same time, doubts are being raised about the environmental justice implications of citizen coproduction of services.
This case study research applies the framework by Mees (2019) to study the influence of individual conditions for participation, contextual variables, and justice principles underlying the participation of individuals in citizen-led initiatives for food waste redistribution. Large quantities of food are wasted globally, creating an externality to the food system that impacts the environment and the access to food among people with limited purchasing power (Vlaholias, Thompson, Every & Dawson, 2015). Food waste redistribution for human consumption by citizen-led initiatives reduces the amount of food being wasted whilst allocating it to people that want it or need it.
Participation in citizen-led initiatives for food waste redistribution is investigated looking at eight conditions for participation, subdivided into three dimensions: motivation, capacity, and ownership (i.e. a citizen has to want, can, and feel responsible for participating in the production of the service). It was found that participation in citizen-led initiatives can be explained by group identification as the main motivational condition, combined with perceived ownership of the issue due to the sense of own responsibility and environmental values felt by the respondents. These conditions are influenced by underlying justice principles, which also influence the nature of the service provided. Contextual variables were less influential than expected, and mainly impacted the objective capacity of participants.
The framework by Mees (2019) proved to be an efficient tool to research the participation of citizens in DIY governance, adaptable to different territorial settings. However, it could be improved by increasing the attention for relational social frameworks. These are found to be key in understanding citizen participation in the governance of food waste systems. Increased collaboration among different actors within food waste governance is found to be essential to boost the potential of citizen-led initiatives for food waste redistribution. | |
