Continuity/change in the local food system metaframe. knowledge networks supporting local governments during the COVID-19 crisis

This paper adopts the policy transfer theoretical framework and, in particular, the concept of knowledge networks (KN) to analyse the development of local food policies. In the last two decades the concept of local food system affirmed on a global scale and inspired the development of a policy meta-frame focused on the relationship between food and the city. This meta-frame − policy goals, discourses, values, and urban governance patterns − encouraged local governments to develop local/urban food policies through the inclusion of private players and civil society bodies. However, the current pandemic phase by COVID-19 arises as an exogenous variable that intervenes in these processes. Therefore, the paper explores continuity and discontinuity in the urban food policy meta-frame. In particular, the paper proposes a reconstruction of transnational actors’ discourses and food knowledge networks’ actions in supporting local governments. The paper is based on a desk analysis carried out during the COVID-19 crisis (May-September 2020) on a corpus of policy documents and projects/actions as well as on non-participant observation in webinars and online meetings. On the one hand, the paper shows how transnational actors’ discourses are strengthening the founding elements of the local/urban food system policy meta-frame. On the other, the analysis highlights the role of knowledge networks in the dissemination of policy actions and practices of food on a local scale. The preliminary results of this paper allow to observe how KN may affect the agendas of local food policies.