Hybridization of food governance. An analytical framework

Abstract

Today’s food governance is no longer an attribute of national governments alone. It is increasingly hybrid, that is, the result of coordinated public and private regulatory activities that frequently transcend national state boundaries. The key to understanding that contemporary food governance lies in the interplay between different public and private actors, including their relative interests and capacities, and their activities at different levels of governance. This chapter discusses the concept of hybridization and different modes of hybridization in food governance. Drawing on the work of Abbott and Snidal, Eberlein et al and Spencer and Henson we introduce an analytical framework to study this hybridization. A comprehensive and systematic analysis of the hybridization of food governance should address the different phases and functions of (regulatory) governance: (i.e. agenda-setting and rule-making, adoption and implementation, monitoring; enforcement, evaluation and review) and other dimensions considered relevant in the literature on regulatory governance (i.e. actors involved, motivations and drivers, mechanisms and instruments, character of interaction, results and effects, change over time). The chapter concludes with a discussion of the chapters in this volume.