Reframing and Reinterpreting Policy: Participatory Institutions, Policy Implementation, and Mobilization around Urban Agriculture in Rio de Janeiro

Urban Farm DB summary

Using Brazil's Council on Food and Nutritional Security (Consea) as a case, this study examines how participatory institutions affect policy implementation. In Rio de Janeiro, a coalition of civil society actors mobilized around urban agriculture through the Municipal Consea, reframing and reinterpreting national directives originally oriented toward rural family farming, which resulted in the expansion and implementation of these programs and altered the relationship between urban farmers and institutional actors. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in 2015-2016 consisting of interviews and participatory observation, the research analyzes the role of this local participatory institution in fostering civil society collaboration, state-society relations, and institutional change.