CALL FOR PAPERS FOR THE SPECIAL ISSUE: International Food Governance and the Promotion of the Human Right to Adequate Food: Social Participation in the Context of Multistakeholderism

Redes is an academic journal affiliated with the Graduate Program in Regional Development at the University of Santa Cruz do Sul, hereby announces its call for papers for the special issue, “International Food Governance and the Promotion of the Human Right to Adequate Food: Social Participation in the Context of Multistakeholderism,” to be published online in Volume 31, during the year 2026.

The concept of multistakeholderism has gained prominence in international debates, as it entails the involvement of non-state actors in public policy arenas, generating significant power asymmetries, conflicting interests, and the potential weakening of the State as the primary guarantor of human rights and the public interest. This context gives rise to major challenges in international governance, particularly concerning democratic legitimacy in processes involving all stakeholders. According to analyses by McKeon (2021) and Fakhri (2021; 2022), there is an imminent risk of corporate capture of this public agenda by large private corporations, thereby diminishing non-delegable state obligations. In contrast to this trend, rights-based and state-centered governance models and paradigms are defended as alternatives to multistakeholderism.

This research problem has driven significant empirical studies on food security and sovereignty, food systems, and global food governance, and it has also mobilized organized global civil society. Special attention has been given to initiatives in the field of international food security which, for several years, have fostered international networks—evident both in the work of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), considered the most inclusive and main multilateral forum on the topic at the global level, and in the development of strategies, guidelines, and deliberations within regional bodies such as the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), Mercosur, and the Community of Portuguese-Language Countries (CPLP), as well as within Brazil’s National Council for Food and Nutrition Security (CONSEA).

The objective of this special issue is to encourage research on specific initiatives and to disseminate scholarly articles addressing food governance; debates on the transition to sustainable food systems (including discussions on agroecology as a paradigm opposed to the Green Revolution and industrial agriculture); governance proposals that foster participation and representation of diverse social groups; the work of the CFS and its attempted marginalization during the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit; and related issues. The dossier welcomes discussions and analyses of various institutional spaces and initiatives that introduce new perspectives, including emerging proposals and paradigms from the Global South—such as those originating in China or in social movements like Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement (MST), with its contributions to Food Sovereignty and Agrarian Reform—alongside other relevant themes and challenges that contribute to the current moment of crisis and transition.

Thus, this special issue seeks to advance the debate by gathering articles that examine and contribute to understanding the challenges and opportunities in the current international landscape. Contributions may help inform strategies that strengthen the importance of social participation in food and nutrition security and sovereignty across multiple governance levels, from local to global, and that address the implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of existing initiatives. The special issue aims to bring together articles from the humanities, social sciences, applied social sciences, international relations, and regional development fields, adopting diverse disciplinary perspectives and theoretical-methodological approaches. Potential themes include: food governance; the crisis of the global multilateral system (UN system) and food policy; conceptual and practical tensions among multistakeholderism, multilateralism, and multisectoralism; social participation; corporate power; and the interlinkages among food, health, and climate.

The dossier will be organized into two sections. The first will feature more conceptual articles addressing the crisis of the global multilateral system (UN system) and food policy, as well as the meaning and implications of the concepts of multistakeholderism, multilateralism, and multisectoralism in their translation to national and Latin American contexts. The second section will present studies and analyses that deepen the examination of social participation at different levels of food governance and highlight lessons learned from practice within various governance spaces for food security and sovereignty, such as the Council for Food and Nutrition Security of the Community of Portuguese-Language Countries (CONSAN-CPLP), CONSEA, the CFS, and the recent initiative of the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty. These and other topics constitute the questions this Redes Thematic Dossier seeks to gather, debate, and disseminate.

Articles may be submitted through the journal’s system (https://online.unisc.br/seer/index.php/redes/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions) until February 28, 2026, in accordance with the Author Guidelines (https://online.unisc.br/seer/index.php/redes/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions). Submissions will undergo preliminary desk review and double-blind peer review, following the journal’s editorial policies available on the Redes website.

Publication of the dossier is scheduled for July 2026.

Accepted articles will be made available to readers in both the original language and an English version. Translating the article into English is the responsibility of the authors and constitutes a requirement for publication. For submissions originally written in English, the approved article will be published exclusively in that language.

 

REFERENCES
MCKEON, Nora. Global Food Governance. Development, v. 64, n. 3–4, p. 172–180, 2021.

FAKHRI, Michael. The Food System Summit’s Disconnection From People’s Real Needs. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, v. 35, art. 16, 2022. DOI: 10.1007/s10806-022-09882-7.

ORGANIZAÇÃO DAS NAÇÕES UNIDAS. Human Rights Council. Seeds, right to life and farmers’ rights: report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri. A/HRC/49/43, 30 dez. 2021.

CHANDRASEKARAN, Kirtana; GUTTAL, Shalmali; KUMAR, Madhuresh; LANGNER, Laura; MANAHAN, Mary Ann. Exposing corporate capture of the UNFSS through multistakeholderism. Food Systems 4 People, 23 set. 2021.

 

 Deadline for article submission: February 28, 2026.

 Editors-in-Chief:

• Silvia Aparecida Zimmermann (Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro, 0000-0003-2318-2743).
• Thiago Lima (Federal University of Paraíba, 0000-0001-9183-3400)
• Everton Luiz Simon (University of Santa Cruz do Sul, 0000-0002-1227-4813)