Ecocitizenship and Food Consumption Education. Socio-Educational Good Practices in Citizen Initiatives of Responsible Consumption

The industrial-globalized agri-food system is a critical factor in the current so-cio-environmental crisis. Their impacts contribute significantly to overcoming the biophysical planetary boundaries and it generate also deep inequality gaps, while global food security goals remain unfulfilled. In this context, the socio-cultural construction of the diet plays a fundamental role in an ambivalent sense: on the one hand, it may favour the reproduction of such a system; on the other, it may promote alternatives configured under criteria of responsible consumption. In this way, it becomes an educational element of special relevance to promote the transition to sustainable agri-food systems. In this sense, in the study presented here have been explored the socio-educational good practices developed by citizen initiatives that provide alternative channels and spaces for responsible food consumption. Through a multiple case study conducted in the province of A Coruna (Galicia) with the application of 42 semi-structured interviews, the general characteristics of these initiatives, their organization, and their socio-educational dimension were analyzed. Likewise, from an eco-citizen approach of consumption education and from the framework of the culture of sustainability, the socio-educational practices that the analyzed initiatives develop were valued, identifying those likely to contribute to building an education model of food consumption located in the coordinates of environmental education. Finally, based on the range of activities presented by these initiatives, four categories were identified that bring together the set of good practices selected, which are valuable sources of practical experience to articulate socio-educational approaches aimed at addressing the socio-environmental crisis from the agri-food field