RRI Tools

Food Futuring Tours (FFT) was a public participatory experience aiming at re-imagining food in the XXICentury. It consists of 5 semi-guided walking tours,conducted by experts of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission  and of Italian NationalResearch Councl, through the halls of EXPO2015 (May-October 2015,Milan).During the walk, participants collected ideas, visions and imaginaries about the future of food/food of the future and then attended workshop sessions to develop these issues.

FFT explored new ways to engage citizens’ views about an urgent and complex issue: to feed the planet with quality.  The project gathered insights, imaginative ideas and expectations about food futures through a debate with citizens who are usually involved only as consumers. 
Conducted at EXPO2015 in Milan, this initiative offered a safe space that stimulated and challenged citizens to imagine food futures – including food production, distribution and consumption. It allowed the participants  to view the EXPO as a place where prevalent narratives of food futures could be contested and questioned, developing alternative scenarios. 

A key element in anticipatory governance is the involvement of civil society and not only of those considered as “experts”. FFT project shows how institutions can work with citizens to promote such dialogues about the future.

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A book describing the FFT experience has been published by the EC in 2018 - see here: Dialogues on food: Food Futurings Tours at the #expo2015 / Dialoghi sul cibo: Food Futurings Tours at the #expo2015  (in English & Italian)