Europe vs. hunger: the ideational dimension of food security in EU policy formation (Jeroen Candel)

Jeroen’s PhD research focuses on the European Union governance of the wicked problem of food (in)security in the aftermath of the 2007-2008 and 2010 global food price crises.

The 2007-2008 and 2010 global food price crises resulted in renewed attention to food security in EU policy arenas. Food security is a policy problem that is characterized by high degrees of wickedness, i.e. controversy, uncertainty, and cross-scale interactions. Jeroen’s research shows how this wickedness manifests itself in EU policy debates, such as the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy post-2013. Jeroen performed an extensive interview round at the European Commission to analyse to what extent the Commission and EU policy-makers are capable of dealing with such a wicked policy problem. He is specifically interested in whether recent attention to food security and calls for more holistic approaches resulted in changing governance practices, such as an increase of policy integration.