C5 Food systems and the Sustainable Development Goals

SP C5 develops and tests an integrative research approach that links food systems with the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, building on emerging frameworks for transformative sustainability science. We analyze the systemic interactions in food systems, identify competing values and development agendas of actors that help or hinder the 2030 agenda, and aim to understand visions and pathways of transformation towards food system sustainability. The subproject uses a mixed-methods approach including qualitative and quantitative as well as inter- and transdisciplinary elements. It may act both at local (through place-based empirical work) and global (through systematic reviews) scales. For the second cohort of the RTG, the focus will be on indigenous food systems.

Possible dissertation topics:


  • A global review of the drivers of change and the sustainability outcomes of indigenous food systems
  • Addressing social power relations in / plural values of indigenous food systems
  • Maintaining and restoring sustainable food systems on indigenous people’s lands

  • Leading PI
    Tobias Plieninger

    Doctoral researcher of the first cohort
    Sukanya Basu