Research methods | TableDebates

Provided by Frederico Andreotti for his Essay on Games on TABLE, features images from WUR Games Hub, sent 1 May 2025

Games at TABLE: A new platform for food system serious games

Games at TABLE will soon be launched as the first food-systems-focused serious games library to encourage future project collaborations and support food system education, research, and broader transformation. Serious game expert Federico Andreotti provides an overview of serious games around farming and food systems, with three examples of existing serious games designed by students at Wageningen University.Federico is a lecturer and researcher at Wageningen University. He is the game expert of the CiFoS research team, and coordinator of the WUR Games Hub that connects multiple researchers that use games to bridge science and society. Federico’s PhD project was on the co-design and application of serious games for the sustainability transition of farming and food systems; his current research and education focus is on games design and play and participatory research methods to explore futures farming and food systems. Via “Games at TABLE” he aims to foster an international community connecting game researchers and designers across the globe, encompassing social sciences, natural sciences, and design. These partnerships may serve to develop effective strategy games and engage players with agency: decision makers who play and take action to transform systems.https://www.doi.org/10.56661/d1243efe

A caterpillar preparing to transform. Image by Charles Davis from Pixabay

Journal articles

Demystifying food systems transformation

This article examines the scholarly literature in English and Spanish to outline a series of insights related to the development and evolution of the term food system transformation. The authors find a rising use of the term in the literature but note a lack of coherent and consistent definition and an underpinning theoretical framework of change. The authors warn against the possible loss of the term’s meaning as it becomes increasingly popular and used without specific intention. The authors seek to provide insights into the complex and overlapping body of literature and offer a unique definition which attempts to fill gaps identified through the review process.

More-than-human cover

More-than-Human

This book introduces the concept of the more-than-human to students and postgraduates engaged in geography and social science theory. The text offers valuable case studies which illustrate the implications of the more-than-human development and what future issues still need to be addressed.

Photo of a fruiting shrub in a forest landscape. Image by PROJETO CAFÉ GATO-MOURISCO via Unsplash

News and resources

AGROECOLOGY Partnership releases a pre-announcement for an upcoming research call on ''Fostering agroecology at farm and landscape levels"

A recent press release by FACCE-JPI, a joint EU programming initiative on agriculture, food security and climate change, has detailed a pre-announcement for an upcoming research call on ''Fostering agroecology at farm and landscape levels.”

Image: klimkin, Chickens birds poultry, Pixabay, Pixabay Licence

Journal articles

Do European think tanks link meat with climate change?

This paper analyses how over 100 European think tanks talk about the links between animal-sourced foods and climate change, seeking to understand how they have influenced policymakers’ attitudes to the issue. It argues that the failure of many think tank documents to link the two issues contributes to a wider lack of attention to the environmental impacts of diets.

The University of Manchester

The future of academic air travel after COVID-19

Researchers from the University of Manchester argue that the widespread switch to remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated how academia can function in the future without flying, to reduce carbon emissions. They set out recommendations on how to retain low levels of aviation, including combining necessary trips, supporting cultural changes by improving virtual methods of working, and considering using carbon budgets for travel.

Policy briefs: investing in and scaling up agricultural innovation

Policy briefs: investing in and scaling up agricultural innovation

The Commission on Sustainable Agriculture Intensification has published two policy briefs: the first seeks to understand the agricultural innovation investment landscape - how much is being invested, by whom, and in what; while the second looks at the approaches and instruments used in successful cases of scaling up agricultural innovations.

Food Research Collaboration

News and resources

Map of food research institutes in the UK

The UK-based Food Research Collaboration has put together a map of food research institutes in the UK that study food systems and food policy. It is aimed at academics seeking fellow subject specialists and at civil society and journalists seeking experts on food systems topics.

The politics of knowledge

Understanding the evidence for agroecology

This report from the Global Alliance for the Future of Food examines the evidence supporting agroecology, regenerative, and Indigenous approaches to food systems. It also looks at broader questions of how data is gathered, whose knowledge carries weight and what counts as evidence. It calls for “decolonising and democratising knowledge systems within education, research, and innovation” to help accelerate food systems transformations.