Lock-ins and bounded strategies
A systems-based theory of change for organic vegetable farming in Flanders
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 24228336 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Louis Tessier (0000-0001-8691-9752), Marija Roglic (0000-0003-4900-4232), Domenico Dentoni (0000-0003-0637-0101) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Publication date | 2026-05-13 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Agriculture and Human Values (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0889-048X • E-ISSN: 1572-8366 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s10460-026-10910-9 |
| OpenAlex | W7161007852 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 75 |
Organic farming is central to the sustainability goals of the European Union, yet it remains marginal in intensively farmed regions such as Flanders. Taking up the notion of systemic lock-in, we examine why organic vegetable farming struggles to expand in this region and why a strategy developed in a participatory systems mapping workshop converged on a bounded set of actions perceived as feasible by participants. Findings reveal how multiple mechanisms jointly hamper the sector’s expansion and its distinctiveness from conventional agriculture. These include competition for scarce land and seasonal labour, retailer driven pricing and standard specifications, exposure to imports and macro-economic shocks, and a knowledge–policy bias towards sustainable intensification solutions. To overcome these struggles, participants prioritised coordination measures within existing mandates and institutional relationships, including raising consumer awareness, seeking commitments across the value chain to secure sales channels and a steady local supply, dedicated advisory services and public procurement. By overlaying the participatorily developed Theory of Change onto ex post refined system maps, we make the scope and limits of the designed interventions analytically visible. Ex post analysis indicates that these measures leave the engine behind the on-going agro-industrialization in the region intact and leave the organic vegetable sector vulnerable to wider shocks and trends. The boundedness of the resulting portfolio reflects the effects of participation and goal framing, the institutional context and changing political-economic conditions. We conclude with analytical implications for participatory strategy design and discuss implications for building transformative agroecological politics and policy.
agricultural industrialization · Agroecology · Consumer Awareness · Flanders · organic vegetable production · participatory systems mapping · policy design · public procurement · seasonal labour · sustainable intensification · Theory of change · value chain coordination · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development · Organic Food and Agriculture · Sustainability and Climate Change Governance
Agroecological Research
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The politics of sustainability transitions
The influence of subjective and objective knowledge on attitude, motivations and consumption of organic food
Conventionalisation of organic farming practices
Understanding carbon lock-in
Routledge Handbook of Ecological Economics
The multi-level perspective on sustainability transitions
Simulating the diffusion of organic farming practices in two New EU Member States
Why are grain-legumes rarely present in cropping systems despite their environmental and nutritional benefits? Analyzing lock-in in the French agrifood system
The politics of co-production
Identification and characterization of potential change agents among agri-food producers
Mapping lock-ins and enabling environments for agri-food sustainability transitions in Europe
Building a system-based Theory of Change using Participatory Systems Mapping
Why are ecological, low-input, multi-resistant wheat cultivars slow to develop commercially? A Belgian agricultural ‘lock-in’ case study
Voluntary standards, certification, and accreditation in the global organic agriculture field
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(Un)intended lock-in
The capitalist composition of organic
Lock-ins to transition pathways anchored in contextualized cooperative dynamics
Why working conditions are a key issue of sustainability in agriculture? A comparison between agroecological, organic and conventional vegetable systems
Steak up to the horns
Green market expansion by reducing information asymmetries
System dynamics modelling and the use of evidence to inform policymaking
The Polanyian Way? Voluntary Food Labels as Neoliberal Governance
Three principles for co-designing sustainability intervention strategies
Assessing the socio-economic dimensions of the rise of organic farming in the European Union
Politicisation beyond post-politics
Opening Up" and "Closing Down
Theorizing Sociospatial Relations
Commodified Meanings, Meaningful Commodities
The Trouble with 'Organic Lite' in California
From Farm to Table
Contested landscapes
| Highly cited | No |
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