Dr Joanna Horton

Joanna Horton is a sociologist with interests in food systems, civic food networks, and power and participation in governance. Her MA research at the University of Chicago examined how local food activists scale and construct version of 'locality', and how this understanding intersects with processes of gentrification. Following her MA, she worked at CSIRO in the Data61 Insights Team, helping to develop scenario planning across a range of sectors. Her PhD research, completed as part of the ARC DECRA project 'Fair Food Futures', examined the role of Australian civic food networks (CFNs) in food systems governance. The project explored the strategic challenges and opportunities faced by these organisations in attempting to influence outcomes via (mostly) mainstream processes of multistakeholder governance, and examined the case study of the controversial 2021 UN Food Systems Summit to understand how civil society organisations negotiate the trade-offs between strategic participation and boycott.