In 2021, American University and 15 partner institutions across the U. S. launched the Multiscale RECIPES Research Network with the goal of transforming our wasted food system into a sustainable and resilient one. Food loss and waste is a complex problem spanning societal issues such as food insecurity and food recovery, sustainable farming, food packaging and transportation, food marketing, sales and consumer preferences, family dynamics, and corporate profits, among others. A fascinating part of the RECIPES Network vision is a purposeful focus on convergence, making the research process more effective and creative in designing solutions to big problems such as these. In a recent article in the journal Ecology and Society, team members evaluated how well the network's intentional convergence efforts have worked thus far.

Interview Summary

Norbert Wilson - It is my great pleasure to welcome my colleague, Amanda Wood, who is a research scientist at the World Food Policy Center.

Amanda Wood - Thank you, Norbert. I'm looking forward to this discussion today. Our guests come from the University of Illinois Institute of Technology Food Systems Action Lab. Weslynne Ashton is a professor of environmental management and sustainability at Illinois Tech and co directs the Food Systems Action Lab. Azra Sungu is a design researcher and strategist at the Food Systems Action Lab, who just defended her doctoral dissertation. So, our biggest congratulations to Dr. Sungu. Thank you so much for being here today. So first, I want to start by saying the RECIPES Network has gone about their work a little bit differently than most traditional academic projects by taking a convergence approach. Weslynne, would you talk about what convergence is in research, and why is this approach useful for tackling complex societal challenges like food waste?

Weslynne Ashton - Convergence is an approach that really tries to integrate the best of many different disciplines. The way that they see, approach, and tackle problems. And tries to integrate them in a really holistic way, right? Like, we often operate in silos and universities and this is a way of trying to get out of that. But more than working side by side on the same topics, it really tries to pull ways of working and ways of knowing across these different disciplines. For the topic of food waste, which as Norbert described is incredibly complex, right? There are so many different dimensions. They're scientific, natural science, social science, anthropological, political science. So, there are these technical aspects, economic aspects, social aspects, as well as cultural and spiritual aspects that we really don't talk about that often. And so, a convergence approach tries to say, how can we bring together the way all of these different disciplines approach understanding and developing solutions so that the solutions we develop can be more holistic. And more likely to take hold because they are considering these different perspectives.

Amanda - A lot of individuals might not see food waste as this complex challenge. They throw their leftovers in the bin and that's food waste to them. But as you say, challenges of food waste and food loss extend all the way across the food system. So, we definitely need that more holistic approach. Thanks for that bigger picture. Norbert, over to you.

Norbert - Azra, I'd like to turn it over to you and ask you a question about design. And I've got to say, this is the first project that I've ever worked on where I've worked with design scholars. And so, I'm excited for you to share with our audience what actually is design. And how do you see design fitting in the context of the work that we've been doing?

Azra Sungu - Thank you. Yes, it's been very exciting for me to part of such a transdisciplinary group as well. And probably in over 12 years of design education that I got, that was the most frequent question. Like my family and everyone that's asking, like, what is it that you do actually? So, I think it's really important that we clarify that because design in this context is a little bit different than the design of products and services.

In a way, we could say that it carries similar principles, but in recent years, design has been gaining visibility as a creative and collaborative problem-solving approach. So, some of the key mindsets, methods, and processes of design have been distilled into more accessible toolkits that allow more people from various backgrounds and expertise to get together and collaboratively explore problems of different kinds and approach them in more creative ways. So, we can say that, yeah, this adaptation of design found applications in different fields, such as entrepreneurship. We see that picking up in education or even apply to issues related to social justice. And I would say that what makes it different from other problem-solving approaches is that it centers a deep understanding of humans, their needs, their interactions, their behaviors in every step of the process. So, from framing the problem to testing out the solutions. And in design, we combine this human centered approach with a hands-on process where we iteratively explore a solution by making things and experimenting in a more open-ended way, rather than like planning everything and applying the solution at the end.

So, in the context of convergence, I think of convergence as a collaborative search for ways for reshaping the systems that we live in. And if I pick back on what Weslynne just said, yeah, the design can help ground this search in the real lives of people so that the solutions we envision can be adopted and also actualized by people who are driving this change on the ground. So, it can support a more action oriented approach to knowledge production.

But another role of design, which we speak more of in the paper, is designing the conditions for this form of collaborative research and knowledge production. Designing the spaces where people can build relations to build really confidence to think outside of the box. And I see it as giving people the tools and processes to tap into their collective creativity. And that you can't really get out of a toolkit. That's a deeper and relational process.

Norbert - Thank you for sharing that. And I am really pleased that we've had the opportunity to not only work with you all, but folks at MIKA to think about design in this network. And can you give us an example of how you all were able to use design to help us work better together, to move us closer to convergence?

Azra – Yes. I guess in the first two year of the RECIPES where we explored design's role in the context of convergence, it's applied more to the second part of design's role that I mentioned earlier. So, creating the conditions for convergence to happen. And I think we're in the process of shifting to applying design to the solutions and like this iterative process itself.

I would say that there are five components that we identified in our investigation. And I always like to joke that like, we can't just throw people in a room and expect them to collaborate and come up with results. And let's remember RECIPES as a network started during the pandemic. We didn't even get a room to be together in until two years later. So, in this context, a key role of design was really convening people and connecting them to build that capacity and trust in each other to collaborate. And like trust one another to jump into a very open ended and ambiguous form of inquiry. Because this is what happens when we tackle such complex challenges as wasted food. And the other role is perhaps, yeah, in this exploration giving a shared vision to people to move towards. And enticing possibilities in this vision that may not be in our immediate horizon. So again, like how we think outside of the box and envision possibilities that may not seem evident. But that might be the root of more transformative change.

And the third role is probably one that relates to storytelling and visualizing. So, as we gather a group of people with such mixed disciplinary expertise and mixed personal backgrounds, we don't necessarily talk the same language. Even if you're approaching the same problem. So even when we talk about wasted food, it might seem so evident, but we might focus on completely different sides of it. And yeah, we have like mathematicians, chemists, engineers, social scientists in the same room. And when we're collaborating with such mixed group of expertise, design can create the interfaces, the visual language for us to be able to speak of the same thing and communicate ideas. But also, like foster flow and dissemination of ideas between these different conversations by telling the stories and capturing the ideas and really distilling them in a more relatable and accessible way. Because God knows we have a lot of meetings, and somebody needs like shepherd those conversations.

And the last ones are probably like making and prototyping. Which I think is very, very core to design practice, right? We just materialize things, whether it's in a visual format or whether it's like really getting hands on and making something that we got a taste of in our first network meeting that was in person.

I think one process where this manifested really beautifully was the creation of guiding principles and community norms that was a very collaborative and co-creative process where Network members really shaped how they would like to work together and create together and set the conditions for that. So, in this proc...

E257: Embracing convergence in the RECIPES Network