Abstract
The challenge before environmental science is not simply to provide cogent information to spur action, but to stimulate the imagination of society to see possible futures that have been invisible. At the same time, policy development processes can be limited by their inability to span institutional structures and the needs and views of multiple stakeholder groups. Utilizing scenarios in policy-co-production processes offers a solution to these issues, by catalyzing a collective process of defining and exploring critical futures that draw on multiple disciplines, cross multiple scales of governance, and recognize multiple learning styles. This paper introduces a framework for soft scenario methods as tools to allow learning about, playing with, experimenting in critical futures, and expand forms of engagement to increase accessibility to diverse societal actors. Using cases from the FEAST Project, narratives, serious games, interactive art, and models demonstrate how future scenarios can provide a transdisciplinary space for engagement and how agency, policy change, and scale interact in scenario co-creation processes for food policy. In order to overcome the highly-segregated nature of food policy governance, evidence from these cases shows that soft scenario methods can build consensus among disparate stakeholders and bring to the fore critical perspectives necessary for fostering sustainable food systems.
