Participant-driven gathering: the ‘un-meeting’ way to engage agricultural producers with the sustainable livelihoods framework (SLF)

Abstract

Sustainable agricultural livelihoods are foundational to achieving sustainable food systems, yet contemporary agricultural actors face interconnected challenges – including climate change, labor constraints, land-use pressures, and policy misalignment – that are insufficiently addressed by earlier livelihood frameworks. This communication paper introduces the 21st-century Sustainable Livelihoods Framework (SLF) as a conceptual lens for understanding agricultural livelihoods, emphasizing the relational dynamics among diverse livelihood actors and the structural processes shaping access, agency, and outcomes. Drawing on data from a participant-driven, participatory convening of agricultural stakeholders (a.k.a. “un-meeting”), this study examines how such methods can surface shared priorities and map livelihood dynamics across heterogeneous agricultural contexts. Qualitative analysis of 313 participant notecards, observers’ field notes, and summit planning documents revealed themes strongly aligned with components of the 21st-century SLF, including environmental dynamics, assets, relational power, and pathways to livelihood sustainability. Findings demonstrate that unconventional meetings like this provide an effective participatory mechanism for bringing together producers, Extension professionals, researchers, and industry actors to deliberate challenges, identify opportunities, and align priorities across diverse agricultural livelihoods. The results further highlight the central role of the Cooperative Extension system as a forerunner in facilitating grassroots producer engagement, strengthening relational connections among stakeholders, and enabling the transformation of structures and processes – such as policy development, research agendas, workforce preparation, and education – necessary for sustainable agricultural livelihoods. Overall, this study contributes empirically and conceptually by illustrating how participatory un-meetings can operationalize the 21st-century SLF in practice and by reinforcing the importance of Extension-led, bottom-up approaches to advancing sustainable agricultural livelihoods in support of sustainable food systems.