The Managerial Architecture of Food Justice: A Theory of Integrative Governance for Systemic Transformation

Abstract

Persistent hunger amid abundance reflects systemic governance failure, not resource scarcity. Scholarship is fractured by a paradigmatic divide: managerialism prioritizes efficiency and market solutions, while food sovereignty movements demand democratic control and ecological integrity. To address this divide and unblock transformative action, this study proposes a Managerial Architecture of Food Justice, a framework integrating managerial tools with justice principles. Based on a systematic review literature, this study demonstrates that supply chain optimization, risk assessment, and stakeholder platforms become instruments of justice when guided by an expanded six-pillar food security model, adding agency (community self-determination) and sustainability to availability, access, utilization, and stability. The architecture offers three innovations: (1) repurposing management tools to redistribute value and democratize knowledge; (2) power-differentiated governance that privileges marginalized communities over neutral multi-stakeholder models; and (3) concrete mechanisms, strategic public procurement, short transparent supply chains, and reserved decision-making authority for social movements. For policymakers, this provides a diagnostic benchmark to evaluate programs against all six pillars. For practitioners, it translates justice into operational standards: best-value procurement, circular supply chains, and dual-track strategies that engage governance forums while maintaining autonomous organizing spaces. For researchers, it reveals gaps in longitudinal design and epistemic justice—how to institutionalize Indigenous knowledge equally with expert evidence. The evidence confirms this architecture is emerging globally, yet transformative potential remains constrained by policy inertia from corporate power and neoliberal ideology. Overcoming this requires political courage, investment in civil society capacity, and rigorous measurement of distributive outcomes. The tools exist; the question is whether societies have the will to restructure power, resources, and knowledge for a just, sustainable food future.