The research group on Institutional, Socio-economic and Political Issues in Rural-urban Areas (INSPIRA) is part of the Department of Agricultural Economics at the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University. The main focus of INSPIRA is the study of rural and urban development processes in the food system. The research group tackles different issues related to food production, security and governance, social and environmental justice, and knowledge and market systems. Researchers at INSPIRA seek to understand how these issues interact with institutional and socio-economic structures at local, national and international levels and how this affects livelihoods and communities around the world. We contribute to the broad field of bio-science engineering by integrating different disciplines such as economics, sociology, political science and anthropology. This interdisciplinary approach covers both rural and agricultural as well as urban and metropolitan societies, which is also reflected in the varying academic backgrounds of our researchers.