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"Grounded in the urban politics of the 21st Century world-wide, this thoughtful volume hooks urban food - and especially its production - to social justice in a realistic and manageable way."
-Diana Lee-Smith, Mazingira Institute, Kenya
"An excellent international overview of urban food democracy and governance, with impressive geographical reach."
-Andre Viljoen, University of Brighton, UK
This edited collection explores urban food democracy as part of a broader policy-based approach to sustainable urban development. Conceptually, governance and social justice provide the analytical framework for a varied array of contributions which critically address issues including urban agriculture, smart cities, human health and wellbeing and urban biodiversity. Some chapters take the form of thematic, issue-based discussions, where others are constituted by empirical case studies. Contributing authors include both academic experts and practitioners who hail from a wide range of disciplines, professions and nations. All offer original research and robust consideration of urban food democracy in cities from across the Global North and South. Taken as a whole, this book makes a significant contribution to understanding the potential enabling role of good urban governance in developing formal urban food policy that is economically and socially responsive and in tune with forms of community-driven adaptation of space for the local production, distribution and consumption of nutritious food.
List of contents
Part I: Emergent UA Themes and Concepts from the North and South.- Chapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: Urban Agriculture in and around Cities in Developed and Developing Countries: A Conceptualization of Urban Agriculture Dynamics and Challenges.- Chapter 3: Urban Agriculture as a Field: Governance, Communication and Collective Action.- Chapter 4: Urban agriculture and the battle for history in Melbourne and São Paulo.- Chapter 5: Smart Food Cities on the Menu?: Integrating Urban Food Systems into Smart City Policy Making.- Part II: Opportunities for Top-down/Bottom-up collaboration? Case studies from the Global North.- Chapter 6: Food Sovereignty: A Nirvana Concept for Swiss Urban agriculture?.- Chapter 7: Cultural Heritage Preservation and Resilience in Urban Agriculture through the Lenses of Social Justice: A Case Study in Milan.- Chapter 8: The Emergence of the Food Land Belt in Wallonia: An Innovative System to Feed Local Populations?.- Chapter 9: Identifying andSolving Regulatory Issues and Solutions through some Case Studies of Urban Farming in Australia.- Chapter 10: Keeping up Appearances: Conflicting values in State Opposition to Growing Food in Public.- Part III: The South takes the Lead: Case Studies from BRICS, Bhutan and Zambia.- Chapter 11: Service Learning and Stakeholder Action: Technology and Education for Urban Agriculture in Johannesburg, South Africa.- Chapter 12: Emerging Enterprises and Sustainability in the Food System: Food Entrepreneurs in South Africa.- Chapter 13: Reconceptualizing Urban Agriculture in Africa: Issues of Scale, Class and Institutional Support in Zambian Copperbelt Towns.- Chapter 14: Food Security and land-use conflicts within regional planning: the recent experience of the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte, Brazil.- Chapter 15: Changing Agricultural Landscape and Immigrant Population in Thimphu, Bhutan.- Chapter 16: Typological Diversity of Agriculture in a Densely Urbanised Region of Sao Paulo, Brazil.- Chapter 17: Urban Agriculture in Chinese Cities: Practices, Motivations and Challenges.
About the author
Alec Thornton is Senior Lecturer in Geography and Academic Co-Lead for Africa at the Institute for Global Development, University of New South Wales, Australia. He is Senior Research Associate at the School of Humanities and at the School of Tourism and Hospitality, University of Johannesburg, South Africa.
Summary
“Grounded in the urban politics of the 21st Century world-wide, this thoughtful volume hooks urban food – and especially its production – to social justice in a realistic and manageable way.”
—Diana Lee-Smith, Mazingira Institute, Kenya
“An excellent international overview of urban food democracy and governance, with impressive geographical reach.”
—Andre Viljoen, University of Brighton, UK
This edited collection explores urban food democracy as part of a broader policy-based approach to sustainable urban development. Conceptually, governance and social justice provide the analytical framework for a varied array of contributions which critically address issues including urban agriculture, smart cities, human health and wellbeing and urban biodiversity. Some chapters take the form of thematic, issue-based discussions, where others are constituted by empirical case studies. Contributing authors include both academic experts and practitioners who hail from a wide range of disciplines, professions and nations. All offer original research and robust consideration of urban food democracy in cities from across the Global North and South. Taken as a whole, this book makes a significant contribution to understanding the potential enabling role of good urban governance in developing formal urban food policy that is economically and socially responsive and in tune with forms of community-driven adaptation of space for the local production, distribution and consumption of nutritious food.
