Food and Urbanism

Cities are home to over fifty percent of the world’s population, a figure which is expected to increase enormously by 2050. Despite the growing demand on urban resources and infrastructure, food is still often overlooked as a key factor in planning and designing cities. Without incorporating food into the design process – how it is grown, transported, and bought, cooked, eaten and disposed of – it is impossible to create truly resilient and convivial urbanism.Moving from the table and home garden to the town, city, and suburbs, Food and Urbanism explores the connections between food and place in past and present design practices. The book also looks to future methods for extending the ‘gastronomic’ possibilities of urban space. Supported by examples from places across the world, including the UK, Norway, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Romania, Australia and the USA, the book offers insights into how the interplay of physical design and socio-spatial practices centred around food can help to maintain socially rich, productive and sustainable urban space. Susan Parham brings together the latest research from a number of disciplines – urban planning, food studies, sociology, geography, and design – with her own fieldwork on a range of foodscapes to highlight the fundamental role food has to play in shaping the urban future.

[Food and Urbanism] is a book that will find a role as an essential reference for anyone with any interest in food and a positive gold mine for any postgraduate student starting on their research into any aspects of food or urban-food relationships., The book follows a logical progression from table and garden to the city edges and the larger region, each chapter providing a comprehensive review of the relevant literature from a diversity of disciplines., With vivid examples and sparkling clarity, Parham illustrates how food has served as the bridge between private homes and public markets, neighborhoods and regions, and physical spaces and culturally distinct places. A timely and important contribution for anyone interested in how these linkages offer clues for building a more sustainable future., Parham‘s Food and Urbanism is a thrilling read from start to finish, providing a fascinating insight into the complex relationship between food and the city: from urban agriculture to food branding and beyond. The impressive array of topics covered, combined with the interdisciplinary nature of the text, results in a piece which will be of interest to sociologists, geographers, planners, urban designers and other actors interested in this area of research., Through Parham’s powerful prose, gastronomy is revealed as a key ingredient of social justice, cultural understanding and genuinely sustainable forms of urban existence. Crucial reading for anyone studying, critiquing, designing and planning cities, this book brings critical food studies into a direct conversation with 21st-century urbanism.

Susan Parham is Head of Urbanism at the Centre for Sustainable Communities, University of Hertfordshire, UK.