The prefigurative power of urban political agroecology: rethinking the urbanisms of agroecological transitions for food system transformation

Abstract

In recent years, urban contexts and urban-rural linkages have become central for scholars and activists engaged in agrarian questions, agroecological transitions and food system transformation. Grassroots experimentations in urban agroecology and farmers' engagement with urban policies have marked the rise of a new agenda aiming to bridge urban and agrarian movements. Departing from the work of Eric Holt-Gimenez and Annie Shattuck, this paper argues that the way urban-rural links have been conceptualized is occasionally progressive, and that an agroecology-informed food system transformation needs radical approaches. Acknowledging that processes of urbanization are dynamic, driven by specific lifestyles, consumption patterns, and value orientationsproducing ongoing suburbanization, land enclosures, farmers displacement and food-knowledge lossthe paper argues that thinking transitions through new rural-urban links is unfit to tackle the evolving nature of these geographies, and reproduces the distinction between consumers and producers, living on either side of what Mindi Schneider and Philip McMichael have described as an epistemic and ecological rift. Building on insights from four case-studies across global north and south, the paper reframes agroecological transitions as a paradigmatic change in biopolitical spatial relations, economic values and planning agencywhat we call an 'agroecological urbanism'. The paper articulates a transformation agenda addressing urban nutrients, peri-urban landuse, community food pedagogies and farmers' infrastructure.

Grand Challenges in Urban Agriculture: Ecological and Social Approaches to Transformative Sustainability

“…Our synopsis is centered on highlighting the Grand Challenges in UA research as well as other focal points of rapid social-ecological change that are spurring increased attention to transformation as a key research concept. Transformation refers to major, often abrupt social-ecological changes as analyzed in current or historical UA and is particularly well-suited to understanding the extensive scope of UA Grand Challenges (Tornaghi and Dehaene, 2019;Zimmerer et al, 2020a).…”

Ámbitos de gobernanza en las políticas alimentarias urbanas: una mirada operativa

“…Igualmente, es necesario incluir en estos procesos a otros actores locales, sociales y económicos, que van siendo expulsados o marginalizados de los circuitos alimentarios globalizados, como son el pequeño comercio alimentario o los grupos sociales de rentas más bajas (Simón-Rojo, 2019). Más recientemente, se ha puesto de manifies-to cómo la propia estructura física de los asentamientos urbanos condiciona las formas de vida -y las pautas alimentarias-de su población, por lo que la cuestión de la planificación territorial tendría que ocupar un lugar central en las transiciones hacia la sostenibilidad (Tornaghi y Dehaene, 2019).…”

“…Las políticas alimentarias urbanas desarrolladas hasta el momento muestran numerosos déficits desde el punto de vista ecológico, lo que ha sido relacionado a su vez con la segregación entre entornos urbanos y rurales (López-García y González de Molina, 2020). Por ejemplo, se ha señalado la carencia de un enfoque biofísico o material que permita evaluar adecuadamente la sostenibilidad de los sistemas alimentarios urbanos, así como de los diseños espaciales necesarios para un metabolismo social alimentario más sostenible (González de Molina et al, 2019;Tornaghi y Dehaene, 2019;Simón-Rojo, 2019). La centralidad de lo urbano desdibuja la presencia de las agricultoras y agricultores y del mundo rural en las experiencias y en las políticas alimentarias, reduciendo su capacidad para generar transformaciones en los sistemas productivos y territoriales, así como para articular los movimientos sociales que trabajan por la sostenibilidad alimentaria, tanto en el campo como en la ciudad (Giraldo y Rosset 2017;Mier y Terán et al, 2018).…”

Domain A: Rights and Access to Nature—Land, Water, Seeds and Biodiversity

“…All of these challenges arise "primarily from a dominant model of agricultural development that rewards the most mechanized and capital-intensive farms" and that generally favours large producers (De Schutter 2010), further contributing to the lock-in of the dominant agricultural regime. In urban and peri-urban areas as well, difficulties in accessing or affording land are a significant constraint on urban agroecology's potential (Tornaghi and Dehaene 2020).…”