Food Systems Sustainability: An Examination of Different Viewpoints on Food System Change

Gareth Haysom, E. Gunilla Almered Olsson, Mirek Dymitrow, Paul Opiyo, Nick Taylor Buck, Michael Oloko, Charlotte Spring, Kristina Fermskog, Karin Ingelhag, Shelley Kotze and Stephen Gaya Agong
Additional contact information
Gareth Haysom: African Centre for Cities, EGS Building, University of Cape Town, Cape Town 7701, South Africa
E. Gunilla Almered Olsson: School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg, Box 700, SE 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden
Mirek Dymitrow: Mistra Urban Futures, Chalmers University of Technology, Läraregatan 3, 412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden
Paul Opiyo: Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology, Kisumu 40100, Kisumu County, Kenya
Nick Taylor Buck: The Urban Institute, University of Sheffield, 219 Portobello Street, Sheffield S1 4DP, UK
Michael Oloko: Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology, Kisumu 40100, Kisumu County, Kenya
Charlotte Spring: The Urban Institute, University of Sheffield, 219 Portobello Street, Sheffield S1 4DP, UK
Kristina Fermskog: City of Gothenburg, Department of Environment, Box 7012, 402 31 Gothenburg, Sweden
Karin Ingelhag: Business Region Gothenburg, City Hall, SE-404 82 Gothenburg, Sweden
Shelley Kotze: Mistra Urban Futures, Chalmers University of Technology, Läraregatan 3, 412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden
Stephen Gaya Agong: Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology, Kisumu 40100, Kisumu County, Kenya

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 12, 1-17

Abstract: Global food insecurity levels remain stubbornly high. One of the surest ways to grasp the scale and consequence of global inequality is through a food systems lens. In a predominantly urban world, urban food systems present a useful lens to engage a wide variety of urban (and global) challenges—so called ‘wicked problems.’ This paper describes a collaborative research project between four urban food system research units, two European and two African. The project purpose was to seek out solutions to what lay between, across and within the different approaches applied in the understanding of each city’s food system challenges. Contextual differences and immediate (perceived) needs resulted in very different views on the nature of the challenge and the solutions required. Value positions of individuals and their disciplinary “enclaves” presented further boundaries. The paper argues that finding consensus provides false solutions. Rather the identification of novel approaches to such wicked problems is contingent of these differences being brought to the fore, being part of the conversation, as devices through which common positions can be discovered, where spaces are created for the realisation of new perspectives, but also, where difference is celebrated as opposed to censored.

Keywords: urban food system; food systems change; wicked problems; sustainability; urban food security (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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