Katerina Psarikidou

Growing the Social: Alternative Agrofood Networks and Social Sustainability in the Urban Ethical Foodscape

Abstract Agrofood practices have been an obvious domain in which to implement sustainability. Yet, despite the fact that food carries a dense set of social meanings and functions, sustainability’s social dimension has been relatively neglected in studies of sustainable food initiatives. In this article, we draw on research carried out for the European project “Facilitating Alternative Agro-food Networks” (FAAN), and describe various ways in which alternative agrofood networks in the city of Manchester manifest aspects of social sustainability and the “moral economy,” including relations of solidarity and justice with proximate and distant others, concern for land and for the global environment, social inclusion of the disadvantaged, and the reskilling of everyday life. However, we also argue for a different way of conceiving social sustainability, which involves not simply adding another “pillar” to the dominating dyad of the economic and the environmental, but subjecting the whole notion of sustainability to a sociomaterial turn—one that questions the ontological separation of economy, environment, and society. We show how this approach involves conceiving the urban “ethical foodscape” as a “moral taskscape” in which people dwell and move, interacting with soil, food, and each other through situated practices involving skill and judgment.

Dataset of the livability performance of the City of Birmingham, UK, as measured by its citizen wellbeing, resource security, resource efficiency and carbon emissions

This data article presents the UK City LIFE1 data set for the city of Birmingham, UK. UK City LIFE1 is a new, comprehensive and holistic method for measuring the livable sustainability performance of UK cities. The Birmingham data set comprises 346 indicators structured simultaneously (1) within a four-tier, outcome-based framework in order to aid in their interpretation (e.g., promote healthy living and healthy long lives, minimize energy use, uncouple economic vitality from CO2 emissions) and (2) thematically in order to complement government and disciplinary siloes (e.g., health, energy, economy, climate change). Birmingham data for the indicators are presented within an Excel spreadsheet with their type, units, geographic area, year, source, link to secondary data files, data collection method, data availability and any relevant calculations and notes. This paper provides a detailed description of UK city LIFE1 in order to enable comparable data sets to be produced for other UK cities. The Birmingham data set is made publically available at http://epapers.bham.ac.uk/3040/ to facilitate this and to enable further analyses. The UK City LIFE1 Birmingham data set has been used to understand what is known and what is not known about the livable sustainability performance of the city and to inform how Birmingham City Council can take action now to improve its understanding and its performance into the future (see “Improving city-scale measures of livable sustainability: A study of urban measurement and assessment through application to the city of Birmingham, UK” Leach et al. [2]).

Towards a ‘Meaning’-ful Analysis of the Temporalities of Mobility Practices: Implications for Sustainability

This chapter argues for the value of taking a more relational and situated understanding of the temporality of mobility practices. While there are dominant meanings of how temporal dichotomies relate to mobility practices, these are challenged by the multiplicity and relativity of meanings people attribute to their practices. Drawing on research conducted in Birmingham, UK, the chapter details how people’s experiences of mobility are made meaningful in relation to different dimensions of temporalities, as well as wider, complex intersections of temporalities, practices and materialities. Focusing on the temporal dimensions of speed, duration and rhythmicity, it argues that since multiple temporalities are already embedded in people’s understandings of mobility, these should be more carefully represented and analysed in discussions of sustainability and possible mobility transitions.

Chapter 18 Making local food sustainable in Manchester

In Manchester, environmental and health issues have been integrated into a wider agro-food strategy for making the city ‘more sustainable’, in several senses of the word. With crucial support from state bodies and charities, several initiatives expand access to fresh, healthy food, especially in ‘food deserts’. Through ‘community engagement’, they mobilize various resources, skills and voluntary labour to create ‘community spaces’ for social inclusion. Manchester agro-food networks shorten supply chains, e.g. by more directly linking peri-urban agriculture with urban consumers, and by promoting urban agriculture based on local resource mobilisation and personal trust. These networks provide alternatives to conventional agro-food chains. In Manchester, food relocalisation helps to overcome socio-economic inequalities and health problems. In a national policy context advocating food relocalisation but offering little support, Manchester agro-food initiatives cooperate to develop environmentally sustainable, socially just, healthy communities. These also reconstruct local identities and social commitments. Despite that success, the larger food system is still dominated by conventional agro-food chains. Community food initiatives have a marginal role, so practitioners discuss how to overcome the present limitations. From 2010 onwards the UK government’s austerity regime undermines state support, so community engagement will become even more important for mobilising resources.