The potential of urban food governance to transform lives, cities, and the planet

Abstract

In recent decades, a growing transdisciplinary community has come together to leverage the power of cities in addressing pressing socio-ecological challenges, from climate change to food insecurity. Diverse theoretical and practical approaches to studying urban food governance have emerged in this context. However, they remain largely disconnected. Building on the contributions of this rapidly moving field, we propose a critical framework in the form of a guide that helps to understand, assess and shape urban food governance so that it can constitute a means of delivering just and sustainable outcomes. The framework proposes five interconnected principles to impact urban food governance thinking and practice: time, place, relationships, diversity and power. We argue that attending to these five principles can support the capacity and expansion of transformative urban food governance.