Plural values of urban foragingscapes in edible cities

Urban initiatives bear much potential for multidimensional transformations towards sustainable food systems. Urban foraging, the practice of picking unmanaged or hardly managed plants and fungi in public urban green spaces, has an important role in the procurement and consumption of food in cities worldwide. However, studies on urban food systems have focused on urban agriculture and gardening, whereby the understanding of foraging in urban food systems is still poor and hampered by the fact that it is an informal phenomenon and urban foragers are heterogenous and culturally diverse. Case studies have shown that different value systems and competing interests relating to the use of public urban green spaces may lead to conflicts between urban foragers, green space managers and citizens, constraining the practice of urban foraging within urban food systems.

This research aims to advance the understanding and recognition of urban foraging, and to explore its significance in relation to urban food systems transformations and edible city initiatives across four European cities.

The resarch objectives are to:
a. identify the human and non-human components of urban foragingscapes and their interactions;
b. elicit the values held by foragers towards urban foraging, foraging locations and foraged species;
c. scrutinise conflicting values and priorities about foraging among urban dwellers, including foragers, non-foragers and representatives of public authorities;
d. generate actionable knowledge that supports the harmonisation of conflicting values and priorities regarding foraging in public urban green spaces for informing food system transformations towards edible cities.

Methods

We use a pioneering approach to urban foraging that combines assemblage ethnography, photovoice, arts-based focus groups, Q-methodology, online surveys and visioning workshops.

This project innovates the state-of-the-art by: i) adopting a value lens to understanding the contribution of urban foraging to food systems transformations, ii) applying innovative visual, arts- and future thinking-based methods to provide new insights into urban foraging, iii) employing participatory and inclusive ways of involving foragers in research processes, and iv) adopting comparative research approaches in socio-culturally and geographically diverse European cities.