JPI Urban Europe SUGI - Urbanising in Place
Lead Research Organisation:
Coventry University
Department Name: Ctr for Agroecology, Water and Resili
Abstract
While a large part of current research on the link between sustainability, ecological practices and ecosystem services (including urban agriculture) is focussed on high-density forms of urbanisation, in this project we take up the important challenge to reflect on loosely-urbanised landscapes on the metropolitan fringe, such as those of suburbs and low density conurbations.
The horizontal metropolis of the peri-urban, which provides the specific context for this project, is confronted with an interesting paradox: agriculture is still largely present in these areas and exists in close proximity to new forms of urban settlement yet hardly entertains any relationship with them. At the same time, the remaining agricultural patterns perform vital open space and ecosystems services which are not valued by the logics of urbanisation. The de-valuing of these ecosystem services poses an ongoing threat to the farming practices that generate them.
Farmers and food growing communities play a crucial role in managing the food-water-energy (FWE) nexus in the metropolitan fringe, but their often operate within precarious conditions in which nutrient cycles, energy conservation, water harvest, soil management and food production happen under marginal and residual conditions.
Contemporary dynamics of urbanization tend to push farmers and food growers out of the city boundaries, displacing food production and resources conservation practices too. Nonetheless, peri-urban areas and the urbanising fringes of metropolitan areas tend to harbour a rich variety of farming practices and there is empirical evidence that urban farmers play a key role as localized and distributed operators of the food-water-energy nexus.
'Urbanising in place' will imagine new ways to bolster the role of food growers in managing the FWE nexus rather than pushing them out. The project will explore how farming and food growing practices on the metropolitan fringe, threatened by an ever expanding urbanisation, may be reimagined and reconfigured within what we call 'agroecological urbanism': a model of urbanisation which places food, urban metabolic cycles and an ethics of land stewardship, equality and solidarity at its core.
The project brings together innovative practices from 4 different contexts (Riga, Rosario, Brussels, London) in an international platform aimed at mutual learning and the identification of critical pathways for change.
The research project will establish a transdisciplinary social platform (UFJ-ESRC 2011) that will act as a co-creation and learning lab that brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars, local government actors, national and international NGOs for the mobilisation of technical or policy knowledge, and community stakeholders.
The horizontal metropolis of the peri-urban, which provides the specific context for this project, is confronted with an interesting paradox: agriculture is still largely present in these areas and exists in close proximity to new forms of urban settlement yet hardly entertains any relationship with them. At the same time, the remaining agricultural patterns perform vital open space and ecosystems services which are not valued by the logics of urbanisation. The de-valuing of these ecosystem services poses an ongoing threat to the farming practices that generate them.
Farmers and food growing communities play a crucial role in managing the food-water-energy (FWE) nexus in the metropolitan fringe, but their often operate within precarious conditions in which nutrient cycles, energy conservation, water harvest, soil management and food production happen under marginal and residual conditions.
Contemporary dynamics of urbanization tend to push farmers and food growers out of the city boundaries, displacing food production and resources conservation practices too. Nonetheless, peri-urban areas and the urbanising fringes of metropolitan areas tend to harbour a rich variety of farming practices and there is empirical evidence that urban farmers play a key role as localized and distributed operators of the food-water-energy nexus.
'Urbanising in place' will imagine new ways to bolster the role of food growers in managing the FWE nexus rather than pushing them out. The project will explore how farming and food growing practices on the metropolitan fringe, threatened by an ever expanding urbanisation, may be reimagined and reconfigured within what we call 'agroecological urbanism': a model of urbanisation which places food, urban metabolic cycles and an ethics of land stewardship, equality and solidarity at its core.
The project brings together innovative practices from 4 different contexts (Riga, Rosario, Brussels, London) in an international platform aimed at mutual learning and the identification of critical pathways for change.
The research project will establish a transdisciplinary social platform (UFJ-ESRC 2011) that will act as a co-creation and learning lab that brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars, local government actors, national and international NGOs for the mobilisation of technical or policy knowledge, and community stakeholders.
Planned Impact
The focus of this project on the 're-urbanization' of the peri-urban fringe opens up discussions that are of great relevance within a global perspective. Peri-urban, horizontal urbanization defines the bread and butter reality of urbanizing metropolitan areas around the globe.
The project aims to deliver the following impacts:
- Identification of transformative pathways for the riconfiguration of the F-W-E nexus in four local contexts (grassroots arenas in London, Rosario, Riga and Brussels)
- Uptake of innovative models of new actor constellations for a virtuous management of the food-water-energy nexus (policy arena)
- Definition of new forms of urban enterpreneurship, knowlege brokering, technical assistance and urban service provision (business sector)
- Development of new conceptual models for (re)framing the urban food-water-energy nexus from an urban political ecology perspective, and development of an Incubator for an Agroecological Urbanism (academic arena)
These impacts will be delivered through:
1) the process of research, particularly the social platform;
2) the valorisation activities, aimed at gathering feedback and refining the research reports for usability with different communities of practice;
3) the dissemination of research findings to both academics and policy makers;
4) the identification of commercial and not for profit models of urban service delivery that may play an active role in transforming urban resources (waste/nutrients, energy, water) in such a way that they can be tapped into by local food growers.
Given our commitment to collaborative research and the identification of pathways for change, specific measures have been planned to ensure engagement of key actors and the ability of the research to deliver the project. All our partners leading the case studies are already involved with stakeholders and are interested in mobilising these communities to reflect on the specific questions of how to reconfigure the F-W-E nexus in the peri-urban context of the horizontal metropolis.
The activities of the social platform that we aim to build will also be an important opportunity for cross- fertilisation between our case studies, and the cases and other existing networks, and to mobilise the transformational potential of these exchanges.
The Social Platform (months 1-36) is the 'brewing pot' where 'communities of practice' and the 'scientific communities' involved in the project engage with co-creation and transdisciplinary work. The platform starts as a 'project-related' device but it will gradually evolve towards an incubator standing on its own. In this trajectory includes three stages. In the first phase (months 1-9) the social platform will be the context for the first international exchanges of the networks and communities of practice in the local contexts with external partners in discussions that can accelerate and enrich the mapping exercise. In the second phase (10-25) the platform will function as a space for international cross-case intervisioning, confronting partners sharing different experiences while engaging them in a collective learning. The platform will work as transformative device to re-imagine possible alternative configurations of the F-W-E nexus. In the third phase (27-36) the international platform will be shaped to consolidate the collective learning of the various knowledge communities of the project and evolve from an exchange device to an Incubator for an Agroecological Urbanism.
Our roles within international policy and academic communities (Milan Food Policy Pact, AESOP Sustainable Food Planning group, and potentially Urban Europe), will ensure we can disseminate the research results among communities leading pioneering research and action in the field. Specific WPs have been dedicated to the valorisation and dissemination agenda, and will be lead by RUAF, Shared Assets and URBEM.
The project aims to deliver the following impacts:
- Identification of transformative pathways for the riconfiguration of the F-W-E nexus in four local contexts (grassroots arenas in London, Rosario, Riga and Brussels)
- Uptake of innovative models of new actor constellations for a virtuous management of the food-water-energy nexus (policy arena)
- Definition of new forms of urban enterpreneurship, knowlege brokering, technical assistance and urban service provision (business sector)
- Development of new conceptual models for (re)framing the urban food-water-energy nexus from an urban political ecology perspective, and development of an Incubator for an Agroecological Urbanism (academic arena)
These impacts will be delivered through:
1) the process of research, particularly the social platform;
2) the valorisation activities, aimed at gathering feedback and refining the research reports for usability with different communities of practice;
3) the dissemination of research findings to both academics and policy makers;
4) the identification of commercial and not for profit models of urban service delivery that may play an active role in transforming urban resources (waste/nutrients, energy, water) in such a way that they can be tapped into by local food growers.
Given our commitment to collaborative research and the identification of pathways for change, specific measures have been planned to ensure engagement of key actors and the ability of the research to deliver the project. All our partners leading the case studies are already involved with stakeholders and are interested in mobilising these communities to reflect on the specific questions of how to reconfigure the F-W-E nexus in the peri-urban context of the horizontal metropolis.
The activities of the social platform that we aim to build will also be an important opportunity for cross- fertilisation between our case studies, and the cases and other existing networks, and to mobilise the transformational potential of these exchanges.
The Social Platform (months 1-36) is the 'brewing pot' where 'communities of practice' and the 'scientific communities' involved in the project engage with co-creation and transdisciplinary work. The platform starts as a 'project-related' device but it will gradually evolve towards an incubator standing on its own. In this trajectory includes three stages. In the first phase (months 1-9) the social platform will be the context for the first international exchanges of the networks and communities of practice in the local contexts with external partners in discussions that can accelerate and enrich the mapping exercise. In the second phase (10-25) the platform will function as a space for international cross-case intervisioning, confronting partners sharing different experiences while engaging them in a collective learning. The platform will work as transformative device to re-imagine possible alternative configurations of the F-W-E nexus. In the third phase (27-36) the international platform will be shaped to consolidate the collective learning of the various knowledge communities of the project and evolve from an exchange device to an Incubator for an Agroecological Urbanism.
Our roles within international policy and academic communities (Milan Food Policy Pact, AESOP Sustainable Food Planning group, and potentially Urban Europe), will ensure we can disseminate the research results among communities leading pioneering research and action in the field. Specific WPs have been dedicated to the valorisation and dissemination agenda, and will be lead by RUAF, Shared Assets and URBEM.
Organisations
- Coventry University (Lead Research Organisation)
- Arts and Humanities Research Council (Co-funder)
- Art Academy of Latvia (Project Partner)
- National University of Rosario (Project Partner)
- URBEM (Project Partner)
- Architecture Workroom Brussels (Project Partner)
- Quantum Waste (Project Partner)
- Wageningen University & Research (Project Partner)
- Ghent University (Project Partner)
- Shared Assets (Project Partner)
- SAMPLING (Project Partner)
Publications
Dehaene M.
(2022)
Waking up in the Land of Urban Agroecology : Lessons in Modesty for Urbanism
in OASE (DELFT)
Vandermaelen H.
(2023)
Urbanising the agroecological reproduction of soil fertility
Vandermaelen H
(2019)
The Urban Household of Metabolism/De stedelijke huishoudpraktijk van het metabolisme
Tornaghi C
(2019)
The prefigurative power of urban political agroecology: rethinking the urbanisms of agroecological transitions for food system transformation
in Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems
Cima O
(2022)
The end of postsocialism (as we knew it): Diverse economies and the East
in Progress in Human Geography
Vandermaelen H
(2022)
Public land for urban food policy? A critical data-analysis of public land transactions in the Ghent city region (Belgium)
in European Planning Studies
Tornaghi C.
(2021)
Handbook of Critical Agrarian Studies
VANDERMAELEN H.
(2020)
Embedding agroecology's soil care principle in the urbanised society: the case of Flanders
| Title | Online "Incubator for an Agroecological Urbanism" (online resource) |
| Description | On the 3rd of February 2023 we have launched an online resource, the "Incubator for an Agroecological urbanism". This is a web resource that presents the results of our project 'Urbanising in Place', through a range of audio-visual, graphic, and textual materials accessible to a wider public. The resource includes - an Atlas with the historical trajectories of the four cities involved in our project; - a series of "conversation starters", to provoke interest with communities of practice - particularly farmers and policy makers. - a series of "conversation stoppers", aimed at providing counterarguments to typical statements that end the conversation between farmers and policy makers interested in sustainable food system. - examples and reports of 'conversations' and public engagements that we have initiated or fostered - detailed description of eight building blocks of an agroeoclogical urbanism We intend for this web resource to be a work in progress, where to add more resources, from both, current and future members of research consortiums in which we will be involved. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Impact | We have only launched this a month ago, so it is too early to assess its impact. However, the practitioners, research partners and students with whom we have shared it so far have found this extremely useful to better understand concepts and pathways for an Agroecological Urbanism. |
| URL | https://www.agroecologicalurbanism.org |
| Title | Poster "Political pedagogies for an agroecological urbanism |
| Description | Artist Javie Huxley has worked with us to illustrate six key messages/directions for the development of political pedagogies aimed at promoting urban agroecology and an agroecological urbanism. These illustrations will be used individually on the project website to illustrate textual materials, as well as collectively to form a poster and a flier (both digital and in print) |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | Facilitation of translation of complex concepts into actions for community groups, practitioners and third sector organisations. |
| Title | Poster/Comic strip: Community kitchens for an agroecological urbanism |
| Description | Our project has identified 8 areas of re-articulation of society and policy. We have worked with a number of artists to produce illustrations that help facilitating the translation of comcepts into action. Artist Kiko Romero has produced an illustration in the form of a series of comic strips forming an A3 poster, that illustrates 4 key messages of one of our building blocks for an agroecological urbanism: community kitchens. |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | Complex concepts are visually translated into situations and actions familiar to the reader and to communities of practice |
| Title | SOIL CARETAKERS IN THE SPOTLIGHT |
| Description | Together with documentary maker Jonathan Ortegat and commissioned by OVAM, Architecture Workroom Brussel developed 'Soil caretakers in the spotlight': a series of illustrative stories in which more than twenty 'soil caretakers' come into play. They tell us why care for the tiny, almost invisible soil life provides our gardens, streets, neighbourhoods, cities and landscapes with new qualities. AWB curated these video naratives on soil care for OVAM (the Flemish Waste Agency) Hans Vandermaelen (UGent contributed to these video narratives) |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The videos targeted policy makers and civil servants and contributed to further work on the ground to raise awareness about the centrality of soil in urban planning. |
| URL | https://www.architectureworkroom.eu/en/projects/4616/soil-caretakers-in-the-spotlight |
| Description | The project (which will officially end on the 15th June 2022 -although with one partner finishing at the end of the year due to receiving their funds later), has achieved a number of results around the original 4 main objectives of this project: (1) building awareness regarding the potential role of residualized and emerging food growing practices (2) crafting a vital urban coalition to reinforce the metabolic (f-w-e) agency of food growing communities (3) mutual learning between platform partners on metabolic agency (4) testing new political and policy pathways. The results (which are still incomplete), include: For public policy: 1) AGROECOLOGY AS A VIRTUOUS METABOLIC PRACTICE. Agroecology is a resource conserving practice that takes care of energy, water and soils resources in each food producing practice. It is essentially a metabolic practice dedicated to circular metabolism within ethics of resource stewardship, and as such is central to establish a new understanding of the nexus between food water and energy. Ensuring the presence and inclusion of agroecological expertise within urban authorities/civil servants' teams (of which the Rosario case is exemplary) makes it possible to systematically question and adjust municipal actions such as waste collection, land use management, maintenance of green spaces, public land leases, etc. in light of processes of nutrient cycling, drought management, energy and water harvesting, etc. 2) AGROECOLOGY-LED MULTIDISCIPLINARY CIVIL SERVANTS TEAMS (AN URBAN AGROECOLOGY CENTRE IN EVERY CITY). Coordination between agroecological/agronomic expertise and other sectors of the local council, such as economic development, public health and social policy, are essential to create synergies and empowering pathways to include marginalise communities into thriving and emerging sustainable food economies, by enabling access to land, access to markets, food processing infrastructure, nutrients management support, etc. This requires moving away from traditional silo-approaches to policy making, towards integrated multidisciplinary teams, able to work collaboratively to identify and remove barriers for the implementation of innovative policies. Such collaboration is essential, for example, for the upgrade of municipal planning approaches, which are currently unfit for the implementation of national and supra-national strategic ambitions around circular economies (i.e. EU Farm-to-Fork Strategy). This pertains particularly, but not only, the agroecological re-use of organic waste, their collection, storage, transport and processing, which involve a different understanding of what is a farm, landuse definitions, and classification of productive activities. The development of an agroecology centre in every city is a route that in two of our case studies is proving effective to support farmers training, to coordinate the use of public farmland, and to establish effective land and resource presentation policies. 3) SOIL CARE AS NEW NARRATIVE FOR SPATIAL PLANNING. Soil care and agroecology may structure a new narrative for spatial planning focused on the actual use of soils and the farming models involved rather than its statutory designation as farm land. Farmers are now (land)locked between the consumption of land for urban expansion on the one hand and nature development (biodiversity preservation) goals on the other. Adopting 'soil care/health' as an alternative narrative for spatial planning is key to reinscribe farming and urbanisation within a landscape ecology perspective, and to distinguish between ecology-depleting and ecology-preserving agricultural practices. 4) STRATEGIC USE OF FRAGMENTED PUBLIC FARMLAND. With the ongoing expansion of urbanisation on peri-urban lands, farmers operate within fragmented landscape units (i.e. only access to arable land, no access to grassland or woodland). (Re)building territorial linkages at landscape level and across the rural-urban divide is key in order to connect farmers to critical nutrient sources needed for sustainable farming practices. Public authorities, which have considerable control on public land, can play a pivotal role here, by considering the strategic use of such land to support sustainable farming. 5) INVESTEMENT IN FARMING INFRASTRUCTURE. Encourage public investment in farming infrastructure to greatly support peri-urban farming as a soil-preservation, food-system sustainability pillar and local economy booster practice (i.e.municipal seed banks, low-tech renewable energy farming devices, fertility management with organic wastes, market access, food processing municipal enterprises; farmers training programmes, etc.). 6) INCOME SUPPORT INITIATIVES. In the context of increased speculation on urban land and gentrification, that render access to housing and to land extremely expensive for farmers, it is imperative to support the livelihood of new farmers through the promotion of economic incentives, income support programmes, or the availability of in-kind benefits such as free access to key infrastructure during the incubation period of each new farm. This can be boostered also by recognising and valuing the lack of negative environmental externalities (soil depletion, water/sil pollution, biodiversity destruction and long miles/carbon emissions) typical of the mainstream agro-food industry. For practitioners/SME/business support: 7) RESOURCING FARMERS OFF THE FARM - Part of our research has highlighted how agroecological farmers can be supported on the farm, through income support, training, access to land, etc. that booster their ability to build autonomous enterprises. Our research, however, also shows that energy, water and nutrient harvesting in an urban environment is labour intensive, and often prohibitive due to the cost of land/space and labour, in a context where farmer prices at the farmgate are very low (and in competition with over-subsidised agribusinesses). It is therefore important to support farmers off the farm, through the development of shared farmers' operating infrastructure (eg. shared composting facilities) and cooperative approaches. Some of these can also be supported in the form of municipal services (as highlighted at point 5 above). 8) NEW AGROECOLOGICAL WASTE RECOVERING ENTREPRENEURS. The strict social and ecological principles within agroecological farming principles, require access to farming inputs that are certified clean from exploitative labour, pesticides, GMOs and other socio-ecologically damaging practice. However, the progressive fragmentation of farmland, the lack of relations of proximity with other agroecological farmers and the difficult time-economic constraints of small farmers render difficult the autonomous sourcing of appropriate organic waste inputs. Tere is therefore a business case and a market demand for agroecological waster recovering entrepreneurs able to identify, collect, process and distribute such wastes in the form of composts for soil fertility preservation. However, our research shows that in order to make it possible for waste cycling entrepreneurs to engage with food growers, it is necessary to adapt planning regulation to tackle a number of legal obstacles for the processing and transport of organic waste. Despite broader policy vision and strategies (such as the EU Green New Deal, and Farm to Fork strategy), which acknowledge the role of farmers in achieving closed loops food systems, local authorities planning systems are not equipped to understand that old and separate designations of "farming" and "waste processing" are obsolete, and increasingly hybrid. Our London case has proven that the planning system is completely ineffective in enabling such work. 9) RESHAPING FARMERS TRAINING PROGRAMMES FOR URBAN AGROEOCLOGY. Farmer-to-farmer training programmes are an important resource to better adjust agroecological businesses to the urban context. However, their training is often largely focussed on rural models while it should be tailored to the specific economic and land access challenges typical of the urban context (including, for example, learning to tackle the prevalent access to fragmented land, the costs and skills for soil remediation, the practical access to urban soil nutrients, the gap between house rent and farm revenues, the time and support needed for social cultivation and training to (re)educate communities and build alliances - essentially political pedagogies for urban agroecology. For the research community: 10) AGROECOLOGICAL URBANISM. EIGHT AREAS OF ARTICULATION FOR A NEW RESEARCH AND POLICY AGENDA. This project provides advances in the fields of sustainable development, urban planning and sustainable food planning through the conceptualisation of an agroecological urbanism, and the identification of 8 areas of rearticulation between urban planning, food policy and social relations, for its implementation. These areas cover land use, economic development, housing models, community engagement and educational practices, and constitute specific areas for further research. (for example around political pedagogies across the farmers-consumers-policy divides, virtuous models of mixed farming at urban and peri-urban areas, soil care policies, etc.) (paper in progress) 11) A POLITICAL-ECOLOGY READING OF THE URBAN FOOD-WATER-ENERGY NEXUS. The analysis of concrete agroecological practices (soil care, composting, companion planting, mixed farming, etc.) helps to read the Urban F-E-W nexus along political-ecology lines. (paper in progress) 12) BETWEEN AUTONOMY AND SERVICE PROVISION: SHAPING URBAN POLICY MAKING AGENDAS. The breakdown of agroecological practices in terms of what falls within the farmers ability to self-organize and what not, provides important clues for fostering exchange between agroecological farmers and urban policy makers. |
| Exploitation Route | Our dissemination and impact approach includes: 1) Academic publications. We have an ambitious publication plan, including top rated journals and edited books with world leading publishers. We are targeting both, the agroecology /agrarian studies community and the urban planning/food planning community and try to bridge its historical divide. We have already published a number of outputs and have about 8 more in the pipeline. . , practitioners outlets, and policy brief series. several publication in the pipeline, including 3 forthcoming, 2 submitted and 6 in preparation. 2) Non-academic publications to translate results in accessible manner. We have produced a policy brief (currently with the editors team) targeting particularly UN Habitat. We have also produced videoclips and graphics/posters to illustrate key messages the 8 building blocks for an agroecological urbanism, which include indication of recommended agents for change, expected impacts and best practice. 3) We have organised a series of webinars for both, policy and practice community (international approach) and the video recordings will be available on our dedicated "Incubator for an Agroeocological urbanism" website. 4) We will soon be launching a web portal ("Incubator for an Agroeocological urbanism") with resources addressed specifically to the practitioners community. 5) we are preparing a Prize/Competition for ideas, to encourage practitioners communities to engage with the research results of our project. Some of the learning is already being uptakes by policy communities, through the engagement activities of this project (for example in Brussels and London) A follow-on fund has been secured to explore the issue of urban soil remediation (lead: Coventry University) |
| Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Communities and Social Services/Policy,Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice,Other |
| URL | http://urbanisinginplace.org/output-impact/ |
| Description | 1) In February 2019 we have taken along a civil servant from the Brussels City Region government (Brussels Environment) to our intervisioning meeting in Rosario (Argentina) lasting approximately 10 days. Part of the aim of this event was to provide a context for dialogue, mutual learning, strategising and cross-fertilisation across and between the different social platforms in the 4 geographical regions of our project. The learning that occurred during this event has indeed generated impact: following the reporting of this civil servants to her department, the new government of Brussels Capital region has included concrete plans for developing a Centre for Urban Agroecology, taking inspiration from the multiple ways in which agroecological policy has been articulated in the Rosario context. Such a centre is now included in the approved coalition agreement (that designate the plan and policies of the government in charge). Our project has been involved in exploring a possible agenda for this centre, including direct collaboration with peri urban farmers, and our team members based in Belgium, with support from other partners from the consortium, have been coaching the local authorities in this endeavour, facilitating the coordination of farmers, technical knowledge and city actors (political and technical) around the development of its agenda. The agenda moves beyond a traditional focus on access to market questions and seeks to identify concrete actions that can help to create conditions through which farmers can take up metabolic positions within the regional food system. This initiative has impact both on the ambitions of the region to produce 30percent of its food supply locally, but also has potential impact on water abstraction, quality of fresh water sources, energy efficiency of the applied farming models, and other environmental benefits such as the carbon sequestration and improved biodiversity of agroecosystems and general ecosystem health and integrity. Unfortunately, the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic has deeply impacted on the pace of this work, and we were forced to cancel a key 4 days event for this process planned for March 2020. However, with the easing of the pandemic we have resumed some conversations over the summer 2021, and have invited the key person now in charge of the development of the Centre for Urban Agroecology to engage in a series of Webinars around an Agroecological Urbanism. 2) In London, the intervisioning event we held in September 2019 included visits and debates with key actors in the food movement, and a presentation of our project at London City Hall which has triggered conversations with civil servants working on the green belt. The event has been the catalyst of further collaboration with influential actors involved in sustainable food policies, who found our work valuable and our key areas of articulation on an agroecological urbanism interesting avenues to explore. The event has triggered a number of following conversations which have concretized in co-designed workshops engaging practitioners in the organic food movement, contributing to build momentum around the centrality of agroecology as a virtuous metabolic practice, distinctively different from 'urban agriculture'. Civil servants who have attended the workshop in September 2019 have began to think agroecology as part of the development of policy documents for the London greenbelt. At the same time Sustain and the London Food Board, who also attended the workshop in September have followed on with a workshop in February 2020 about agroecology in the urban fringe, co-faciliatted by one of our project partners (Shared Assets). Together they have also successfully obtained further funding to explore agroecological farming in the urban fringe of four UK cities: London, Bristol, Glasgow and Sheffield. Recognising the sinergies of the two projects, The Sheffield (Logan) and Coventry team (Tornaghi), together with Shared Assets and Sustain, have also been involved in several dissemination and engagement activities with farmers during 2021 and 2022 (i.e. session organising at the Oxford Real Farming Conferences 2021 and 2022, webinar series "Conversations towards an agroecological urbanism", Sustain's webinar for the "Good to Grow" event) and as of March 2022, urban agroecology has now gained central stage in practitioners debates involved in urban food systems. We see these as fundamental and foundational achievements to further policy work around an agroecological urbanism. A further workshop in September 2022 with UK farmers, farmers associations (i.e. CSA Network UK), social movement actors (i.e. Land Workers Alliance; La Via Campesino) and third sector organisations (i.e. Sustain, Shared Assets) has began to explore how to build on the project results and to co-design a follow up action-research project. 3) In Riga we have been able to take initial steps to mobilize local food growing communities around the protection of large public allotment complexes that are facing threats of urban development. While these allotment complexes are not always in good shape, and not fully occupied, they belong to a broad shared culture of popular engagement in self-provision and constitute valuable assets that could be re-appropriated as part of a forward-looking urban food planning agenda. Through these actions we seek to contribute to a re-valuation of practices that tend to be framed as residual and informal as an integral part of local culture and heritage. In the Riga context these alternative food provisioning practices represent a substantial part of the local food supply and contribute to access to healthy and affordable food rooted in principles of local resource sovereignty. 4) Rosario has been the context where agroecology as a metabolic practice has been further advanced and embedded into a number of policy branches. However, a new wave of neoliberalism, jointly with a change in the political colour of the local administration and a crippling financial crisis, have been severely threatening the achievements of over twenty years of policy work in the field of urban agroecology. The project, however, with its engagement in international conversations, has been an opportunity for the local team to reflect on the uniqueness and social innovation of their case, and to build new alliances and narratives to protect their achievements. While the local team has not received their funding for large part of the project, the team has been working on retracing the history, rationale and achievements of their work to share during our intervisioning events. Part of this work has formed the basis of the team's submission to the prestigious World Resource Institute Prize for Cities, where they won the first prize in summer 2021 for their work on agroecological farming. Thanks also to the strength of the Rosario case, our project is contributing to the growing recognition that an agroecological approach to urban food provision is not just another label but provides a forceful integrative framework to conceptualize the intersection of sustainable agriculture and sustainable urbanization. 5) Following the public defence of Hans Vandermaelen PhD thesis on the 2nd of February 2023 - a research that was supervised by the two co-lead partners of this project (Tornaghi and Dehaene), in collaboration with Dr Elke Vanempten from ILVO, Belgium - media, general public, politicians, researchers, and professional communities (i.e. farmers), have began an intense series of debates in person and on various media outlets (ranging from Indi media such as Apache, to major Flemish economic newspapers), leading to a parliamentary enquiry where Hans was invited to present his work on the 15th March. These is clear evidence that our work has contributed to unveil serious contradiction within local policies, and the systematic sale-off of crucial public assets, such as public farmland, over the past 10 years. We are currently monitoring how this debate will influence policy change. For now, the work has informed the first draft of the City of Ghent new Agricultural Policy. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2019 |
| Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Communities and Social Services/Policy,Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal,Policy & public services |
| Description | Contributed to parliamentary enquiry on the sale of public farmland in Belgium |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Impact | While we are yet to see the impact of the ongoing parliamentary enquiry, Hans thesis has contributed to catalyse the wider public mobilised in support of farmers, sustainable food planning and environmental stewardship, and demanding stronger regulation around this crucial asset. |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvoGcTwlKpc&t=2966s |
| Description | Contribution to IPCC report reviews 2021 and 2022 |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Impact | IPCC reports are highly influential advisory documents that shape local, national and supranational policies worldwide. |
| Description | Contribution to University extension |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or Improved professional practice |
| Impact | - awaiting further details from the partners- |
| Description | Contribution to postgraduate teaching at the National University of Rosario |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | This training was dedicated to postgraduate students, and offered insights on state-of-the-art research and policy on Urban Agroecology, effectively contributing to enhance academic education and the upskilling of future workforce. |
| Description | Draft Agriculture Policy of the City and Ghent |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health |
| URL | https://stad.gent/sites/default/files/media/documents/230202_Visie%20op%20landbouw%20in%20Gent_draft... |
| Description | Influence on Brussels city region government |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health |
| Impact | Political commitment of Brussels City region government in the establishment of a Centre/Incubator for Urban Agroecology. |
| Description | Keynote, debate and workshop at ULB Summer School on Urban Agriculture |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | The findings of keynote, debate and the afternoon workshops were included as a full chapter "Repenser le développement urbain en partant des logiques de fonctions productives et nourricières, au-delà des frontières" in the policy recommendations that came out of the Summer School of Urban Agriculture (EEUA) in collaboration with Agroecology Lab. The summer school issued a full report of policy recommendations amend at nourishing the co-construction of the revised Brussels's food strategy " Stratégie Good Food 2.0". |
| URL | https://eeaubxl-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/programme-EEAU2021.pdf |
| Description | Re-shaped curriculum of International Module on Spatial Development Planning (IMSDP), a course for postgraduate students at the University of Leuven, with a lecture on Agroecological Urbanism |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | The very selected 15-20 students attending this training will usually be at the beginning of their PhD or Post-doc trajectory. In this early phase, the chance to delve into new fields of research and new theoretical debates will provide an opportunity to shaping their future research trajectory. |
| URL | https://esdp-network.net/the-imsdp-overview |
| Description | Three new public policies for agroecology, urban metabolism, circular economies and agroecological urbanism |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Membership of a guideline committee |
| Impact | The impact consist in three new local policies (local government ordinances) in the city of Rosario, Argentina: - Ordinance 10.139/20: Comprehensive Plan for Land and Productive Investments, determines the categories of land use, including the Area for the Protection and Promotion of Food Production (APPPA), the Comprehensive Productive Area (API) . (link: https://www.rosario.gob.ar/normativa/ver/visualExterna.do?accion=verNormativa&idNormativa=168106) - Ordinance 10.141/20: Sustainable Food Production Program, in the area of protection and promotion of food production. Its objective is the implementation of policies for the promotion of sustainable primary food production, in coordination with the industries of its value chain, in its productive, social and environmental dimensions. (link: https://www.rosario.gob.ar/normativa/ver/visualExterna.do?accion=verNormativa&idNormativa=168870) - Ordinance 10.142/20: Program for the Promotion of Agrarian Parks, as a proposal for the management and protection of the territory where horticultural, agricultural and forestry activities coexist, prioritizing the production of healthy food and environmental protection. (link: These ordinances improve environmental sustainability by protecting public land from speculative development; support communities's access to employment and to healthy food, by supporting access to land, entrepreneurial development, food transformation and access to markets, with effective solution to the problems of vulnerable communities. They also improve regulatory environment by shielding local population from agro-toxic pollution and promoting agroecological production outselling in the region. The all text of ordinances and related implementation decrees can be found here: https://www.rosario.gob.ar/normativa/visualExterna/normativas.jsp |
| URL | https://www.rosario.gob.ar/normativa/ver/visualExterna.do?accion=verNormativa&idNormativa=168870 |
| Description | Catalyze |
| Amount | £40,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Coventry University |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 12/2020 |
| End | 06/2021 |
| Description | Catalyze 2 |
| Amount | £45,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Coventry University |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2022 |
| End | 03/2022 |
| Description | SOIL NEXUS - Building policy tools for water- and waste-based urban soil remediation. Funder: Future Earth (Pegasus 3 call) |
| Amount | $64,000 (USD) |
| Organisation | Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United States |
| Start | 12/2020 |
| End | 11/2022 |
| Description | 27 April 2022 - Invited lecture at the IMSDP International Module of Spatial Development Planning, University of Leuven (KU Leuven), titled "Agroecological urbanism". |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | I was invited to give a lecture to an international group of PhD students enrolled in the International Module of Spatial Development Planning (IMSDP), University of Leuven (KU Leuven). The lecture largely focussed on the merging results of the Urbanising in Place project, and in particular the conceptualisation of an agroecological urbanism. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://onderwijsaanbod.kuleuven.be/opleidingen/e/CQ_51671701.htm#activetab=diploma_omschrijving |
| Description | 30th Dec 2022 - Panelist at the Conferencia ANPEI, Campinas, Brazil |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | As part of a delegation organised by our funders, JPI Urban Europe/ DUT, I was invited to present the results of our Urbanising in Place project at a business innovation conference in Campinas, Brazil, in December 2022. The title of our session was: "Urban Living Labs and co-creative approaches: experimenting for sustainable urban futures in Brazil and Europe". The panelists were: - myself, - Margit Noll, CEO of Driving Urban Transitions (Vienna, Austria) - Anamaria Vrabie, Urban Insights Center- Urban INC (Bucharest, Romania) - Leonardo Brawl Márquez, TransLabUrb (Porto Alegre, Brazil) The moderator was Johannes Riegler, a member of the Management Board Driving Urban Transitions Partnership (DUT) / JPI Urban Europe. The event was also attended by international (Brazilian) funding agencies, consuls, and several international organisations working with Brazilian businesses. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://anpei.org.br/conferencia-2022/programacao-2022-dia-1/ |
| Description | A future New European Bauhaus will teach design for an agroecological urbanism |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Chiara Tornaghi was a speaker at "Towards a Bauhaus School Europe. Workshops for the Whole Earth" conference, organised by the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation. Workshop 5: Botanizing on the asphalt Saturday, 5 June 2021 - 4:00 p.m. Movements and initiatives on urban agriculture, gardening and self-help-oriented settlement characterize the big metropolises. They tie in with settler schools and life reform movements, land reform and cooperative projects that accompanied modern urban development. In light of the climate crisis, questions of how to deal with land as a scarce and threatened commodity for the common good have taken centre stage. In urban workshops, activists shape an approach of post-disciplinary urban design whose engagement comes closer to that of foresters, gardeners, landscape architects and understands planning as care and cultivation of the soil. Host: Friedrich von Borries (Germany) Speakers: Laura Forlano, sociologist, design researcher & lecturer (USA) Julia Lohmann, researcher, designer & lecturer (Finland) Bernhard König, member of the Breathe Earth Collective (Austria) Jack Campbell Clause, Design Director KDI - Kounkuey Design Initiative (Kenia) Chiara Tornaghi, sociologist & human geographer (UK) Seth Denizen, researcher & design practitioner (USA) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.bauhaus-dessau.de/en/workshops-for-the-whole-earth.html |
| Description | AGORA workshop JPI Urban Europe |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Manten Devriendt (From the project partner Sampling, Riga, Latvia) joined the JPI Urban Europe AGORA workshop hosted by the Latvian Ministry of Education, titled "Unfolding dilemmas in urban public space development and maintenance: Consequences for policy and research and innovation". where he had inspiring discussions and exchanging with peers from all over Europe (plus Canada). The key messages identified in the event will be worked out in a policy document by the JPI team in collaboration with the participants of the workshop. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://jpi-urbaneurope.eu/event-calendar/agora-thematic-dialogue-2019/ |
| Description | AWB Walkshops - READY FOR THE GREAT TRANSFORMATION OF OUR LIVING ENVIRONMENT? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The Brussels team of Urbanising in Place (AWB) organised a series of walking workshops aimed at policy makers/civil servants, titled "Ready for the great transformation of our living environment?". The 'walkshops' aimed to sensitise participants to the possiblities of transformation across the key 8 building blocks of an Agroecological Urbanism. This is the text of the call. Our future will be radically different. The shift from fossil to renewable energy, the transition to a sustainable food and mobility system, a circular economy, a caring living environment, and inclusive labour market will be felt in the very heart of our districts, our neighbourhoods, our homes and our streets. We can no longer separate one task from the other. Adapting our (social and spatial) environment is of crucial importance. We are already experimenting with all kinds of alternatives that strive for a solution to these transition issues. By connecting and disseminating the strength of the initiative, power of innovation and the implementation of very diverse experiments and initiatives in Brussels in the form of walks, we are trying to make the potential of our immediate living environment more visible. We are in the middle of a social movement, the emerging buds of which are already visible. We want to grasp, support and accelerate them, but above all, we want to make them perceptible and accessible by weaving routes between them. We find that reflecting on the city from behind the drawing board offers little guarantee of success. In urban development research, it is very important to know and understand what is already available. The most sustainable city is not one that still needs to be built, but one that already exists. Programme As part of Archiweek (10-17 Oct) Wednesday 13/10 - 14h-17h An energy transition for everyone - Noordwijk Brussels (FR + NL) Guided by Hanne Mangelschots (AWB) (NL) and Roeland Dudal (AWB) (FR) Thursday 14/10 - 14h-17h Towards more Foodland - Neerpede (Anderlecht) (FR + NL) Guided by Bram Vandemoortel (AWB) (NL) and Lene De Vrieze (AWB) (FR) Saturday 16/10 - 14h-18h Building Blocks for Future Places - Noordwijk-Kanaalzone Brussels (alternating NL / FR) Guided by Roeland Dudal (AWB) Sunday 17/10 - 14h-17h30 Themed walk on Future places - Noordwijk Brussels (NL) Guided by BrukselBinnensteBuiten |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.architectureworkroom.eu/en/news/4572/ready-for-the-great-transformation-of-our-living-en... |
| Description | Agroecological ambitions in the new Brussels Capital Region's Government Agreement |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Based on the experiences at the International Intervisioning Meeting in Rosario, the Brussels team has been discussing with local actors the possibilities of a Centre for Agroecology for Brussels. Some of the collective infrastructure that is being set-up by the Centre in Rosario is in Brussels taken-up by grassroot movements, in particular also within the project of BoerenBruxselPaysans. Together with the Brussels Environment Agency, Architecture Workroom Brussels has organised a workshop with a broad scope of actors from civil society, grassroot movements, government, academics on what a Centre for Agroecology could mean in Brussels. Read the Brussels Capital Region Government agreement: https://assets.bruzz.be/2019-07/BHG_20190718_NL_0.pdf The event/ workshop organised by the Brussels team to support the implantation of the 'Centre for Agroecology' in Brussels was the first time that the two main movements depicted in the Brussels research hypothesis, the residualised mixed farmers of the Pajottenland and the new urban farmers, met each other around the question of Agroecology. After an introductory presentation, three parallel tables focused on: (1) Communities of Practice, (2) an Agroecological Programme and (3) the Zavelenberg-Hoogsteyns site in Ganshoren - Koekelberg. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://urbanisinginplace.org/workshop-towards-a-brussels-center-for-agroecology/ |
| Description | Agroecology as Public Policy - Resourcing Agroecological Food Policies |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | This was the first of a series webinars seeking to bring sustainable food planning and political agroecology into conversation. Topic: There is a growing attention for agroecology in debates around urban food strategies and policies. Already for several years this is considered a promising policy area, and agroecology was even already mentioned in the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact signed in 2016 as one of the relevant approaches within policies for food production in and around cities. There is, however, little experience and practice on how to operationalise such agroecological policies. What are the reasons and bottlenecks for this? And what are possible strategies to move forward with agroecological urban food policies? In this seminar we opened up the floor to discuss these questions, and also learn from experiences that have pioneered agroecology as a public policy. Moderator: Henk Renting (Aeres University) Panelists: - Antonio Lattuca and Raul Terrille (resp. coordinator Urban Agriculture programma and coordinator Food Programme of Municipality of Rosario and Coordinator Green Belt project Rosario, Argentina) - Daniel López-García (Network of Cities for Agroecology, Spain) - Andrea Calori (EStà - Economia e sostenibilità, Milan, Italy) - Jan Pille (City of Brussels, Department of Environment, coordinator for development of the Centre for Urban Agroecology, Brussels, Belgium) - Maddy Longhurst (coordinator of The Urban Agriculture Consortium, United Kingdom) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | http://urbanisinginplace.org/webinars/ |
| Description | Article in Farmers Association Newsletter about Hand Vandermaelen thesis |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Newsletter February 2023 of Landwijzer (NGO engaged in farmer to farmer training for Agroecological Farmers, Flanders) 'Hans Vandermaelen stelt doctoraat voor in teken van stedenbouw & agro-ecologie' A summary of key points emerged from the public defence of Hans Vandermaelen PhD thesis. Link: https://www.landwijzer.be/doctoraat-hans-vandermaelen |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.landwijzer.be/doctoraat-hans-vandermaelen |
| Description | Article in Latvian magazine 'Biologiski' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Opinion piece by Liene Jakobsone and Manten Devriendt published in magazine 'Biologiski', issued by the Latvian Organic Farming Association. It introduces the research to a broader audience and suggests opportunities for agroecologically driven urban transformations in the context of Riga. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | http://urbanisinginplace.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Agroekopilseta_22-23.pdf |
| Description | Article in newspaper journal De Tijd based on Hans Vandermaelen PhD thesis - Feb 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | An article by Pieter Lambrecht, titled "OCMW's zetten landbouwgrond in de uitverkoop" [PCSW's are selling off farmland] based on the doctoral research of Hans Vandermaelen, in the leading Flemish economic newspaper De Tijd. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.tijd.be/politiek-economie/belgie/vlaanderen/ocmw-s-zetten-landbouwgrond-in-de-uitverkoop... |
| Description | Briefing 'Fringe Farming in London' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Following a workshop event in February 2020 Sustain and Shared Assets produced a short briefing report investigating existing farm productivity in London's Green Belt land, identifies data gaps, structural barriers, current opportunities and steps that should be taken to allow this vision to take place. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.sustainweb.org/publications/Fringe-Farming-Breifing-Aug2020/?section=# |
| Description | Building Farmers' Capacity in the Context of Urbanisation: political pedagogies for urban agroecology |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Farmer-to-farmer learning is a pillar of the food sovereignty and agroecology movements, enabling territorially-specific learning and alliance-building to support farmers' livelihoods and broader socio-political transformations. Most accounts of experiences in this field are based on rural contexts and rural farm models. However, the broadening food sovereignty and agroecology movement is also reaching out to urban and peri-urban farmers, some of whom were once rural and found themselves absorbed by expanding urbanisation. Their livelihoods are affected by specific problems of neoliberal urbanisation: speculative land markets and gentrification impacting access to land and housing; erosion, pollution, and destruction of living soils; degradation of riverways; fragmentation of farmland and progressive farmers' isolation from solidarity networks of proximity; lack of farming infrastructure; ongoing deskilling and producers-consumer's separation. In this workshop, the organisers would like to hear from farmers and farmers' movements of any political and practical training, strategising and learning initiatives that they have/are developing, to address these specific 'urban' challenges. This session aims to contribute to the co-creation of a 'toolbox' of strategies for shaping a political urban agroecology. The organisers will begin the session sharing some experiences drawn from the www.urbanisinginplace.org project. Participants are encouraged to prepare a 5-10 minute account of their experience. This session will be of interest to farmers and activists engaged in farmer training and in the support and empowerment of peri-urban and urban agroecological farmers. After the workshop, the organisers and some participants have been put together the notes and are currently working to produce a publication |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://orfc.org.uk/session/building-farmers-capacity-in-the-context-of-urbanisation-political-pedag... |
| Description | COP26 Glasgow |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Raul Terrile, member of the Rosario team, participated to the lecture series organised by RUAF Global Alliance (also partner in the project), within the context of the COP26 event, Glasgow, 3rd November 2021. Presentation title: CONTRIBUTION OF URBAN AND PERI-URBAN AGRICULTURE TO RESILIENCE IN ROSARIO. Speakers: Mg Agronomical Eng Raúl Terrile and Environmental Eng Daniela Mastrángelo |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://ruaf.org/news/from-barcelona-to-glasgow-ruaf-addresses-climate-resilience-at-mufpp-and-cop26... |
| Description | Capital Growth/Sustain webinar "Agroecology in urban gardens" - Why need an agroecological urbanism |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Sustain, the Alliance for Better Food and Farming, has organised a webinar on the 15th of March 2022 for the public launch of the "Good to grow" event (22-25 April 2022). The webinar was focussed on "The role of agroecology in urban community gardens". I (Chiara Tornaghi) was invited to illustrate agroecological principles in urban contexts, explicitly building on the results of the Urbanising in Place project. My talk was focussed on why we can't simply bring agroecology into the city, without radically changing the way cities work, claiming that to build an urban agroecology, we need an agroecological urbanism. The presentation illustrated areas for immediate action, as well as areas that require further politicisation and articulation of appropriate policies for the advancement of agroecological practices, particularly around the protection of soils and the circularity of organic wastes. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://twitter.com/RootsToWork/status/1503423211823796226/photo/1 |
| Description | Conference food production and food sovereignty by Casa Patria Rosario |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Antonio Lattuca (Municipality of Rosario, and project partner) talked about the urgent need for change in the way food is produced, and shared his interest and the multiple advantages of an agroecological perspective, used in shaping the Urban Agriculture Program of Rosario. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_dtIsJS3_Q |
| Description | Debate Krookcafe, Gent (15 March 2023) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Debate Krookcafe, Gent Title: "De rol van stadslandbouw richting een eerlijke wereld" [The role of urban agriculture on the way to a fair world] Date: March 15th, 2023 Hans Vandermaelen, moderator participation of: Barbara Van Dyck (CAWR, Coventry), Kurt Sannen (farmer), Tine Heyse (Alderwoman of City of Ghent) Link: https://heerlijkverbeeld.be/editie/landbouw/ |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.masereelfonds.be/activiteiten/heerlijk-verbeeld-5-de-rol-van-stadslandbouw-richting-een-... |
| Description | Debate on public land as crucial instrument for urban food policy |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Catherine Fierens and Hans Vandermaelen participated in a debate in the city of Ghent about the importance of public land positions for the implementation of a distinctive urban food policy. The debate was organized by Apache, a Belgian news platform, in response to a growing opposition from local actors, including agroecological food producers, against the large-scale sale of public agricultural land. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://vimeo.com/368311814 |
| Description | Design Talks: Food |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Liene Jakobsone, researcher at the Art Academy of Latvia, gave a presentation in a series of talks held at the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design, Riga, Latvia. The talk focussed on the relationship between food and the city, and moderated a discussion on food and design. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Independent media report on Hans Vandermaelen PhD thesis |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Steven Vanden Bussche, Publieke grond is onderbenutte motor voor landbouwtransitie [public land is an underutilised engine for the agricultural transition], Apache (independent online newspaper) February 6th, 2023 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.apache.be/2023/02/06/publieke-grond-onderbenutte-motor-voor-landbouwtransitie?cdlnk=VmxQ... |
| Description | Interview for local news platform Rosario Noticias |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The international attention for Rosario's agroecological policy has not escaped the attention of the local press in Rosario. 'Rosario Noticias' interviewed Antonio Lattuca and Raúl Terrile about their participation in the intervisioning workshop in London in September 2019 (see below). They testify about the great international appreciation, both from a political and academic perspective, for over 20 years of pioneering work in Rosario. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.rosarionoticias.gob.ar/page/noticias/id/229353/title/La-Agricultura-Urbana-y-el-Cinturón... |
| Description | Interview to Hans Vandermaelen in the website "De Landgenoten" (Belgium) ahead of his PhD public defence |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | 'DE RELATIE TUSSEN VERSTEDELIJKING EN VOEDSELPRODUCTIE IS IN VEEL OPZICHTEN ONHOUDBAAR' [the relation between urbanisation and food production is not tenable'] Interview with Hans Vandermaelen - website "De Landgenoten" (Flemish NGO working on access to land for Agroecological Farmers) Date published: 01.03.2023 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.delandgenoten.be/nieuws/de-relatie-tussen-verstedelijking-en-voedselproductie-veel-opzic... |
| Description | Intervisioning Meeting Brussels - online edition |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | Though the Covid-19 pandemic prevented the Brussels intervisioning workshop (planned over 5 days in March 2020), the consortium met through an online three-day workshop focusing on the concept of an agroecological urbanism. The Brussels team is hoping to be able to reschedule the planned workshops, debates and field trips to the exemplary practices of the Flemish mixed farm movement and the Brussels urban new farmers community. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Lecture on soil fertility for Belgian open space platform |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Hans Vandermaelen gave a short presentation for the Flemish open space movement at the 'Open Space Platform XL' event. In his petcha kucha lecture 'we grow nutrients' he presented ideas for action-oriented policy around the theme of ecological soil fertility. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCZMLUWh2uA |
| Description | ORFC session "Scaling Up Peri-Urban Agroecology: Future Strategies, Policy and Practice" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Urbanising in Place team members (Chiara Tornaghi, Rob Logan and Mark Walton) collaborated with the Fringe Farming and Rootz into Food Growing projects to deliver a session on peri-urban agroecology at the (online) Oxford Real Farming Conference 2022. Findings from the Urbanising in Place research were shared in a session that developed strategy, policy and practice for scaling up agroecological food systems in and around cities. Conference session abstract and programme: The edges of cities offer a dynamic and strategic opportunity to scale out agroecology. Agroecology offers an alternative to destructive urbanisation creeping into peri-urban areas; highlighted through unaffordable housing developments, sanitised green belts, and the loss of valuable soils. Instead, agroecological market gardens can be part of strengthening community wealth and regional economies through the production of multiple public goods and be connective places between rural and urban communities. This workshop brings together three peri-urban projects to share learnings from their recent work: 'Urbanising in Place', 'Rootz into Food Growing' and 'Fringe Farming'. Speakers will highlight recommendations for policy and practice in relation to access to land, access to finance, skills and training underpinned with agroecological values of equity and racial justice. The workshop will make space for participant dialogues to develop strategies and next steps to take forward a vision of holistic, farmer-led, and socially just farming in peri urban areas. Speakers: - Chiara Tornaghi(Speaker)Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University, Associate Professor in Urban Food Sovereignty and Resilience - Mark Walton(Speaker)Shared Assets, Director - Pauline Shakespeare(Speaker)Ubele Initiative - Rob Logan(Speaker)Sustain / Urbanising in Place, Project officer / Action researcher |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUvq1LOX-3s |
| Description | Online interview "Health crisis and Agroecology" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Discussion on food quality linked to production and development models and ways to reverse the current situation. Raúl Terrile presented the experience of the city of Rosario linked to food systems, local food produced by urban agriculture and the peri-urban green belt. The contributions of the Urbanising in Place Project to strengthen this agro-ecological-based project were discussed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DC0vbAd7yo&t=21s |
| Description | Open letter and interview on food security in Belgian newspapers |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Facing the historical crisis of the Coronavirus pandemic, let us organize our food security!' is an open letter and petition launched by a group of academics and experts in the fields of agriculture and climate. Architecture Workroom Brussels played a role in bridging the initiative coming from the French speaking community of Belgium with the Flemish community and was asked to contribute to the article 'And suddenly, the local farmer comes in to play' in newspaper De Standaard. Link to the open letter: https://www.demorgen.be/cs-b508f3c1 Link to newspaper interview: https://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20200501_04941811 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20200501_04941811 |
| Description | Post Corona Talk on the urban food issue |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Hans Vandermaelen gave a key lecture on the impact of covid19 on the urban food issue in a post corona session on food, organised by the Flemish association of spatial planners. The information from this presentation was used by VRP as a basis for formulating policy recommendations for recovery from COVID-19. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://youtu.be/nmUi7JF20MA |
| Description | Presentation at AESOP conference agroecological transitions and food planning |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The UIP research team was represented at the AESOP food planning conference 'Agroecological transitions confronting climate breakdown: Food planning for the postcarbon city' in Madrid. Hans Vandermaelen, Chiara Tornaghi and Michiel Dehaene gave a presentation about how to embed agroecology's soil care principle in an urbanised society. We exchanged experiences on how a strong involvement in the agroecological community can help to accurately identify pathways for an agroecological urbanism. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://aesopsfp.wordpress.com/2019/11/06/aesop-sfp-madrid19-final-program/ |
| Description | Presentation at UN Habitat "World Urban Forum #11 - 28 June 2022, Katowice, Poland" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The results of the Urbanising in Place project were presented in a session organised by JPI Urban Europe, titled: "Ensuring equitable and inclusive urban transformations leaving nobody behind: the role of science-policy- society cooperation". The aim of the session was to illustrate emerging innovations in a selection of JPI-funded research projects, and inspire policy makers and future funders. The abstract of the session was the following: "Research and innovation projects can provide a platform to tap upon the transformative potential and local knowledge of civil society actors and urban stakeholders to drive change towards sustainable and livable urban futures. The relevance of research and innovation actors, as well as NGOs and civil society (organisations) to achieve the goals of global and European strategies and frameworks, lies not only in creating new (technological) solutions, but also in creating capacities and co-creation of processes to implement these in full scale. This session will discuss the need for new forms of cooperation in the fields of new governance models, public sector innovation, social, socio-economic and socio-technical innovations to ensure substantial transformations fostering the active participation of all groups of society, including the elderly, children, disadvantaged and marginalised groups". The session resulted in organisations getting in touch with me to explore potential development of joint research projects. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://wuf.unhabitat.org/event/ensuring-equitable-and-inclusive-urban-transformations-leaving-nobod... |
| Description | Presentation of the Urbanising in Place project and roundtable with local authorities in Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | This was the opening event of the II international workshop (Intervisioning Rosario) of the Urbanising in Place research project. The event, which was held on the 6th of March 2019 in the Salon Norte of the National University of Rosario, presented the project to the local authorities and the university rector. Local press, postgraduate students and practitioners were present. The aim of the event was to sensitize the local policy makers -which are currently considering wiping away 20 years of groundbreaking policy for the promotion of urban agroecology - to the importance to protect their achievements in time of crisis, as they not only represent benchmarking at international level, but fundamental steps for sustainable, agroecological futures. The press conference was followed by a two hours roundtable with specific questions addressed to the different policy sectors (production, social economy, sustainability, etc.). Outcomes of the event include: - policy makers from a small town in the peri-urban area of Rosario expressed an interest in joining the programme; - the re-opening of dialogue between the local team of researchers and civil servants working on the urban agriculture programme in Rosario, and the local politicians. Further debates are about to be tabled by the local team. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.lacapital.com.ar/la-ciudad/rosario-vuelve-mostrar-su-experiencia-agricultura-urbana-n174... |
| Description | Roundtable on legal protection of soils |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The purpose of the workshop was to explore the potential for soil quality to inform planning and development decisions, and for protecting high quality soils in an urban / peri urban context. The discussions identified a lack of action in terms of public awareness raising or campaigning and as proposed to create a coalition to develop a public awareness campaign and / or support community action on soils that supplements / complements existing action on policy and knowledge development. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | http://urbanisinginplace.org/output-impact/ |
| Description | SUGI project video of Urbanising in Place |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | As part of the SUGI Midterm event in June 2020, short films were made of all the different SUGI projects. Via the links below, you can watch a short movie which offers an update on the Urbanising in Place project. this video is available to the public and the broader research community of JPI Urban Europe. Following the event, further networking has occurred. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiNayhWG3Ak&feature=youtu.be |
| Description | Seeing with the farmers: interrogating food policy from the perspective of the growers |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | This was the second of a series of webinars we organised in the Summer of 2021, titled: Conversations towards an Agroecological Urbanism. Focus: While peri-urban farmers de facto operate in complex urbanised landscapes they tend to not be seen as part of the urban constituencies that urban food policy plans are serving. How can cities meaningfully engage with farmers and systematically interrogate their food policy plans from an agroecological growers perspective? What collective investment strategies could be the result? Moderator: Michiel Dehaene (Ghent University) Panel: - Kees van Veluw (Lecturer Permaculture at Wageningen University and Advisor Agroforestry and Animal Production at Louis Bolk Institute, KWIN alternative data collection and monitoring of regenerative and nature inclusive food production) - Hans Vandermaelen (De Hongerige Stad - Movement of agroecological farmers and citizens against the sale of public farmland in Flanders, Belgium) - Marian Simon Rojo (Urban & Regional Planning Department, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid) - Alice Gillerot (Researcher roles of agricultural collectives in the agroecological transition of territories, France) - Lucie Sovova (Wageningen University and Research, the silent presence of self-growers) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | http://urbanisinginplace.org/webinars/ |
| Description | Sensitisation and outreach |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Raúl Terrile published an article on the Argentinian news platform "dos Ambientes", starting from the problems of the current food systems and moving towards the possibilities of agroecological alternatives. 20 years of experience in Rosario illustrates that it is possible to develop and scale up agroecological practices, and to increase access to healthy food. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://dosambientes.net/alimentos/la-agroecologia-una-alternativa-para-una-alimentacion-saludable/ |
| Description | Solidarity, care and the challenge of building an agroecological urbanism. The role of political pedagogies and community kitchens in bringing forward value shifts |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | This was the third and fourth of a series of webinars, as part of the "Conversations towards an Agroecological Urbanism" webinar series. Topic: Agroecology is rooted in a value system that includes principles of social justice, cultural sensitivity, ecological stewardship, more-than-human solidarity and care, that are territorially specific and built with communities in their particular geographies . Most research, knowledge and practice on building agroecological territorial food systems is based on rural areas. But how to bring forward agroecological value systems in an urban context saturated with strangers, and dominated by neoliberal capitalism,and contribute to building an agroecological urbanism based on care and solidarity? What kind of support and strategies could enable such a value shift and enable transformative practices to thrive in an urban context? This seminar is organised in three parts: part 1 (2nd July 2021) explores approaches, strategies, ideas and concepts that promote value shifts; part 2 (9th July) presents examples of solidarity and care at the intersection of agroecology and feminism, coming together during the Covid-19 crisis around community kitchens and begging to build an alternative urbanism; part 3 (9th July) is an open space for community kitchen activists to come together and inspire each other, by sharing their experience around agroecology, feminism, decolonial and political work. PART 1 ( DAY 1) Moderators: - Chiara Tornaghi (Coventry University) - Rob Logan (University of Sheffield) Panelists : - Deirdre (Dee) Woods (Granville Community Kitchen/ Land Workers Alliance/ London Food Board/ Land in our names/ Community Food Growers Network and more.) - Charisma S. Acey (Associate Professor of City and Regional Planning, Berkeley Food Institute, University of California) - Hari Byles (Compost Mentis, London) Commentators: - Jasber Singh (Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University) PART 2 (DAY 2) Moderators: - Belen Desmaison (she) (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú) - Chiara Tornaghi (she) (Coventry University) Panelists: - Lucas Barberis (he) (Coordinator of programa de comedores, Secretaria de desarrollo social, Municipalidad de Rosario, Argentina) - Abilia Ramos (she) (CENCA and community kitchen leader, Lima, Perù) - Alain Santandreu (he) (Mesa de Seguridad Alimentaria, community kitchens network in Lima, Perù) - Maite Rodriguez confirmed (she) (political activist and feminist based in Guatemala and director of Red Mujer y Hábitat de América Latina ) PART 3 (DAY 2) Moderators: - Lamis Jamil (Coventry University) - Chiara Tornaghi (Coventry University) Participants: More than 15 community kitchens practitioners working in the framework of feminism, and/or agroecology, and/or decolonial politics from around the world (including North and South America, Europe, Africa, Middle East and East Asia) have participated to introduce themselves and explore the scope and agenda for knowledge sharing within a global network of community kitchens at the interaction of feminism, agroecology, decoloniality and food commoning. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | http://urbanisinginplace.org/webinars/ |
| Description | Stakeholder meeting City Hall London |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | As part of the London Intervisioning meeting the London Food Board hosted a policy discussion at London's City Hall for project partners and local policymakers, to explore the potential for peri urban agroecological farming in the city and identify key stakeholders with an interest in engaging with the work of the project. As a result of the meeting initial discussions have been held with the Greater London Authority Green Infrastructure Lead about the potential for a review of the city's greenbelt strategy. We are also working with the London Food Board to hold a joint event to further explore how London can support agroecological farming. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://twitter.com/shared_assets/status/1177499723655049216 |
| Description | Sustainable Food Planning lecture series - Agroecological Urbanism |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Chiara Tornaghi and Michiel Dehaene took part in this open access seminar/lecture series organised by Le Notre Institute (NL). They gave two lectures: i) Agroecological Urbanism I: challenging the status quo of sustainable food planning. In this lecture, we would like to discuss the way in which an agroecological perspective is instructive to push the boundaries of sustainable food planning. ii) Agroecological Urbanism II: a programmatic agenda. In this second lecture we would like to construct a forward-looking agenda for agroecological urbanism, building on urban political ecology and feminist social reproduction informed critique of urbanism. The lectures form the first draft of a sustainable food planning course, that has been later been developed into a fully articulate one course through the Erasmus+ project "AESOP4FOOD". |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.landscape-portal.org/sustainable-food-planning-2021/#April_29_May_6_AGROECOLOGICAL_URBAN... |
| Description | Two talks at the "Jornadas Interprovinciales de Agricultura urbana y Periurbana"- Cordoba, Santa Fe (Argentina) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Laura Bracalenti and Raul Terrile (both from the Rosario team) gave two talks and presented the project results at the inter-province colloquiums organised by the city of Cordoba, in the province of Santa-Fe, Argentina. This is effectively a series of debates across different provinces (effectively 'states') organised over three week. The title of the presentation was Agroecological Urbanism and Resilience. The 2021 series of colloquiums took place between the 23rd September and the 7th October 2021, and had as central themes: local agro-food systems, public policies, territorial planning, technical-productive experiences, urban metabolism, resilient cities and urban agriculture. Laura and Raul presented in the "Urban metabolism, resilient cities and urban agriculture session: - "Urbanismo agroecológico y resiliencia: Proyecto Nexus Bruselas, Riga-Letonia, Londres, y Rosario-Argentina". Arq. Laura Bracalenti. Facultad de Arquitectura Planeamiento y Diseño UNR. - "Proyecto Parque Agrario Rosario como reserva de suelo urbano para producción de alimentos y turismo local". Ing. Agr. Raúl Terrile (MP: 2-0565). Comisión Agroecología Ciasfe2. Municipalidad Rosario. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.ciacordoba.org.ar/jornadas-de-agricultura-urbana-y-periurbana/ |
| Description | Webinar on Food Sovereignty and Sustainable Food production |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Henk Renting (Aeres University) and Michiel Dehaene (Gent University) participated in a webinar hosted by the Usina Social Rosario together with Marta Soler Montiel (Universidad de Sevilla, Spain) ad Mauro Casella (Former Secretary for Territorial Development, Province of Santa Fe, Argentina). Michiel explained the importance for our project of the long term work of the Municipality of Rosario on Agroecology. Henk reflected on challenges and opportunities for Urban Agroecology in times of COVID 19. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk3UYtq8bSU |
| Description | Webinario: Planeamiento urbanístico de sistemas alimentarios agroecológicos |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Chiara Tornaghi was invited to speak at the webinar organised by the Spanish Network of Agroecological Cities to talk about the idea and practice of an Agroecological Urbanism. Chiara's talk was built on both, her research experience on the food-disabling city and the preliminary results of the Urbanising in Place project. The event was in Spanish and specifically directed to policy makers and civil servants of municipalities in Spain and other Spanish speaking countries. Pre-edit link to YouTube recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YWpHORj3x0 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.ciudadesagroecologicas.eu/webinario-planeamiento-urbanistico-de-sistemas-alimentarios-ag... |
| Description | Workshop "Agroecological City" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | A local workshop, organised by Sampling and Art Academy of Latvia, aimed at involving local growing communities in discussion about diverse forms of agriculture in the city. Presentations by Liene Jakobsone, Manten Devriendt, Aleksandrs Feltins, Maris Narvils, Nora Gavare and Liga Lepse contextualised the issue from different perspectives. Workshop was followed by a lunch prepared by the renowned Latvian chef Juris Latišenoks, using self-grown products brougt by the participants. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.facebook.com/pg/urbanisinginplace/photos/?tab=album&album_id=890476514768523 |
| Description | Workshop "Agroecology, Food Sovereignty, and Urbanisation", September 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | In September 2022 I organised a workshop with farmers, farmers associations and third sector organisations engaged in agroecology and food sovereignty to share the results of the Urbanising in Place project and to understand to what extent they were already aware of the way in which processes of urbanisation impacted their work. The workshop was then the opportunity to understand how to catalyse shared interests and to explore how to co-create a future action-research project. As a result, I am now (March 2023) developing a funding application to resource the co-design of a larger research project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Workshop "Use of the Green Belt" hosted by the Greater London Authority |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The aim of the workshop was to bring together a number of key stakeholders to discuss and explore what ideas, policy changes and potential new mechanisms are in development or are emerging that would enable a step-change in positive use of the Green Belt in and around London. It was agreed to establish a Green Belt working group - hosted by the Greater London Authority to; ensure continued dialogue and sharing of ideas and information, develop a core set of principles that would help frame the positive use of the Green Belt, and develop a collective voice would be able to influence key decisions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Workshop on Soil Care with London practitioners |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Growers from projects across London came together to discuss their practices of soil care, nutrient cycling and waste management, the potential opportunities for collective soil care and barriers to this. The workshop helped provide more information on the soil care practices of London's growers, and narrow down some clear pathways for politicising this work by; raising the wider public's awareness about the importance of soils, putting knowledge back into the hands of growers around soil health, and working with councils/growers to direct more resources towards agroecological growing. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1234793365167890432.html |
| Description | World Planning Day - Flanders |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The Flanders edition of the 2021 World Urban Planning Day was dedicated to agriculture and farming and titled "Plough. Agriculture and spatial planning: a new team?". The Belgian teams of Urbanizing in Place team co-organized and contributed to three sessions of a conference for spatial planning policy makers, illustrating and disseminating a number of project results and outputs, including videoclips on soils and key building blocks on Agroecological Urbanism. session 2 (SOIL) - Presentation "Soil Oriented Development. the soil as a basis for choices" by Lene De Vrieze - AWB; session 3 (FOODSCAPES) - Presentation "Do not ask what the farmer can do for the city, ask what the city can do for the farmer" by Bram Vandemoortele - AWB; session 5 (Local farming strategies) - Presentation by Hans Vandermaelen- University of Ghent. Programme of World Urban Planning Day: https://www.vrp.be/activiteit/werelddag-van-de-stedenbouw-2021 News item on AWB website: https://www.architectureworkroom.eu/en/agenda#event-4645 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.vrp.be/wordsby/uploads/2021/11/Brochure-werelddag-2021_PLOEG.pdf |