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Smart cities are known for their top-down focus on technology. This paper argues that emergent aspects of food policy in the UK can be understood as a social movement, which sustains development by way of bottom-up, horizontal networks of urban groups, and business associations. It suggests that as platforms of food provision, such on-line food networks offer a counter-point to top-down smart city development predicated on high-tech infrastructure. Such complex arrangements demonstrate how the city needs to be understood as a networked field of action, not simply an administratively bounded construction. Within the field of action movements emerge, whose activism is successful in influencing policymaking, and in shaping the municipal strategies assembled to build the regional structure of food provision. The caveat this paper highlights is that, although successful in influencing policy and municipal strategies, the activism of these movements has not been as effective as might have been anticipated from such a democratic impulse. This lack reflects the limited power of cities in the UK over the structure of food provision, but also the troubled extension of public participation into a territory marked by corporate and agricultural policy. The paper bases its claims about the nature of urban food policies in cities on a case study of networks in Bristol, including interviews with key activists, analysis social media networks and documents. The evidence supports claims that urban food developments represent a form of social movement, whose activism is democratic in its attempts to be both sustainable and inclusive.

AbstractIn this article the bricolage concept is applied to compare the organisational dynamics of two alternative food networks (AFNs) in Riga and Bristol respectively. It is argued that bricolage is a useful concept to understand the dynamics of AFNs. The concept 'bricolage' refers to the free use of any materials at hand. Bricoleurs accept that these materials might not be ideal, but nevertheless use them as long as they offer characteristics that help to reach the AFN goals (which, for the AFNs featured in this article, are establishing a functioning farmers' market, and founding a market garden). Such use of 'what fits' and 'what's at hand' may lead to new and unexpected ways how these initiatives operate. The article argues that bricolage is a liberating concept in the organisational study of AFNs because it frames them as characteristically dynamic and constantly active in relation to changes in local contexts. Bricolage thus helps determine the nature of AFN dynamism.

The German city of Bamberg offers lessons in how continuity and change interact within the context of the inner-urban land use of commercial horticulture, thereby informing sustainable urban transformations in historic cities. The case of Bamberg shows that urban food production is not just well-established, but a consistent and centuries-old cultural structure that influences the fabric of today's city. In this article, we discuss what forms of urban horticulture (and thus also food production) are evident from Bamberg's past and which may prevail in the future. Two questions structure our analysis. First, how are historical sites and spatial structures of horticulture shaped in the tension between continuity and change? Second, which practices/forms of urban horticulture are taken up and how are they updated by which actors? Both the heritage and contemporary practices of urban horticulture, it is argued, can be conceived of as a resource to create sustainable places and ways of life for citizens. Two new contributions result from this work. First, the article highlights the ongoing cultural heritage dimensions of urban horticulture in a field still dominated by eco-technical contributions associated with post-industrial innovation in urban planning; in this respect, heritage should be recognised as a dynamic that shapes urban change. In addition, secondly, the application of Luhmannian concepts of evolution in social systems reinforces the interdependence of continuity and change in urban settings.

This paper focusses on the phenomenon of multifunctional urban food initiatives (MUFIs) and how, using food as a vehicle, they provide integrative solutions for a number of social, environmental and economic problems in European cities. Through an in-depth investigation of three MUFIs in the UK, Latvia and Belgium, the paper aims to increase understanding on how different activities are combined within MUFIs, leading to the creation and strengthening of synergies: both internal, between the different activities performed within MUFIs, and external synergies between the MUFI and the (peri-) urban environment in which it operates. The three cases illustrate that the dense and complex urban environment in which they are situated provides possibilities to create a wide, diverse network around food, leading to a high potential for synergies to occur. In this way, MUFIs can respond to specific urban needs, which are not addressed by the state, and therefore have an important signalling function. For the MUFIs themselves, although being multifunctional increases opportunities, it is also a challenge to find the right balance between the different functions and not to lose sight of the economic side of the business. Local governments can support MUFIs by providing space for them, room to experiment, adapting regulations to get MUFIs out of the "grey zones" of legislation, and by starting to strategically think about food in their city region.

This article focuses on the question of how a shift from a narrow economic perspective to a wider sustainable wellbeing focus in regional development strategies and actions might change rural–urban relations. A brief review of relevant research and discourses about economic development models provides the foundation for the analysis. The review leads to the development of an analytical framework that puts the notion of sustainable wellbeing at its center. The criteria included in the analytical framework are then used to assess the current situation, challenges and perceived ways forward based on data and analyses from 11 European regions. The focus of the analysis is on different expressions of a sustainable wellbeing economy, and aspects of territorial development that are consistent with the basic features of a wellbeing economy are identified. Development dynamics and tensions between different development goals and resource uses, strategies and actions that are in favor of sustainable wellbeing goals, and conditions for more mutually beneficial rural–urban relationships are discussed. The article concludes with the implications for local government, and governance and policy frameworks. Reference is made to current high-level strategic policy frameworks and the European Green Deal.

This article focuses on the question of how a shift from a narrow economic perspective to a wider sustainable wellbeing focus in regional development strategies and actions might change rural–urban relations. A brief review of relevant research and discourses about economic develop-ment models provides the foundation for the analysis. The review leads to the development of an analytical framework that puts the notion of sustainable wellbeing at its center. The criteria included in the analytical framework are then used to assess the current situation, challenges and perceived ways forward based on data and analyses from 11 European regions. The focus of the analysis is on different expressions of a sustainable wellbeing economy, and aspects of territorial development that are consistent with the basic features of a wellbeing economy are identified. Development dy-namics and tensions between different development goals and resource uses, strategies and actions that are in favor of sustainable wellbeing goals, and conditions for a more mutually beneficial rural–urban relationship are discussed. The article concludes with the implications for local government, and governance and policy frameworks. Reference is made to current high-level strategic policy frameworks and the European Green Deal.

This article focuses on the question of how a shift from a narrow economic perspective to a wider sustainable wellbeing focus in regional development strategies and actions might change rural-urban relations. A brief review of relevant research and discourses about economic development models provides the foundation for the analysis. The review leads to the development of an analytical framework that puts the notion of sustainable wellbeing at its center. The criteria included in the analytical framework are then used to assess the current situation, challenges and perceived ways forward based on data and analyses from 11 European regions. The focus of the analysis is on different expressions of a sustainable wellbeing economy, and aspects of territorial development that are consistent with the basic features of a wellbeing economy are identified. Development dynamics and tensions between different development goals and resource uses, strategies and actions that are in favor of sustainable wellbeing goals, and conditions for more mutually beneficial rural-urban relationships are discussed. The article concludes with the implications for local government, and governance and policy frameworks. Reference is made to current high-level strategic policy frameworks and the European Green Deal. ; Peer reviewed