Food and the City

Course manual 2019/2020

Course content

Fashioning a sustainable food system is one of the most compelling challenges of the 21st Century.  Because of its multi-functional character, food is an ideal medium through which to design sustainable places, be they urban, rural or peri-urban places. 

Food may be construed as a socio-technical system that includes the way food is produced, processed, acquired, distributed, consumed as well as the way scraps are disposed of. Contemporary planners are challenged to develop design concepts and planning devices which can be applied in the process of moulding places for food related actions, and which can help pave a path towards more sustainable and healthy lifestyles. This course focuses in on advanced theories and concepts in the domain of sustainable food planning, planning for healthier lifestyles and management of healthier and more sustainable social practices.

The food system is shaped by everyday practices that are performed in specific places. As the world is rapidly urbanising, and more than half of the global population now lives in urban areas, the city is a particularly interesting place to study the food system. Cities are tightly bundled agglomerations of everyday practices, and are the stages on which more or less healthy and sustainable practices are repeatedly performed until they become normal everyday activities. Municipal policies, programs, and infrastructure influence practices, while activists, political leaders media and teachers shape our understanding of practices. By strategically influencing food practices, cities can potentially advance public health, improve the environment and economy, and ultimately transform the food system.

Lifestyle can denote interests, opinions, behaviours, and behavioural orientations of an individual, group, or culture. Lifestyle reflects an individual’s values and world view, including views on politics, religion, health, music, sexuality and food. Cities are hotbeds of lifestyle change. Lifestyles are reflected among other elements in the physical arrangement of a person’s or group’s environment. Food habits and convictions can be construed as part of a lifestyle such as conventional, locavore or ecological. When a large part of the population decides to change its lifestyle, including its eating habits, this can have a large impact on the food system. If its impact is large enough, it could even lead to a fundamental change in the system.

Study materials

Literature

• Cabannes, Y. & Marocchino, C. (eds.) (2018), Integrating Food into Urban Planning, Rome: FAO, see: http://www.fao.org/3/CA2260EN/ca2260en.pdf

  Cohen, Nevin & Rositsa T. Ilieva (2015), Transitioning the Food System: A Strategic Practice Management Approach for Cities, in: Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2015.01.003

Objectives

• The overall aim of the course is to explore alternative spatial arrangements as tools to support the transition towards a more sustainable food system and food practices. After successful completion of the course, students will be able to:
• Understand and analyse the manifold ways in which the city affects food networks, particularly at local and regional level, but also on a global level.
• Identify various spatial arrangements related to the food system.
• Explain the rationales for these arrangements and the underlying lifestyles and food practices.
• Analyse how contemporary planning approaches apply to the food domain and assess their impact on food provisioning, food choice and food behaviour.
• Develop a critical reflexive understanding of advanced governance and planning theories.

Teaching methods

• Lecture
• Seminar

Learning activities

Attendance

Programme's requirements concerning attendance (OER-B):

• In case of practical sessions, the student is obliged to attend at least of 90% of the sessions and to prepare himself adequately, unless indicated otherwise in the course manual. In case the student attends less than 90%, the practical sessions should be redone entirely.
• In case of tutorials/seminars with assignments, the student is obliged to attend at least 90% of the tutorials/seminars and to prepare himself adequately, unless indicated otherwise in the course manual. In case the student attends less than 90%, the course cannot be finished

Additional requirements for this course:

The student may be absent in 1 out of 4 seminars. Absence needs to be communicatie with your workgroup tutors Jaap Rothuizen or Mieke van Vemden.

Assessment

Assessment diagram

Students that were enrolled in the course in previous years

Not applicable.

Inspection of assessed work

Up to 20 working days after the announcement of the results students have the right of inspection of their work (all forms of assessment). You can request a copy of your work by e-mailing your work group teacher or the course coordinator.

The teachers of this course will provide a scoring form to all students. On an individual base, you can make an appointment with your work group teacher.

Assignments

In groups, students prepare a presentation of a particular chapter of the mandatory book. They give their presentation during the Work Group period in week 3, 5 and 7. The precise demands of the presentations will be specified during the first meetings.

The presentation will entail the main characteristics of a particular approach explained in a lecture and/or an accompanying chapter of the book by Cabannes and Marocchino c.s. The presentation touches benefits and flaws of the respective approaches. Close reading the book, preparing a presentation about one of the book chapters, reflecting on the presentations and active participation in the discussion will make an adequate preparation for the exam.

The exam will consist of five essay questions. 

Fraud and plagiarism

The 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' applies to this course. This will be monitored carefully. Upon suspicion of fraud or plagiarism the Examinations Board of the programme will be informed. For the 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' see: www.student.uva.nl

Course structure

Timetable

The schedule for this course is published on DataNose.

Additional information

In order to participate in the course, you have to enroll in time. Registration for courses is possible per semester. The registration period for courses in Block 1, 2 & 3 (first semester) will be from June 13th until June 25th. 

This course is open to elective students, though not to first year students. However, it should be realized that this course has a strong focus on social science. An elective student should have social scientific experience and/or interest (at least 30 EC in prior academic education, including some prior introduction into Spatial Planning). Therefore, interested candidates can only enroll after an assessment by the course coordinator. To apply as an elective or minor student, send a request of admission to fps-iis-science@uva.nl.

When you have registered for the course you are automatically registered for the examination of this course, too. You can only participate in a re-sit (or re-examination of assignments) when you have been registered and have met all requirements for the course (i.e. attendance requirements, active participation in work groups, handing in assignments before the indicated deadlines etc.).

Important information such as literature, sheets of the lectures, assignments and unforeseen changes in the schedule will be communicated via Canvas. Lectures will also be recorded.

The links will be made available on Canvas.

Last year's course evaluation

In order to provide students some insight how we use the feedback of student evaluations to enhance the quality of education, we decided to include the table below in all course guides.

Contact information

Coordinator

• dr. A.J.J. van der Valk

Lecturer: prof. dr. Arnold van der Valk

Coordinating teacher: Jaap Rothuizen Msc   j.v.rothuizen@uva.nl

Workgroup teacher: Mieke van Vemden   m.s.vanvamden@uva.nl