Understanding the Role of Diverse Cities for Sustainable Food Security: A Socio-Ecological Governance Framework

Abstract

Amid urgent socio-ecological challenges – including persistent food insecurity and planetary health crises – cities are confronted with the mounting challenge of guaranteeing access to healthy and sustainable food for all (HLPE, 2024). Thousands of urban food initiatives, policies, and strategies have emerged in the last decade to incorporate food related concerns into urban agendas Yet, despite growing calls for integrated and de-siloed approaches, existing conceptual frameworks and practical approaches do not adequately account for the diversity urbanisation processes and related socio-ecological dynamics. Focusing on urban infrastructures and form, networked resource flows, socio-ecological dynamics, and governance dynamics as interconnected ‘layers’, this paper proposes a socio-ecological approach to urban food system governance which takes the complexity and diversity of urban contexts into serious account.