Cultivating the city: An inquiry into the socio-spatial production of local food

• Author / Creator

  Granzow, Michael

• Once considered out of place in cities, urban agriculture is an increasingly common practice. This dissertation considers questions of urban agriculture and local food through a “production of space” lens. This framing allows for an expanded empiricism, opening up the investigation of urban agriculture to include a consideration of spatial practices, lived experiences, and varied representations. In addition to theorizing urban agriculture through a production of space lens, this dissertation draws on multiple qualitative methods, including interviews, participant observations, and self-ethnography, to develop and contribute to a socio-spatial mapping of local food space in Edmonton. Through these methods, this dissertation contributes to a better understanding of the complex processes and diverse meanings involved in the production of urban agriculture space. Rather than focusing on a singular site of urban agriculture, I consider its production at various scales, from urban farm to city-region, examining the particulars of each case and the relationships between them through theoretical discussion. The dissertation concludes by introducing the concept of the urban agriculture imaginary, emphasising the ways in which urban agriculture exists as a symbolic landscape – a set of widely circulated representations and ideas about the practice that recasts the city in different ways.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • community gardening
  • local food
  • production of space
  • urban agriculture
  • sociology

• Graduation date

  Fall 2020

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Doctor of Philosophy

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-3069-x854

• License

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