Geographies of capital formation and rescaling: A historical‐geographical approach to the food desert problem

Although the “food desert” concept has captured the public imagination and spurred public policy efforts in many North American cities, the term has been critiqued by academics for being definitionally and methodologically vague, and for providing an incomplete picture of the complexity of food access. Rather than dismiss the study of urban, inner‐city food deserts, however, scholars can study disparities in retail food access through a historical, critical political economy lens to understand underserved retail landscapes as a product of capital formation and rescaling over time. The purpose of this article is to conduct such an analysis, using the case study of a low‐income community in Kingston, Ontario. Using historical research and qualitative interviews, the major finding of this analysis is that the physical accessibility of retail food appears to have declined over time in relation to the capitalization of the retail food sector. An imperfect relationship can be outlined over three phases of Canadian urban economic history to suggest that the food desert problem emerged largely in the transition from a decentralized, small‐scale, and neighbourhood‐embedded retail food industry to the scaled‐up, disembedded industry that now dominates the landscape. This industry‐level rescaling is contributing to a new urban politics of class and consumption through subtle, everyday activities such as food shopping.     

The many faces of food security

Food insecurity occurs when people do not have secure access to food necessary for a healthy life. The food‐insecure are typically the poor, and the traditional focus of food insecurity thinking has been the global poor. Increasingly, it is being recognized that in the rich world, food insecurity manifests itself in calorie‐rich but nutrient‐poor diets, leading to the linkage between poverty, obesity and its associated health problems. Furthermore, the historical link between income and diets, when projected forwards, shows a growth in demand that would be extremely challenging to meet with sustainable production. This is especially true given that emissions from the food system are significant contributors to climate change, perhaps more so than any other sector; and yet, probably less than half the world's calories are used directly for healthy diets (over half of agricultural production is lost or wasted, fed to animals or consumed in excess of healthy requirements). This review article, of a suite of four books, covers the way the food security argument is framed and how this is changing, food politics and justice and why our food system is as it is. The overall conclusion is that our food system is placing unsustainable demands on the planet, as well as creating injustice and inequity. The ‘productivist paradigm’ of growing ‘ever more, ever more cheaply’ while relying on international commodity trade and markets to solve the distributional issues, is unlikely to create a sustainable, just and food‐secure world.     

Women's and Men's Work: The Production and Marketing of Fresh Food and Export Crops in Papua New Guinea

Fresh food markets have been a fixture of the social and economic landscape of urban and rural PNG since colonial times. They were often the first points of engagement with the market economy, especially for women, who as small‐scale producers, sold surplus produce from their food gardens located on communally‐owned land. Although local food markets have remained an important livelihood for women, the later adoption and expansion of perennial export cash crops like coffee and cocoa overshadowed food production for local markets as men dominated export crop production on land alienated from communal ownership for decades or permanently. New forms of social relations of production and more exclusive forms of land tenure emerged to accommodate export crop production that were very different from those governing the production and marketing of fresh food. Market values and a trend towards individualisation of production with less capacity to mobilise labour through reciprocal labour exchange networks have characterised export crop production. With the income benefits captured largely by men, women began redirecting their labour to fresh food production where they were able to exercise more control of production and income while still mobilising labour through indigenous labour exchange arrangements. Attempts by men to appropriate the income of women and sons’ labour in export cropping were greater during flush periods when income levels were high, and they were less likely to attempt to appropriate this income in low crop periods when incomes were lower. However, with the recent emergence of female entrepreneurers earning relatively large sums of money in large‐scale, profit‐driven vegetable production, the moral frameworks governing food production are coming to resemble those governing export crops, and making labour more difficult to mobilise. Despite women being key players in these changes, we argue there is an emerging risk that men will attempt to assert control over this income or move into vegetable production themselves and possibly marginalise women in the process.     

Radical Urban Horticulture for Food Autonomy: Beyond the Community Gardens Experience

For those who are interested in radical changes, it is important to analyze the forms of resistance that promote self‐managed practices, also at apparently very small scale. In Italy the experience of “community gardens” is usually named “orti urbani”. In the last 10 years, the occupation of abandoned urban spaces to set up orti urbani has increased within the squatting movement. The case of the city of Rome is interesting because there has been a widespread activity to organize self‐managed spaces to grow fruit and vegetable plants. These initiatives make up not only potential spaces of dense social networking, political action and discussion on environmental issues, but also supporting large food autonomous configurations such as Genuino Clandestino, that are challenging dominant food production. A proliferation of orti urbani located in Social Centers, squatted houses or other abandoned spaces represents a scalar strategy to re‐appropriate and commune urban space.     

Knowledge production and border nationalism in northern Mexico

ABSTRACT. This article examines the transformations in the cultural sphere of Tijuana, one of Mexico's largest and fastest growing cities, in order to emphasise the border as a crucial site of nation‐building in northern Mexico. I propose that cultural and intellectual actors, through particular sites, are changing the way the city is positioned in relation to the national political space of Mexico. Two institutions are considered specifically, both of which are integral to the propagation of an array of representations of Tijuana. In looking to articulations of nationhood and practices of knowledge production, this article delineates how urban identities reclaim and reconfigure key aspects of national identity in a region heretofore unrecognised as central to the creation of a national imaginary.     

THE FOOD VALUE CHAIN AS A LOCUS FOR (DIS)AGREEMENT: CONVENTIONS AND QUALITIES IN THE SPANISH WINE AND NORWEGIAN SALTED COD INDUSTRIES

According to the theory of conventions, food value chains (FVCs) involve a complex array of actors who share an agreement about the qualities embodied in their particular foodstuff. Nevertheless, that agreement is continuously challenged by changes in consumer markets. Therefore, I argue that FVCs able to adapt those qualities to new trends will perform better than FVCs whose commitment to certain qualities leads to a misunderstanding between producers and consumers. The organization of the chain itself, the values of national regulatory frameworks, and the goals of the national innovation system are discussed as factors that shape an FVCs' ability to re‐arrange that core agreement. By using professional reports, statistical records and personal interviews, this article focuses on two FVCs that have experienced contrasting trajectories in recent decades in the Spanish market: the wine industry located in the region of Castile and Leon (Spain) and the Norwegian salted cod industry. The growing wine FVC has achieved a successful agreement about a set of qualities linked to nature, tradition, and place, all of them guaranteed by the reputation of the Designation of Origin (DO) system. In contrast, the salted cod FVC is losing its market share because its main actors are failing to properly communicate the key qualities of environmental sustainability and artisanal cod production to concerned Spanish consumers, as well as in the adoption of the place‐related attributes that still shape consumer preferences in Spain.     

WHY ARE SMART CITIES GROWING? WHO MOVES AND WHO STAYS*

ABSTRACT This paper examines why smart cities are growing by investigating who moves to smart cities and who stays. Smart cities are often centers of higher education, so students moving to pursue higher education may play an important role. I find that the greater in‐migration to smart cities is mostly due to persons enrolled in higher education. Smart cities are growing in part because in‐migrants often stay in the city after completing their education. The growth of smart cities is also mostly attributable to population redistribution within the same state and has little effect on population growth at the state level.     

The Making of an Australian ‘Airport City’

Globally, the changing nature of airports, and particularly the juxtaposition of general commercial land uses alongside aviation functions, is captured in the concept of the ‘airport city’. In Australia, commercialisation has impacted nearly all privatised capital city and general aviation airports. Essendon Airport's contested transformation from a run‐down general aviation facility into an emergent business and retail hub in Melbourne's north‐western suburbs serves as an instructive case study of the evolution of the airport city as a new suburban typology. Drawing in part on in‐depth interviews with key stakeholders involved in the redevelopment process, this paper examines the conflicting forces that have driven commercialisation since the late 1990s, the spatial outcomes and the wider planning issues arising.     

针对突发灾害:大城市的人居安全及其政策

非典事件折射出了大城市在应对突发灾害时抗灾能力低下的脆弱性以及严重的人居安全问题。大城市的人居安全问题与其规模、密度和形态的不协调有关。基于人居安全的城市政策应该是规模、密度、形态三位一体的城市政策。规模过大会引起安全问题,技术进步使人们解决城市问题的能力不断增强,因而城市规模的极限也不断被突破。但是,连续的、密集分布的城区终究不应该是无限放大的,从这点上看,城市形态的不佳将加重规模和密度过大所导致的问题。现阶段我国的城市政策几乎是不存在的,城市安全意识尚未发展成为全局性的"城市安全观",目前大城市的规模、形态、密度的失控是缺乏有效制约的市场力量作用的结果,规划失效的原因之一是没有清晰的城市政策,因而市政当局过分迁就开发商。新的城市政策对于大城市尤其要严格控制其密度,对城市提出明确的形态要求,制止城市蔓延,推进有组织的"都市区化"。     

URBAN PRODUCTIVITY: CITY SIZE OR INDUSTRY SIZE*

ABSTRACT This paper analyzes the effect of city size and industry size on urban productivity in the food processing industry. Some formulations suggest productivity is associated with industry size rather than city size. However, when allowance is made for the tendency of food processing to locate near relevant raw materials and for regional dummies, there is no support for industry scale economies. Agglomeration effects, associated with city size, do exist. The central estimates are based on the Chan-Mountain version of the translog production function. The results provide information on some facets of the appropriate balance between industrial and agricultural production.     

BEYOND THE FOOD DESERT: FINDING WAYS TO SPEAK ABOUT URBAN FOOD SECURITY IN SOUTH AFRICA

Urban food security is a significant development challenge in sub‐Saharan Africa. However, the field is currently under ‐researched and under‐theorized. Urban food insecurity, where it is considered, has been viewed through a development studies lens that views food insecurity as a household‐scale problem. There has been significant focus on food deserts in developed countries as one way of engaging with such insecurity. The food deserts research views food insecurity through a social exclusion and food justice lens. This article introduces the food desert concept to provide a conceptual tool to begin to understand the spatial determinants of urban food insecurity, which are not well captured by the existing framings of food security in the region. Using data from a 2008 household food security survey conducted in Cape Town, the paper highlights gaps in the food deserts approach, most significantly its neglect of non‐market sources of food and of household decision‐making processes. The paper therefore concludes by suggesting a new approach which takes the household's assets, abilities and decision‐making as the starting point and overlays this with the market and non‐market foodscapes accessed by these households.     

基于分形理论的长株潭城市群等级规模结构研究及对策

运用城市群等级规模结构分形理论和方法,对长株潭"3+5"城市群(以下简称"3+5"城市群)的等级规模结构进行了实证研究,通过测算几年来"3+5"城市群等级规模分布的分维值,得出结论:"3+5"城市群规模分布符合分形特征;模型拟合认为其人口、经济分布的分维值均大于1,表明"3+5"城市群等级规模结构集中,已处于发展的相对成熟阶段。为此在对这些特征做出解释的基础上,认为可从强化首位城市、加快长株潭一体化建设、提升次中心城市、重点发展中小城市、加快小城镇建设等方面着手对长株潭城市群等级规模结构进行优化。     

沿胶济铁路经济带城市化发展优势、问题及战略构想

山东省胶济铁路沿线产业带经济发达、产业高度密集。该经济带从1840年到目前经历了低水平均衡性空间结构的雏形期,多核心空间结构的发展期,带状点轴空间结构的成熟期。城市化水平也呈相应程度的发展,从城市化水平低、增速慢,城市化滞后于国民经济增长;城市规模结构不尽合理,中心城市的综合实力不强,规模偏小,城市主导功能和职能构成分类明显,对农村人口转移的吸引力不大;一直发展到区域性基础设施水平较高,城市群的开放性和边界的模糊性等特征。在此基础上,胶济铁路经济带城市化发展更要抓住机遇,通过尽快实现胶济铁路电气化的同时,实现腹地西扩,加大城市规模,搞好城市的产业升级和城市升级。     

陕西城市规模效益分析

本文首先通过对国内外目前城市规模效益研究状况进行总结,然后,运用灰色关联分析方法对陕西省十三个城市规模效益分别从经济、社会、环境三方面进行实证研究,最后,结合陕西省目前城市规模等级结构特点,提出了城市规模效益达到最佳的策略。     

Green cities? Urbanization,trade, and the environment

Is urbanization good for the environment? This paper establishes a simple core–periphery model with monocentric cities, which comprises key forces that shape the structure and interrelation of cities to study the impact of the urban evolution on the environment. We focus on global warming and the potential of unfettered market forces to economize on emissions. The model parameters are chosen to match the dichotomy between average “large” and “small” cities in the urban geography of the United States, and the sectoral greenhouse gas emissions recorded for the United States. Based on numerical analyzes we find that a forced switch to a system with equally sized cities reduces total emissions. Second, any city driver which pronounces the asymmetry between the core and the periphery drives up emissions in the total city system, too, and the endogenous adjustment of the urban system accounts for the bulk of the change in emissions. Third, none of the city drivers gives rise to an urban environmental Kuznets curve according to our numerical simulations. Finally, the welfare‐maximizing allocation tends to involve dispersion of cities and the more so the higher is the marginal damage from pollution.     

绿色食品生产基地农业生态环境综合评价模式构建——以苏北里下河地区为例

发展绿色食品生产是生态农业建设规划的重要组成部分。本文根据绿色食品产地环境质量标准要求,客观评价里下河地区发展绿色食品生产的环境状况,得出里下河地区具有发展绿色食品生产显著的农业生态环境优势,并且,从苏北里下河地区评判案例出发,总结出绿色食品生产基地农业生态环境综合评价模式,从模式的原理、指标的选取、具体评价方法等进行论述。为各地开展绿色食品综合评价提供模式和方法。同时从农业循环经济的原理论述绿色食品,有机食品是高效生态农业的产物。为地方政府在制定发展绿色食品生产基地建设规划时参考。     

河谷型城市兰州中心城区人口规模初步研究

人口容量规模是城市发展的战略性议题,尤其河谷型城市。基于用地空间、水资源及生态环境三个主要影响因素,对河谷型城市人口容量规模的测算途径和方法进行了探讨和总结。以典型河谷型城市兰州中心城区为例,估算了其在该三个因素下的各自适宜人口规模和最大人口规模,进而反映出河谷用地空间对中心城区人口规模的限制作用较水资源及生态环境更为强烈,并根据木桶原理最短边,得出现有条件下适宜人口规模为230.56万、最大人口规模为342.17万的基本结论。     

The atomic meal: The cold war and irradiated foods, 1945–1963

Following World War II, food technologists in the US participated in an Army‐led program to develop food irradiation technology. The program involved over 120 military, government, industrial, and academic institutions. Focusing on the MIT Department of Food Technology, I trace the networks that formed between these groups and their motivations for developing the technology. I argue that food irradiation was Cold War science directed towards the development of a consumer product, and that it highlighted the links between large‐scale military‐funded research and consumers' everyday lives. I suggest that researchers advocated for irradiation not because the technology produced better processed food, but because the development of the technology produced a number of valuable benefits for the researchers. These included increases in funding, materials, and prestige.     

The Hollowing Out of Brazilian Metropolitan Governance As We Know It: Restructuring and Rescaling the Developmental State in Metropolitan Space

Despite regulatory and financial rollout of the state at a number of scales, and a strengthening of the institutional framework that guides territorial planning and management, Brazilian metropolitan governance continues to be characterized by fragmented and relatively competitive organizational structures. Likewise, the Brazilian metropolis is marked by economic dynamism and intense socio‐spatial and environmental contradictions. Much of the mainstream literature on metropolitan governance has emphasized a natural “optimum” scale for planning and management in city‐regions, articulated by public and private stakeholders aimed at the coordinated delivery of economic, social and environmental services. Combining the literature on new state spaces and critical Brazilian urban‐regional studies, this paper provides an alternative framework to understand the impasse of Brazilian metropolitan areas, which is grounded within a geo‐historic reading of the contradictory projects and strategies of the developmental state and the contested nature of metropolitan scale itself.     

The inclusion of sustainable drainage systems in flood management in the post‐industrial city: A case study of Glasgow

The management of urban stormwater and flooding is challenging, particularly within older, post‐industrial urban environments where infrastructure, housing and businesses already operate. The urban environment constrains opportunities for the development and integration of new approaches to drainage management, particularly the use of sustainable drainage systems (SuDS). These issues are investigated through a case study of Glasgow. The northeast of the city suffered significant urban flooding in July 2002 following an intense con‐vective summer storm. This event overloaded the urban drainage system, which was heavily integrated and led to the back flow of foul water into streets and homes. This study examines the response to this event and the construction of an integrated drainage management plan for the city, the Glasgow Strategic Drainage Plan (GSDP), which includes greater use of SuDS in tackling the city's capacity problems. Reflecting on the interdisciplinary nature of urban drainage management, this study adopts a social science method, undertaking semi‐structured interviews with key actors involved in producing the GSDP.