Urban Food Infrastructures: The Role of Inner-City Universities

ABSTRACT

Urban food infrastructures are oft-forgotten as crucial for sustainability transitions. This ethnographic case study explores the eating spaces of an inner-city university to assess its sustainability outcomes. By considering knowledge as embedded in and through social practices as “general understandings”, the paper argues that the neo-liberal organisation of eating spaces understands campus spaces as assets, conceives students as individualistic consumers, and outsources sustainability initiatives. The paper contends that these understandings have established a dominant pathway for retail prioritised, gentrified and uni-functional eating spaces, marginalising some existing hybrid and convivial food infrastructures that may be pathways for sustainable and just outcomes.

摘要

城市食品基础设施，如城市内的大学饮食空间，往往被认为是向可持续社会过渡的关键。这个对墨尔本市内一所大学的人种学案例研究，探讨了大学的饮食空间和空间管理，以评估可持续性的结果。通过将知识嵌入并通过社会实践作为 “一般理解”，本文认为，大学饮食空间的新自由主义组织将昂贵的校园空间理解为一种资产，将学生视为个人主义的消费者，并将可持续性倡议外包。这些理解为零售业的优先化、绅士化和单一功能的饮食空间建立了一条主要的途径。另外，本文提出，一些被边缘化的混合型和休闲型食品基础设施可能为可持续的和公正的结果提供替代途径。

KEYWORDS:

• Urban food infrastructure
• inner-city universities
• eating spaces
• general understandings
• sustainable food consumption

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the Sustainable Urban Precincts Program (SUPP) at RMIT University for supporting this research. I would also like to thank the Work/Life Ecologies project team, especially A/Prof Yolande Strengers, Professor Tania Lewis and Dr Susie Moloney for helping me put together this paper.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).