Scaffolding transitions of possibility: the food walk as embodied method in Singapore

ABSTRACT

Resilient food infrastructures responsive to instability and change often form at the urban edge of food systems. As such, they could take heed of knowledge practices that occur at the urban edge. This paper conceptualizes learning as a co-productive activity that can be scaffolded by space, and examines how it applies to the re-imagination of food systems. By considering walking as a method in the design of desired foodscapes, this paper addresses how “time niches” foster embodied knowledges of care and haptic connection. The two cases that illustrate this – a set of walking workshops with Singapore-based participants and a visualising workshop with visiting conference participants – consider how so-called lay and expert knowledges may come together in knowledge co-production in future-making practices. The paper explores how civic and decolonial practices occur in the sustainability transition of food.

KEYWORDS:

• Knowledge co-production
• futures
• food
• walking
• decolonial methods

Acknowledgments

I am most grateful to Professor Tim Bunnell at the Department of Geography, National University of Singapore (NUS) for his comments on an early draft of this piece, to Monika Rut for enthusiastic discussions and shared work, and to Associate Professor Konstadina Griva at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University for her early guidance on the psychological research referenced here. I would also like to thank friends and gardens known through the Foodscape Collective, and Goh Ter Yang at the Office of Environmental Sustainability, NUS—who did much more than name the “walking workshops.”

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Notes

1. A fragrant soup served with stewed soybean, stuffed ingredients, and fine handmade egg noodles with sweet and spicy sauce.

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Notes on contributors

Huiying Ng

Huiying Ng is a scholar-practitioner exploring rural-urban agricultural learning networks, agroecology, and community resilience. As a doctoral student of anthropology at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, Munich, Germany, she works with the project team Environing Infrastructures, supported by the Volkswagen Foundation’s freigeist research grants. She channels her energy for knowledge exchange and action research methodologies into the Soil Regeneration Project (Singapore). Huiying’s academic work has appeared in Urban Studies, the Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning, Psychology & Health, and two edited volumes on Singapore (Amsterdam University Press) and Southeast Asia (Routledge). She has a background in psychology, English literature, and geography from the National University of Singapore.