Exploring food and urbanism

摘要

The relationship of food to urbanism - or is it the other way round? - is something the Journal of Urbanism has engaged with in a variety of articles over the years since the Journal was established in 2007. In previous issues, we have published excellent papers on food-related topics as various as complexity in urban agriculture (Napawan 2016, 9(1)); on walkability related to access to food stores for older people (Negron-Poblete, Seguin, and Apparicio 2016, 9(1)); the role of "ethnic" retailing in retrofitting suburbia (Zhuang and Xiaoxuan Chen 2017, 10(3)); and on the integrative potential of food markets (Schappo and van Melik 2017,10(3)). All of these have provided insights into the nature of food-related urbanism but its complex patterns still deserve further investigation. Before turning to examination of these patterns as explored in this Issue's papers, I want to briefly "situate" food within an urbanist scholarly context and outline the purpose of this Special Issue.