SIRIUS (Sustainable, Innovative, Resilient, and Interconnected Urban food System) has enhanced the governance capacity in transitioning urban food systems, and establish learning arenas that illuminate similarities and differences of urban planning and decision-making on urban food system governance in China and Europe.
Sustainable urbanisation has been coupled with the sustainability and resilience of glocal food production and consumption. Economic transformation and climate change have brought complex and dynamic challenges for urban food systems, while new urban economies and social innovations have emerged in various countries to tackle food problems.
However, identifying and assessing transition pathways of future urban food systems have remained primarily neglected in studies on urban sustainability. Local planners and policy-makers sought scientific guidance and learning opportunities about mechanisms to navigate towards sustainable urban food systems.
SIRIUS (Sustainable, Innovative, Resilient, and Interconnected Urban food System) has developed interdisciplinary methods, innovative understandings, and practical managerial insights bridging socio-spatial contexts in China and Europe. It has shed light on trends of urban food production and consumption in Chinese and European cities, and has identified the natural and societal factors that will influence the vulnerability and resilience of urban food supply chains. This project has revealed how new business models, social entrepreneurship, and other innovations in the urban food sector have been evolving locally. Our research outcomes have enhanced the governance capacity in transitioning urban food systems, and establish learning arenas that illuminate similarities and differences of urban planning and decision-making on urban food system governance in China and Europe.
SIRIUS Working paper
The Urban grassroots food initiatives and the diffusion of innovation in Rotterdam has been a working paper by Aniek Hebinck, Timo von Wirth and Aleksandra Jovanovic. It has used the theoretical lens of ‘food systems thinking’ to analyse 11 grassroots food initiatives in Rotterdam. From Jack Bean to de Krekerij, and from Rotterdamse Munt to Klimaattafel Consumptie, we have studied their aims and objectives and identified what has worked for or against them, including a global pandemic coming out of left field.
