Foodscapes

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Foodscapes is a co-designed, collaborative action research project seeking to support and investigate the use of arts and performance in local food initiatives (LFS) to advance socially cohesive, healthy and vibrant sustainable communities. The work brings together two LFS projects in Bristol - the Edible Landscapes Movement (ELM) and the Matthew Tree Enterprise (TMTE). Through a series of co-produced arts and cultural interventions focused on producing, buying, cooking and eating food, our project seeks to enable dialogue and strengthen connections between concepts such as sustainability, resilience and wellbeing and people's daily lives and experiences.Food is a critical resource commonly understood by myriad connections related to social and environmental systems. Climate change and increasing weather volatility, failed harvests, concerns around peak oil and the use of crops and farmland for biofuels are among a range of challenges contributing to disruptions in food supplies and dramatic swings in commodity prices. These trends not only demonstrate the inter-connected nature of food and climate change strategies, but also present a new set of challenges for global food security. For example, while current UK policy seeks to address food security primarily through supply-side strategies (e.g., increase production), a recent report by the Food Climate Research Network argued that healthier diets would go further than purely production initiatives towards addressing both environmental and hunger issues.As such, research is needed to explore whether and how alternatives to traditional production models might engender changes in consumption practices and enable sustainable futures. Towards this objective, Foodscapes brings together academics, artists, community partners and community members from two disadvantaged areas of Bristol to consider new solutions to food security and sustainable communities. We believe that by focusing on consumption and by introducing enjoyment, fun, creativity and performance into LFS programmes we can bring about significant gains in health and wellbeing amongst participant communities, forge new pathways for civic dialogue, and challenge assumptions around sustainable practices. Our action research model will encourage participants to reflect on the production and consumption of the food they are growing (and eating) by affording meaningful opportunities to co-design and 'co-research' the Foodscapes initiative. This process of arts production - working alongside researchers and artists - will enable dialogue, interaction and social transformation by examining and revealing participant experiences in the project. In this way, we seek to draw out the value and meaning associated with concepts of sustainability, resilience and wellbeing within a context of precariousness and uncertainty. Our team is made up of academics from civic engagement and planning (Buser), cultural geography (Roe), sociology (Dinnie), and the arts (Hall). We have developed this proposal collaboratively with two community partners - Knowle West Media Centre and The Matthew Tree Project. Both partners are engaged in local food initiatives targeting disadvantaged communities in Bristol (ELM and TMTE respectively) and both are looking to draw out the potential for more sustainable communities through minute transformations in the mundane practices of shopping, cooking and eating.