Place-based Resilience in Food and Water Systems

(Ambrogio Lorenzetti, The Allegory of Good Government in the Countryside (1338–1339). Public Domain.)

About the Cluster

Transforming food and water systems in the context of climate change, biodiversity loss, soil fertility depletion, water pollution, food and water insecurity, and diet-related diseases requires the socially just development and implementation of new ideas, practices, or technologies. Research in this cluster critically explores the potential for place-based approaches to contribute to resilience in food and water systems. Topics include:

research on households, community, or indigenous food and water systems that enable security, resilience and resourcefulness.
grassroots movements or initiatives promoting resource sovereignty, food justice, right to food and equity and diversity in place-based food and water systems.
territorial scaling of agroecological innovations, including reduction and recovery of waste;
urban agriculture initiatives linking environment, food and well-being.
local/regional/territorial approaches to re-design food and water systems and promote agroecological transitions, such as agroecological urbanism, sustainable food planning, place-based food governance and civic food networks.
initiatives that rescale the food system, i.e. short food supply chains, sustainable public sector food procurement or landed community kitchens.
alternative economic models for place-based resilience (e.g. circular economy, solidarity economy, de-growth)

Cluster Lead

Chiara Tornaghi

Chiara Tornaghi is Associate Professor in Urban Food Sovereignty and Resilience. Trained in politics, sociology and planning, her work is grounded in feminist political ecology, critical social theory, participatory methodology and indigenous earth-centred spirituality. Her recent work is focussed on recentering food planning and urbanisation models around soil care, food justice and social equity, and building an agroecological urbanism.

Publications

The members of the cluster regularly publish articles, monographs, book chapters, and other media on this subject. For the most recent publications, please see outputs on the Coventry University Pure page.

Publications

Projects

The members of the cluster lead and collaborate on a number of research projects and additional projects are available on the Coventry University Research Portal.

Projects

Featured Projects

A person tending to tomatos in a green house

Procurement for Good

Transforming food systems in the context of climate change, biodiversity loss, soil fertility depletion, water pollution, food insecurity/poverty, and diet-related diseases requires the socially just development and implementation of new ideas, practices, or technologies that can address the drawbacks of our 'broken' food system.

Agroecological Urbanism

Agroecological Urbanism is a paradigmatically different ways of urbanising, and organising socio-spatial relations, centred around the centrality of soil care and soil carers. Inspired by the principles and values of agroecology, such as communities resourcefulness and more-than-human care, the model offers eight pathways for transformation, or ‘building blocks’ where to begin rearticulating social relations and building infrastructures to support urban and peri-urban agroecological food producers. The website is intended as an incubator, and is kept updated with research results emerging from ongoing research.

Landed community kitchen

Landed Community Kitchens are food sovereignty and justice-inspired kitchens that address food insecurity and social exclusion by sourcing their food from local agroecological producers through fair prices. They are emerging social innovations that transform food environments, food behaviours and food cultures through social and solidarity models.

African people gathered round under a huge tree

Women’s right to land in Africa: Facing the climate crisis

This project explores the different dimensions of women’s right to communal lands in the context of the climate crisis in East and West Africa. It draws lessons from and scales up efforts to advance women’s right to land in 4 target countries: Kenya, Tanzania, Mali and Guinea.

animated fingers crossed against a teal background with the wording 'Made possible with Heritage Fund'

Green for all

Through the ‘Green for All’ scheme, nature will be a central part of Coventry’s future. The funding will help revitalise parks, create new community gardens, restore waterways and develop natural corridors bringing vibrant, accessible green spaces closer to where people live. The scheme will also support the creation of school allotments, offering children a hands-on experience with nature and inspiring the next generation.