Getting there: learning from engagement practice on convivial urbanism to develop productive urban landscapes

Abstract

In this paper presented to the International Association of Landscape Ecology conference in Warsaw (July 2022) we reflect on peri-urban food focused initiatives broadly framed around sustainable, convivial urbanism, which have sought to employ highly socially engaged methods for working together on productive urban landscapes. Productive urban landscapes approaches share an applied focus across varied urban space: from dense city quarters to peri-urban edges. There is a shared need to develop and reconfigure sustainable productive landscapes and townscapes in diverse spatial settings. All of these respond to urgent climate change, biodiversity and environmental justice challenges. We assert that while we may know where we need to go to make and remake productive urban landscapes - how to get there remains an extremely vexed issue despite the rich theoretical framing now available.