Covid-19 as a chance for more food democracy in European cities? The responses of actors within Vienna's urban food system to the pandemic

Bibliographic Data

ID11457979
AuthorsMarta López Cifuentes (0000-0003-2589-105X, University of Surrey, corresponding author), Valentin Fiala (0000-0001-6812-9490, Freie Universität Berlin)
Year2022
Volume131
Pages104041
Publication date2022-12-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCities (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0264-2751 • E-ISSN: 1873-6084
PublisherElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.cities.2022.104041
PMID36274918
OpenAlexW4306405781
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited57

Actors within European cities had to respond to the Covid-19 crisis to maintain their urban food systems' basic functions. In this article, we ask whether these responses merely remedied the immediate challenges and maintained the status quo or the window of opportunity created by Covid-19 was used to transform urban food systems towards food democracy. We combine the food democracy framework and multi-level perspective to examine how actors of an urban food system - from niche and regime levels - reacted to the Covid-19 crisis and to explore the meaning of those responses for food democracy. Using Vienna as a case study, we conducted a media analysis (198 articles) and 11 interviews with niche actors to identify the impacts of the first Covid-19 wave and connected actors' responses. Results show that regime and niche actors responded differently to Covid-19 and that not all responses proved conducive to a transition to more food democracy. Although some responses can contribute to a more just and sustainable urban food system, many actors focused on short-term crisis management and maintaining the status quo. If Covid-19 is to become an opportunity for a transformation towards food democracy, coordinated actions by regime and niche actors are needed

2019-20 coronavirus outbreak · Agriculture · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Democracy · Development economics · Disease · Economic growth · Economics · Food security · Food systems · Geography · Infectious disease (medical specialty · Outbreak · Pandemic · Political science · Politics · Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2 · Culinary Culture and Tourism · Law · Medicine · Organic Food and Agriculture · Urban Agriculture and Sustainability · Virology

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access