Urban Commons for the Edible City—First Insights for Future Sustainable Urban Food Systems from Berlin, Germany

Nadine Scharf,Suhana Reddy,Ina Säumel,Thomas Wachtel

doi:10.3390/su11040966

Abstract

Urban planning is facing multi-layered challenges to manage the transformation towards a more sustainable and inclusive society. The recently evolved concept of an “urban commons” responds to the crucial need to re-situate residents as key actors. Urban food commons summarize all initiatives that are food-related (e.g., cultivation, harvest, and distribution), aiming at a visualization and utilization of value chains and the commons-based linkage between them. We explored first insights of food commons in Berlin based on semi-structured, in-depth interviews. Urban food commons strengthen identification, participation, self-organization, and social resilience, are steered by bottom-up processes, and can be a powerful tool for a transformation towards urban sustainability. However, a viable political integration of existing initiatives lacks due to structural implementation problems. Respondents recommend a pooling of all initiatives in a strong network and a mediation interface to coordinate between food commons and city administration and politics. A combined approach of commons and edible cities will be helpful for the development of future prove food systems.

Highlights

Due to ongoing urbanization processes, city dwellers are facing challenges such as pollution-related health risks, worsening income equality, social isolation, and scarcity of resources and space
We aim to answer the following questions: What value is attributed to food commons for a sustainable urban development in Berlin? How are food commons related to the current practice of city administration and politics in Berlin? Do actors have recommendations regarding the further development of food commons?
Since the theoretical sampling of qualitative interviews is always linked to the respective setting, the rather novel topic does not allow for a larger number at the moment and theoretical saturation was quickly reached

Summary

Introduction

Due to ongoing urbanization processes, city dwellers are facing challenges such as pollution-related health risks, worsening income equality, social isolation, and scarcity of resources and space. Nowhere is the potential for change greater than in cities that harbor a large creative economy and a high diversity of drivers and provide niche developments and economies of scale. Pooling know-how, innovation, and resources, cities are the key drivers of systemic changes to meet global challenges [1,2]. There is growing awareness that prioritizing economic growth is not a solution for these multiple crises. All actors must undergo significant changes such as the adaptation of governance to changing socio-economic dynamics [3]. Cities are not isolated entities, but they are globally interconnected and can be catalysts for change at wider scales [4]

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