In November, CCRI’s Dan Keech will be participating in the ‘Er Indoors conference hosted by The Univeristy of Warwick’s Humanities Research Centre. Working with regular collaborator Prof Marc Redepenning from Otto-Friedrich Univeristy in Bamberg, Germany, their presentation will examine how small-scale, commercial market gardening in Bamberg and Bath – two UNESCO World Heritage Cities – are positioned between larger, field-scale industrial horticulture often associated with rural production, and intimate, private or community city gardens. The locally particular and self-referential culture of horticulture in Bamberg and Bath helps to step outside eco-technical analyses which tend to evaluate urban food production for its contribution to food security or social cohension. Dan said: ‘it’s liberating to study urban food through a cultural lens, because it offers reflections of lived experiences – often locally unique and idiosynchratic. Rather than imposing a normative vision for the future city based on food security, we drew on historical contexts to trace rituals, instiutions, material representations and co-operations between urban gardeners. This allows us to argue that urban horticulture is often part of a long tradition which is changing all the time, not just a lost past or an “alternative” lifestyle.’
More information regarding the ‘Er Indoors conference can be found on the event’s webpage, including a provisional programme and registration details. The conference takes place on Saturday 23rd November.
CCRI’s work regularly includes projects related to urban food studies, such as Supurbfood (short food supply chains) and ‘ROBUST‘ (the governance of rural-urban food flows.
More of Dan’s academic work can be accessed on the University of Gloucestershire’s Research Repository.
