Food security initiatives as social sustainability in post-COVID-19 European cities

Maurizio Marinelli (together with The Bartlett's colleagues Liza Griffin (DPU) and Selcuk Cidik (BSSC)) is part of a team between UCL and Stockholm based Karolinska Institute and the Royal Institute of Technology (KI-KTH) that has secured funding for the project 'Food security initiatives as social sustainability in post-COVID-19 European cities' that will run until the end of the summer 2024.

This project will consolidate the research group created in April 2023 between UCL and KI-KTH, which produced a preliminary literature review on social sustainability, the role of Urban Food Systems and Governance within broader urban metabolism analyses and nature-based solutions towards Just Transitions. More specifically, the team will identify food security support networks in Stockholm and London, recognising actors and evaluating effectiveness.

The findings will be presented through the organisation of a workshop in London at UCL in the Spring of 2024. This will allow the participants to identify lessons from bottom-up practices of food security in both cities, to 1) develop policy recommendations that can be scaled up for city-wide decision-makers and 2) to develop a wider EU research proposal. The project conceives Urban Food Governance as the collaborative and coordinated efforts of authorities, civil society groups and stakeholders to develop and implement policies and strategies addressing food-related challenges, promoting socially sustainable approaches to Just Urban Transitions. 

Photo by Aaron Doucett on Unsplash