Foodways: Diasporic Explorations at the Age of (Digital) Discoveries

Abstract

Food markets has been always globally connected (directly or not) since ancient times. Catalysers of discoveries and exploration, the supply of precious foodstuffs has represented throughout history a driver of change for society. Today, living in an age that pours its commercial energy in the commodification of food, exploring the complex and often non-transparent trajectories food cycles need to take in order to reach our plates is generally impossible. Could it be that the world already produces enough food and will continue to do so, while the critical problem is related to logistics and distribution models? Creative Food Cycles moves in this direction by exploring new co-production models, to enlarge scopes and scales of regional foodsheds filling the gaps in-between the necessary abstractions of models/policies and the transience of civic actions/collective existences (Schröder, 2019). By addressing the food cycles holistically and as a motif of design, the paper explores the research-by-design activities carried out by Leibniz University Hannover addressing new spatial formats for urban inclusiveness, while promoting the role of urban planners, architects, and designers as facilitator empowered with new languages, tools and practices to widening the interfaces between creativity, places and public awareness.