Distribution to Consumption. Food is City: New Commons, New Rituals, New Technologies

Abstract

Within Creative Food Cycles, the phase of distribution and consumption (Phase 2) is the one specifically linked to the city and to the daily practices of people. Food Cycles influence urban culture, economy, and society in the exchange and sharing not only of material values but also of ideas, beliefs, te- chnologies—conviviality makes community. A broad range of urban activities is linked to food: to package, store, transport, deliver, offer, market, exchange, conserve, cook, bake, prepare, serve, eat, drink, talk, sing, also to scarcity and abundance, to use all and everything and to waste, to produce and pro-sume. Tangible and intangible cultural heritage as well as future building culture can be related to Food Cycles in many ways. When aiming to explore new concepts and models of Creative Food Cycles, distribution and consumption are not only major fields of new cultural ex- pressions inherently connected with innovations in this phase: they also offer most interesting accesses and starting points to reshape systemic and pro- cessual aspects of Creative Food Cycles as main aspect of everyday life. In this sense, the concept behind the selection of good practices for this phase highlights spatial manifestations in the city—moving, temporary, permanent. They innovate urban practices of conviviality and at the same time innovate urban space. Bound to and inspired by food safety, biodiversity, organic pro- duction, regional production, urban-rural linkages, health, food knowledge and education, the selected projects focus therefore on the material, spatial, and performative experience of Creative Food Cycles in the city.