This volume brings together theoretical, experiential, and creative perspectives on the phenomenon of urban foraging. In a rapidly urbanising world, foraging is (re)raining popularity as a way to connect with nature and cope with uncertainty. Authors from various disciplines and geographies make sense of what this means for humanity.
Urban foraging represents a multifaceted movement that provides people with avenues for sustenance, socialising, and spirituality. Motivations and implications of urban foraging vary across the socioeconomic spectrum, as do barriers and enablers. Urban foraging can help people adapt to change, and build resilience to shocks, but its spontaneous and unregulated nature makes it attractive to many. Recognising and promoting sustainable urban foraging therefore is a delicate balancing act. This collection discusses the philosophical and practical considerations towards this aim.
The book is of interest to researchers, practitioners, entrepreneurs, and creatives, inviting readers to envisage scenarios that are desirable and achievable. It is of special interest to those working in urban and landscape planning, social-ecological systems, non-government organisations, municipal and development corporations, and the environment.
Shalini Dhyani (PhD) is a principal scientist at the National Environment Engineering Research Institute, a constituent laboratory under the Council for Science and Industrial Research, India. She is Asia vice chair and steering committee member in the Commission on Ecosystems Management of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). She is a UNESCO-TWAS (The World Academy of Science) Associate and visiting scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Bogor. She has been the lead author in the IPBES global thematic assessment on the sustainable use of wild species and the Asia-Pacific regional assessment of biodiversity and ecosystem services. She works on interlinkages between socio-ecological systems, following diverse knowledge systems and sustainability science approaches for mainstreaming the relevance of ecosystems and biodiversity, as well as multi-sectoral and people-centric approaches in decision-making. She is involved inthe editorial boards of Sustainability Science, PLOS One, and Anthropocene Science journals.
Mallika Sardeshpande (PhD) is a researcher affiliated with the Centre for Transformative Food Systems at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, and the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, India. She works on natural resource systems with a focus on agroecology, biodiversity, forestry, and urban systems. Her primary work involves the design and development of productive spaces with indigenous species in collaboration with communities, local governments, and non-government organizations. She also works with various global consortia to synthesize research and policy to make food systems ecologically, nutritionally, and socially sustainable and to increase urban resilience through green infrastructure management. She is an associate editor at Cities and the Environment Journal
