Urban Agriculture Forum: From Resilience to Liveability
Melbourne, Australia
23-24 February 2018
Call for Papers
Abstracts due: December 20, 2017
Registration deadline for presenters: 25 January, 2018
Climate change. Health and wellbeing. Connected and flourishing communities. Sustainability. Resilience. Justice. Food systems are at the centre of all of these fundamental challenges, and urban agriculture – cities feeding themselves and supporting nearby farmers and regional communities – is essential to our flourishing in this century.
Sustain: the Australian Food Network is pleased to announce that the second national Urban Agriculture Forum (UAF) will be held at the Melbourne CBD campus of William Angliss Institute on the 23rd & 24th of February 2018.
Building on the success of the inaugural 2016 Forum with 170 participants from around Australia, the 2018 UAF will showcase the role of urban agriculture in shaping more liveable cities, communities and homes. Participants will share and explore success stories and lessons of practice and policy, from around Australia and internationally. Our aim is to create a shared space for academics and independent scholars, artists and activists, cooks and chefs, journalists and writers, urban food producers, policy makers and the broader community to rethink how cities are organised–and can be re-organised–through and by food and agriculture.
Call for Papers
We invite abstracts of 300 words with an empirical or applied focus that will be of interest and relevance to urban agriculture practitioners and policy makers. Possible themes may include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Case studies of urban agriculture practice in Australia and / or around the world
- Social movements and practices of urban commoning and co-production
- Economic, cultural, emotional, sensual and material dimensions, possibilities and challenges of urban agriculture
- Political organisation and governance practices
- Urban adaptation / mitigation / resilience in the Anthropocene
- Policy and governance frameworks
- New technologies and green infrastructure for growing food in cities
- Possibilities for soil remediation and urban renewal
- Perspectives on liveability, liveliness and conviviality of urban food production
- Urban agriculture as a practice for planetary health
- Peri-urban production and the urban-rural interface
Please send your abstract of no more than 300 words to Dr Nick Rose by 20 December 2017: uaf@sustainaustralia.org. All presenters must register to attend the event by 25 January 2018 (students Tier 3, waged academics Tier 1). Early bird registrations close on 20 January 2018. Tickets can be booked here. For more information, go to http://www.uaf.org.au/.
Speakers and presenters
Confirmed keynote speakers include Dr Lenore Newman, Canada Research Chair in Food Security and the Environment (University of the Fraser Valley, British Columbia) and Dr Rachel Carey from University of Melbourne (Foodprint Melbourne Research Team). Other featured presenters include Ben Shewry, chef at award-winning restaurant Attica; Bunurong novelist and historian Bruce Pascoe (Dark Emu, Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident); David Holmgren, co-founder of permaculture practice and author of Retrosuburbia; and SBS Gardening Australia host Costa Georgiadis.
About Sustain: the Australian Food Network
Sustain works for the transition to a food system that supports flourishing communities, individuals and ecosystems. Sustain’s mission is to catalyse meaningful and powerful connections to enable the emergence of a flourishing and healthy food system. We realise this mission through food systems events, research and network-building for the development of healthy, viable and sustainable food systems.
Sustain was formed as a not-for-profit in 2015 and is a deductible gift recipient charity registered with the Australian Charities and Not for Profits Commission. Sustain is generously hosted at William Angliss Institute in Melbourne, which offers the first Bachelor of Food Studies and Master of Food Systems and Gastronomy in Australia.