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Hacking the Foodscape: Digital Communication in the Co-design of Sustainable and Inclusive Food Environments

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The Local and the Digital in Environmental Communication

Abstract

Supplying healthy, eco-friendly, and affordable food is becoming a priority of governments all over the world as the unsustainability of the industrial food system is realised. At the same time planners, technology companies, and municipal authorities have driven the concept of the “smart” and “resilient” city which has digital communications infrastructure embedded across all functions to ensure sustainable economic development, high standards of living for residents, and efficient resource management. In relation to food, much of this infrastructure to date has focused on the enhancement of procurement strategies and consumption rather than engaging eaters in the co-design of local food environments or “foodscapes”—the places we buy, prepare, talk, share, or glean meaning from food. This chapter explores the potential for digital technologies to enable the participation of all residents, including the food insecure, in co-designing more sustainable and inclusive foodscapes for their communities and therefore be part of broader systems transformation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Media and Communications, University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia

    Alana Mann

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  1. Alana Mann
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science and Public Law, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain

    Joana Díaz-Pont

  2. Department of Communication Studies, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

    Pieter Maeseele

  3. Department of Culture and Media Studies, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

    Annika Egan Sjölander

  4. Manipal Institute of Communication, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (Manipal University), Manipal, India

    Maitreyee Mishra

  5. School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia

    Kerrie Foxwell-Norton

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Mann, A. (2020). Hacking the Foodscape: Digital Communication in the Co-design of Sustainable and Inclusive Food Environments. In: Díaz-Pont, J., Maeseele, P., Egan Sjölander, A., Mishra, M., Foxwell-Norton, K. (eds) The Local and the Digital in Environmental Communication. Global Transformations in Media and Communication Research - A Palgrave and IAMCR Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37330-6_9

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