Program Overview

This is a non-credit bearing course but can also be taken as

a

credit bearing course

Discover the difference between our credit bearing and non-credit bearing courses

This innovative Food, Politics and the City short course offers you an introduction to pressing issues of the food politics of cities. We will explore themes central to our thinking about how food is produced, distributed and consumed in the city.

We reflect on the way in which cities are themselves like living, consuming organisms. We examine the way in which food is implicated in social stratification in the city by class, gender and ethnicity; the importance of public spaces of consumption and the divide between the public and the private in the city; the consequences of new technologies; the role of urban planning and governance; and the problem of waste and the role of cities in climate change.

In brief we will cover:

By combining in-class teaching and an on-site visit this short course provides you with both an intellectual overview and practical experience. We mainly draw on examples and evidence from London but will also bring in the historical and contemporary experiences of other global cities. We cover the main conceptual and theoretical debates on food, politics and the city, while bringing these discussions alive with reference to specific food settings.

This short course is ideal if you have an intellectual interest in food and politics. You may also be working in the food industry or in related jobs such as food journalism where this course can be valuable in contributing to your Continuing Professional Development (CPD).

This course is non-credit bearing, so carries no credit points.