Transitioning the food system: A strategic practice management approach for cities

Socio-technical systems are composed of everyday practices that are forged as they are performed in specific places. Transitioning these systems toward sustainability involves changing the practices that constitute and reproduce them. This is true of the food system, which is enacted by the performance of activities, from food production to disposal, in specific communities. Cities shape, support and normalize food practices, and in the process play an important role in transitioning the wider food system. The practice of shopping at farmers markets in NYC by recipients of federal food benefits illustrates how this and related practices are initiated, encouraged, coordinated, and enacted, and how corresponding shifts in the meanings, competences and material elements comprising a practice influence the food system. Based on this case, the paper suggests opportunities for cities to engage in what we call strategic practice management to support shifts toward sustainable practices, and thus sustainable socio-technical systems. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.