The transformative potential of community kitchens for an agroecological urbanism. Preliminary insights and a research agenda

A large part of contemporary discussions on sustainable food planning in the Global North is focused on interventions on the food supply chain (i.e. AFN, farmers-consumers reconnections, food miles) alongside campaigns for (individualized) responsible and healthy food behaviors, such as eating local, seasonal and organic, or food waste reduction. Collective, rather than individualized, arrangements for food system transformation (if we exclude those focused on charity and food poverty aid) are however less prominent and under-researched within the sustainable food planning community.
Through an overview of literature debates and some preliminary (mostly exploratory) empirical material, this paper will make the case for a renewed attention to collective interdependencies, and in particular the role of community kitchens as building blocks of a "reproductive, resourceful, agroecological urbanism" (Deh-Tor 2017). Departing from the extensive (and forgotten) work of Dolores Hayden (1985), the first part of the paper will offer a review of the literature, starting from ideas and contributions developed in the 18th and 19th century (i.e. utopian, feminist, communards, socialist models, etc.) such as in Fourier's work, until more recent debates. In the second part, reflecting on one or more examples of community kitchens in the UK context, and in particular their aims and their socio-political, economic and organizational aspects, the paper will discuss potential and limits of contemporary community kitchens to shaping agroecological behaviours in urban contexts and building viable alternatives to the food regime.