Proposing change for communities
This section acknowledges a new wave of emerging urban food maps that disrupt traditional mapping approaches. The most radical of these are often called ‘counter or guerrilla mapping’ where critical cartography democratises the practice of mapping to make counterclaims, to express competing interests around food, to make practical plans for social change or to imagine utopian worlds. The chapters show how through participation with maps, locals can be invited to insert detailed knowledge about food practices and spaces within their cities. Such urban food mappings can help advocate for the actions and desires of residents to make something happen, such as aiding informal food security or urban agriculture. Often, counter-maps are used to lay claim to land with clear political and ecological goals. Counter cartography can highlight diversity within the urban food system whilst harnessing opportunities for socio-ecological change through revealing new connections between people, place and what we eat. Map makers apply the entire breadth of mapping methods and techniques, from oral interview via drawing and performance to digital and satellite imagery.
