Peri-urban Agriculture as Quiet Sustainability: Challenging the Urban Development Discourse in Sogamoso, Colombia

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18046/recs.i32.4149

Keywords:

Urban Agriculture, Food Self-provisioning and Exchange, Food Sharing, Urbanization, Sustainable Development, Latin America

Abstract

This article advances academic and policy debates on peri-urban agriculture (PUA) by examining the phenomenon in the city of Sogamoso, Colombia. Planners, developers, and local authorities in Sogamoso have explicitly framed PUA as a barrier to development: a backwards, localized, low-tech and economically poorly performing activity that needs to make space for a more “productive” “modern” economy. Based on a survey of 160 peri-urban farming and gardening households, this study identifies PUA forms of food self-provisioning and exchange (FSPE) and further characterizes the practice’s social embeddedness, barriers, and opportunities as perceived by peri-urban farmers. The article combines scholarship on PUA and ‘quiet sustainability’ to propose a novel perspective that could help transform the terms of discourse on the role and future of PUA in urban sustainable development from arguments founded in productivity metrics to the appreciation of FSPE as an environmentally sustainable practice that strengthens the social fabric of local communities, thus contributing to their sense of purpose, meaning, and resilience. This study has implications not only for Sogamoso, but also for many other cities in Latin America and the Global South, where the role of PUA in relation to sustainable urban development is being actively contested.

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Author Biographies

  • Giuseppe Feola, Utrecht University

    Profesor asociado en el Instituto de Desarrollo Sostenible Copérnico, Universidad de Utrecht. Investiga el cambio socioecológico en las sociedades modernas con un enfoque empírico primario en sistemas agroalimentarios e iniciativas de base. Ha llevado a cabo investigaciones sobre medio ambiente y desarrollo, agricultura y sostenibilidad en Colombia desde 2007. Su investigación actualmente se centra en los procesos de deshacer el capitalismo por movimientos sociales agroalimentarios.

  • Jaime Alberto Suzunaga, Fundación Jischana Huitaca

    Sociólogo de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia; ha sido docente universitario durante 12 años. Ha venido desarrollando trabajos de investigación con indígenas, campesinos y población urbana en temas relacionados con patrimonio cultural, medio ambiente y desarrollo, gestión de riesgos y cambio climático. Actualmente trabaja con procesos de soberanía y seguridad alimentaria.

  • Jenny Soler, Fundación Jischana Huitaca

    Gestora cultural; acompaña a organizaciones sociales en temas como derechos humanos, con enfoque diferencial. Actualmente apoya la coordinación de huertas urbanas en zonas urbanas y periurbanas de Sogamoso.

  • Amanda Wilson, Independent researcher

    Investigadora independiente con sede en Den Bosch (Países Bajos). Magíster en Estudios de Conflictos y Derechos Humanos de la Universidad de Utrecht. Su interés de investigación es la intersección de los estudios de movimientos sociales, paz y sostenibilidad.

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Published

2020-11-23

How to Cite

Feola, G., Suzunaga, J. A., Soler, J., & Wilson, A. (2020). Peri-urban Agriculture as Quiet Sustainability: Challenging the Urban Development Discourse in Sogamoso, Colombia. Revista CS, (32), 279-315. https://doi.org/10.18046/recs.i32.4149