“(...) forms of participation [at markets] also encourage social commitments, with residents encountering each other around resources and dialogues that lead to fruitful arrangements for coexistence in diversity.
These aspects will strongly contribute to markets’ sustainability. ”
This section brings stories and exchanges that have nurtured my everyday practice. These underlie the aims and visions for markets and common food spaces I attempt to share.
Engaging with markets and open food spaces as possibilities for sustainable and flourishing futures is a key task for everyone of us, living and feeding ourselves and our dear ones in cities. Take these notes as invitations to join these vibrant and tasty community spaces - and expect to get more valuable outcomes than items in your bag!
“Hay de todo, casera, pregunte (There is everything, ‘casera’ [frequent customer], ask me).
Fieldnote San Jose Market (Lima) 16/12/2014
”
This is a phrase I heard in every visit to my case studies in Lima, and which I continue listening - the same or very similar expressions - in every urban market I have the chance to visit. Beyond the varied foodstuffs, this expression made me realise that finding “everything” also implied encounters and interactions with individuals from different avenues, establishing forms of conviviality and common urban action. These are the kind of possibilities raised in conversations...
“Quotidian relations and encounters around food, as an element rich in sociocultural significances, may inform us about individuals’ interpretation of the urban context, their capacity to engage with it or their restrictions to participate in the course of the city (...)”
In the same way as food markets encourage a multiplicity of encounters, these also reveal the multiple realms and engagements that converge in keeping markets and food resources available in our cities. Moreover, it raises awareness on the need to place food at the core of urban agendas, acknowledging its sociocultural and political potentials for building enjoyable and sustainable living environments.