Planning for food and food systems in urban areas has emerged as a new area of planning and policy development over the last two decades. While scholars and policymakers in many developed countries in North America and Europe have increasingly recognised the role of food in urban areas in the face of rapid urbanisation, rising food prices, globalisation, and climate change, research on food planning in the urban context is still sporadic. In addition, formalised food planning is still lacking in Australian urban planning systems. This thesis takes a novel approach to theoretically examine the development of food planning in urban planning systems and systematically explore the factors that enable and hinder the establishment or incorporation of urban food planning in Australian planning systems.
The study formulates five research objectives, with the first two emphasising theoretical constructs of urban food planning and the latter three examining the Australian context concerning urban food challenges, the efficacy of food-related policies, and opportunities and barriers to developing urban food planning in Australia.
Drawing on theoretical constructs developed in the first two objectives and the Critical Realist philosophy, research collected and analysed three data sets in surveys, policy documents and interviews to achieve the last three objectives. The findings highlight the prevalence of all five dimensions of urban food challenges and the inadequacy and inefficacy of existing food-related policies, affirming the omission of formalised urban food planning in Australia. It also reveals that opportunities arise in embracing urban food planning in Australia despite numerous current barriers.
This research provides insight uncovering why urban food planning is deficient in Australia and highlights factors conducive to its development. The study results are significant in several areas. Theoretically, it advances scholarly debates on food planning and its value, policy, and governance. Methodologically, it demonstrates the merits of the critical policy framework and its merger with Critical Realism in policy analysis and design. Pragmatically, this study unveils the ineffectiveness of existing food-related policies and highlights the urgency of undertaking formalised urban food planning to address multiple food challenges perpetuating in the urban environment in the face of rising food prices, rapid urbanisation, and climate change.
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