A Reflective Practitioner Approach to Food System Planning in Calgary, Alberta
Date
2021-01-14
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Abstract
Cities and municipalities across Canada are implementing food system assessments and action plans to better understand and address issues related to urban food systems. In 2012, the City of Calgary released “Calgary EATS!: A Food System Assessment and Action Plan” (CE), a comprehensive report and action plan that marked the culmination of city-wide stakeholder engagement and collaborative planning led by the municipality in partnership with the community. The goal of this plan was to support the growth of a sustainable and resilient food system in Calgary, and to inform future action and policy. However, challenges related to implementation has cast doubt on the plan’s long-term effectiveness. The purpose of this thesis was to identify the primary challenges affecting the implementation of the Calgary Eats! Action Plan, and identify potential opportunities to move the plan forward. This research was conducted collaboratively with members of the local urban food partnership involved in the development of the original Action Plan. A reflective practitioner approach and a critical planning approach were used in working with representative members of the CE Action Plan partnership as key informants with expertise in the original Action Plan development process. The qualitative methods employed in the research process included document analysis, participant observation, semi-structured interviews with key informants and collaborative consensus around key information. Findings identified key successes, highlighted procedural and interpersonal influences on outcomes, and confirmed that challenges to the implementation of the CE plan persist. Conclusions also discuss community impacts arising from the plan. The results of this research may help to inform strategies for developing and implementing local food system action plans and provide insight into the planning, management, and organizational challenges inherent in local food system planning involving community-based civic groups.
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Keywords
sustainable food systems, local food security, civil society organizations, food system planning, community engagement
Citation
Bailey, J. (2021). A Reflective Practitioner Approach to Food System Planning in Calgary, Alberta (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.