‘Imagining the Future of Food in Glasgow’, questions included “What is happening in the imagined future?”, “Who is is involved?” and “What are the key places/spaces?”. During these activities, the thing that struck me about the ideas were the ways that the participants forgot about the people on the outside of the food redesign bubble. After hearing from a group about the plans to grow food in the city ‘plum trees you could pick food from on Sauchiehall street’ and creating ’15-minute neighbourhoods where people have an abundance of free food’, I asked a question about how citizens might be engaged in this, whether citizen’s wanted this. My question was simple; “How will you get citizens to engage in this change within 10 years?”, the answer “We didn’t discuss that we just presumed they would”. Just as there was in the Glasgow City Food plan and lots of plans around food in the city, arguably there is a lack of understanding about what people want. Instead, there is a desire to impose what they feel people need. The global food system, not through selflessness but profit, does not market’ what people should do or judge them for their choice. This approach, in the end, could be its superpower in remaining the more mainstream player in our food system. In these moments I am reminded of the French Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu and his words on explaining why people might choose food that is not nourishing, or not ‘right’ for them compared to those that have made choices they feel are better, more inline with what is ‘right’. He says; “[Hedonism] is the only philosophy conceivable to those who 'have no future' and, in any case, little to expect from the future. The being-in-the-present which is affirmed in the readiness to take advantage of the good times and take time as it comes is, in itself, an affirmation of solidarity with others ( who are often the only present guarantee against the threats of the future) , inasmuch as this temporal immanentism is a recognition of the limits which define the condition”105. What is clear from these small event examples and the historical knowledge in this dissertation is that we need to be mindful of the added biases to the redesign. We need to make sure that at any level, including the grassroots, people are represented and understood without shame or judgement. We need to remove the social class from the debate. Like the mapping exercise at the second event, connections should be designed between people and organisations for impact. A rhizome of its own needs to be created for grassroots organisations to deliver what they are trying to achieve. However, other voices from outside the redesign bubble need should be considered, especially those who are much more likely to be affected. This intersection is where designers and the designer's role could potentially play a much more valuable part in redesigning than grassroots organisations alone.
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1984. Distinction : A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (London ; New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group) pg. 183
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