A new paper in npj Urban Sustainability explores how co-creating Edible Cities can either accelerate- or block- urban sustainability transitions.
As mentioned by the researchers, the vision of the edible city revives lost urban food traditions and gains global recognition for fostering community, democracy, and participatory urbandynamics, now framed as urban food commons. Despite diverse local contexts, urban food initiatives face recurring challenges in funding, land access, andinstitutional integration, which they analyze through co-creation processes in six Living Labs,using semi-structured interviews to explore team dynamics, working methods, and outcomes,offering lessons to guide future edible city solutions.
Through qualitative analysis of interviews with participants, they identify key factors influencing the success and effectiveness of co-creation. The findings demonstrate the transformative potential of co-creation while, at the same time, highlighting obstacles such as powerimbalances, “projectification” effects, scalability issues, and representation gaps. Co-creation was found to foster trust, collaboration, and innovative solutions, although high expectationssometimes led to frustration.
The researchers also found that social entrepreneurs played a pivotal role, though broader societal engagement remained limited. Conflicts often emerged as both challenges and opportunitiesfor joint learning. Their findings suggest that, despite its complexity, co-creation can empower communities and support pathways toward more sustainable urban transformation through collective action and innovation. They conclude by offering insights for future co-creationinitiatives, emphasizing the importance of inclusive governance, continuous reflection, and integrating Living Labs into stable institutional frameworks.
Säumel, I., Pettit, M., Reichborn-Kjennerud, K. et al. People drive or stop transitions: Lessons learned on co-creating Edible Cities. npj Urban Sustain (2026)
Early online version
We will share the final, fully laid-out version as soon as it is available.
