Emmy Laura Pérez Fjalland

Responsible Food Landscapes of the Future

Rebellious Waste & Food: Searching for reparative futures within urban-rural landscapes

Danish Architecture Center (with funding from Realdania) and the Department of People and Technology, Roskilde University (co-funded PhD)
2014-2018

In a nutshell, what was the topic of your PhD project?

My PhD project examined the sharing economy and planning, with a focus on food landscapes. The way we produce and consume food influences our natural environment and social conditions. But we rarely think about how it also influences the built environment in the form of planning of residential areas, farms, fields, kitchens and supermarkets. Not to mention urban and rural areas, waste management and infrastructure – everything that makes up the framework for our livelihoods. Based on an ethnographic and environmental history study, I explored ways of rethinking these correlations and studied a series of practices that seek to build responsible and viable food organizations.

What surprised you most about the process?

Food differs from other consumables in that it is essential for survival. I was therefore surprised to discover the isolated way in which the city thinks and how the critical infrastructures that sustain urban society are neglected, exhausted and rendered invisible. I was also surprised by how difficult it is to incorporate both rural and urban, social and environmental considerations, as well as human and environmental health and care. At the same time, there was the narrative that researchers are slow and out of touch with “reality”. While many researchers are extremely knowledgeable and have a broad perspective, it surprised me to find that the level of innovation and ambition within many institutions and organizations was in fact quite static.

What is the most important thing you have learned from writing an Industrial PhD?

In an uncertain, project-oriented work culture heavily influenced by consultancies, I found that PhD students can contribute to a more thorough and nuanced understanding of the projects, while providing an expanded range of perspectives.

What impact has your PhD project had on you, personally?

I had the opportunity to specialize and develop a theory as a close collaboration between science and local stakeholders (agriculture, food producers and planners) and thereby contribute with practice-oriented, qualified knowledge. Freedom of research is an invaluable gift because it makes it possible to develop focus and considerations independently of political and business-related interests.

What key learnings resulted from your project?

This is not the first time in human history that we have faced significant climate and environmental changes that will change life as we know it. Planning and architecture are future oriented, but there is a great deal of knowledge, learning, perspective and innovation to be found in the practices that already exist. In light of the current threat, we must ask ourselves what types of landscapes we want to survive in, under which conditions, and how our landscape-forming organizations and actions can contribute to creating viable, fair and resilient landscapes.

What makes your research relevant?

That depends on what is meant by “relevance”, and not least the time frame you are working in. The area of geography I work in is about studying how people, the environment and nature interact – and the conflicts that arise. We live with centuries of landscape organizations and reforms, and by studying current and historical cultural landscapes, I want to expand our understanding of how humans created specific landscape types, and which specific living conditions have evolved as a result of these landscapes – for humans, animals and plants.

What are the perspectives for your research?

Within environmental philosophy, there is an ongoing debate about how our view of nature and the world needs to change before we can solve today’s environmental problems. This entails changing how we visualize: We need to find “better” ways to visualize “nature” and humanity’s interaction with “it” – and humanity’s role and actions therein. We need innovations and serious tools that can work with “more-than-human” architecture and land use, and we must never lose sight of which landscapes we want to survive in and under what conditions. In this way, I believe it is possible to incorporate my project into a much broader and viable landscape-formation processes.