Article | Open Access
Co‐Creating a Foundational European Food Sharing Dictionary for Just Urban Food Governance
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Abstract: Transforming urban and peri-urban (UPU) food systems towards sustainability requires not only new, more inclusive governance approaches, but also a deeper understanding of the linguistic and cultural dimensions of diverse food practices, including food sharing initiatives (FSIs). In transnational governance contexts such as the EU, where multilingualism is foundational, linguistic diversity profoundly influences how UPU foodscapes and food-related practices are conceptualised and governed. Language both reveals and conceals—rendering certain practices visible while obscuring others. This (in)visibilisation has significant policy and governance implications for recognising, protecting, and supporting diverse UPU food sharing practices. In this article, we reflect on the negotiated process of creating the first European Food Sharing Dictionary, a collaborative, co-creative, and cross-sectoral effort to translate the terms used to describe FSIs and their activities in 25 EU languages. This highlights the challenges and opportunities of negotiating meanings across cultural and geographic boundaries. We argue that understanding the socio-linguistic dimensions of food sharing not only deepens insights into UPU food sharing practices and food systems, but also creates the foundations for FSIs to build horizontal networks and coalitions across Europe. In the context of moving towards a more just post-2030 sustainability agenda, we find that such a shared, translated lexicon serves as a practical and political tool to foster visibility, solidarity, and collective action among diverse FSIs, while enabling more effective UPU food system governance.
Keywords: counter‐hegemony; food culture; food sharing initiatives; governing by translation; institutional translation; just transitions; multilingual governance; politics of language; politics of translation
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Vol 15 (2027): Urban Food Governance Beyond 2030: Resilience, Justice, and the Politics of Sustainability Transitions (In Progress)
© Dean Phelan, Anna R. Davies. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction of the work without further permission provided the original author(s) and source are credited.