Abstract:  Digital food delivery platforms (DFDPs) are transforming how food is distributed and consumed in cities, but also how urban space, infrastructure, and labor are organized. This article examines how DFDPs affect urban infrastructure in cities by analyzing their spatial, logistical, and governance impacts. Drawing on interviews with municipal officials, platform companies, and civil society actors in three Swedish cities, as well as document analysis and literature review, the study explores how DFDPs challenge conventional planning and regulatory frameworks. Using the lenses of spatial inequality, platform urbanism, and anticipatory governance, the article investigates how platforms operate through hybrid infrastructures that can affect land use, public space, and spatial equalities. While municipal responses remain fragmented and reactive, emerging experiments offer glimpses of more inclusive and future‐oriented governance. The article suggests that urban planning approaches need to recognize DFDPs as infrastructural actors and integrate them into coherent regulatory strategies.

Keywords:  anticipatory governance; digital food delivery platforms; gig economy; last‐mile delivery; platform urbanism; spatial inequality; Sweden; urban infrastructure

Published:   10 September 2025

Issue:   Vol 10 (2025): Understanding Change in Urban Food Environments: The Contemporary Challenges of Conceptualization, Definition, and Measurement (In Progress)