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Sustainable place-making for sustainability science: the contested case of agri-food and urban–rural relations

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Abstract

The paper explores the concept of ‘sustainable place-making’ and its necessary relationships and opportunities with the emerging, broader and interdisciplinary field of sustainability science. This implies a reconsideration of the new and emerging interrelationships between economy, community and ecology as a basis for active place-making. The paper then examines the new dynamics of place-making with regard to the contested emergence of the bio-economy and the eco-economy, and the principles and place framings that lie behind these competing paradigms of spatial development. The reference point here is agri-food and urban–rural relations; and it is argued that research in these fields is in need of being contextualised critically and normatively within this dynamic, highly contested and place-making context. The analysis also holds important implications for a more critical and engaging sustainability science.

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Notes

  1. The term ‘place’ here is used to denote a locale that embraces different combinations of social, cultural, community, economic and ecological facets. This is to be distinguished as Gieryn (2000) does from the use of ‘space’ that represents a more cartographic and Cartesian understanding of locale.

  2. The arguments in the second part of this paper are based upon a series of related empirical research projects that have created a comparative analysis of rural development cases [see Horlings and Marsden 2008; van der Ploeg and Marsden (eds) 2008; Ventura and Milone (eds) 2010].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sustainable Places Research Institute, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK

    Terry Marsden

  2. Environmental Policy and Planning, School of City and Regional Planning, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK

    Terry Marsden

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  1. Terry Marsden
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Correspondence to Terry Marsden.

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Handled by Richard Bawden, Systemic Development Institute, Australia.

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Marsden, T. Sustainable place-making for sustainability science: the contested case of agri-food and urban–rural relations. Sustain Sci 8, 213–226 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-012-0186-0

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