Urban governance: A food hall, and a city's capacity to care

Abstract

It is well understood that capitalist systems maintained by cities result in unequal distribution of economic growth, resources, and opportunities. One central dynamic contributing to these socio-spatial inequalities stems from asymmetrically distributed resources for care. Caring is a fundamental human activity that involves an attentiveness to the needs, vulnerabilities, and well-being of others. However, in many cities today, particularly in North America, political ideologies understand care as individual responsibility and achievement. Yet, at the same time, cities are also repositories that generate resistance toward inequality. Metropolises are thus beginning to factor in new ways to make care possible. This paper therefore asks: how is care, in all its forms, made possible by cities? To answer this question, it explores a city's capacity to care in ways that include but also exceed social and welfare policies. This is achieved by examining the development and operation of a pilot food incubator program in Toronto. It does so by employing community engaged research and interview strategies to make sense of the power relations between the program actors through a ‘caring with’ lens. Engaging such strategies while focusing on care reveals novel municipal governance perspectives on the one hand. On the other it offers practical implications by illustrating the program's efficacy in accomplishing its goals. Making sense of the relationship between metropolises and care, this paper argues that cities ought to be judged not on how economically competitive they are, but on how they best foster care for people and future generations.