Governing Bangkok's city food system: Engaging multi-stakeholders for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth

Abstract

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd This article aims to understand the governance of city food systems in Bangkok by drawing attention to: the participatory aspect of Bangkok's city food governance; the food production that emerges from the sustainable growth and inclusive nature of this governance system; and civil society's use of this as an activism able to empower communities and for such movements to be smart in bridging territorial divisions, by way local government strategies, secured through capacity-building exercises. The multitude of stakeholders involved in governing Bangkok's food system is not just inter-related, but also linked and connected from top-to-bottom. These stakeholders include central and local governments, large food corporations, civil society organizations and even the daily life practices of street food venders and mobile markets. As a result, the article suggests, the governance of the city food agenda in Bangkok is both empowered and participatory, because organizations from the top and the middle are unable to sustain the development of food systems without including ordinary people in the actions taken to create them. This suggests legal frameworks, plans and related infrastructure development, are insufficient for Bangkok be smart in sustaining the development of cities food systems. As while the public sector facilitates food production and distribution through the regionalization process (including the conservation of the peri-urban agriculture, irrigation systems development, and central fresh food markets establishment), the smart city food agenda still requires operations from below to sustain such technical innovations.