Agriculture and Human Values 
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-023-10507-6
DISCUSSION PIECE
Bringing together urban systems and food systems theory 
and research is overdue: understanding the relationships 
between food and nutrition infrastructures along a continuum 
of contested and hybrid access
Living Off-Grid Food and Infrastructure Collaboration (LOGIC) · Jane Battersby1  · Mercy Brown-Luthango2  · 
Issahaka Fuseini3  · Herry Gulabani4  · Gareth Haysom2  · Ben Jackson5  · Vrashali Khandelwal4  · 
Hayley MacGregor5  · Sudeshna Mitra4  · Nicholas Nisbett5  · Iromi Perera6 · Dolf te Lintelo5  · Jodie Thorpe5 · 
Percy Toriro2
Accepted: 29 August 2023 
© The Author(s) 2023
Abstract
Urban dwellers’ food and nutritional wellbeing are both dependent on infrastructure and can be indicative of wider wellbeing 
in urban contexts and societal health. This paper focuses on the multiple relationships that exist between food and infrastruc-
ture to provide a thorough theoretical and empirical grounding to urgent work on urban food security and nutrition in the 
context of rapid urban and nutrition transitions in the South. We argue that urban systems and food systems thinking have not 
been well aligned, but that such alignment is not only timely and overdue but also fruitful for both thematic areas of research 
and policy. We draw in particular on work within wider urban political economy and political ecology that can be classified 
as part of the ‘infrastructural turn’ that is influential with urban studies but little acknowledged within food studies. Drawing 
on these literatures helps us to better understand the interrelationships between people, things and ideas that make up both 
infrastructure and food systems. Policy, planning and research relating to both food and urban systems cannot afford to ignore 
such interlinkages, though much policy still operates on the neat assumptions of progressive connectivity to ‘the grid’ and 
formal food retail. Instead we argue how in many urban governance systems, a variety of hybrid mechanisms—on and off 
the grid, public and private formal and informal—better represent how urban residents, particularly the most marginalised, 
meet their everyday food and infrastructural needs along a continuum of gridded and off-grid access.
Keywords Food · Malnutrition · Infrastructure · Assemblage · Marginalisation
The Living Off-Grid Food and Infrastructure Collaboration is 
a research partnership of the African Centre for Cities (ACC) 
at the University of Cape Town, the Indian Institute for Human 
Settlements (IIHS), Colombo Urban Lab, the University of Ghana 
and the Institute of Development Studies. We are funded initially by 
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
*  Nicholas Nisbett 3 Department of Adult Education and Human Resources 
 n.nisbett@ids.ac.uk Studies, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana
4
1 Environmental and Geographical Science Department,  Indian Institute for Human Settlements, Bangalore, India
University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa 5 Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, 
2 African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town, Brighton, UK
Cape Town, South Africa 6 Colombo Urban Lab, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Vol.:(012 3456789)
 J. Battersby et al.
Introduction relationships that govern how people meet their basic 
needs. Every point of the food system is bounded by these 
The Living Off-Grid Food and Infrastructure Collabora- infrastructural dependencies – growing, producing, stor-
tion (Box 1) convened to answer, initially, the following ing, transporting, purchasing, cooking. But if this has been 
question: “how is marginalised people’s food and nutri- studied, it has been only in cursory or instrumental ways 
tion security shaped by urban infrastructure assemblages which focus on physical infrastructure access. Working with 
in a variety of ‘off-grid’ settings in Asian and African an updated understanding of all infrastructures, including 
Cities”?.1 The conceptual approach outlined here links food as hybrids or assemblages (of social, political, material 
literatures on urban food governance, urban systems and and natural relationships), enhances our understanding of 
infrastructure assemblages, and uses this to focus on the the everyday negotiations necessary to meet all basic needs 
interactions of such assemblages in the lives of the margin- together. We outline the political-economy of such infra-
alised with implications for food. Much of this work has structure and the need to think of degrees of ‘griddedness’ 
been siloed – whether on food, or work on separate infra- along a continuum, rather than a binary of ‘off’ or ‘on’ grid, 
structures, for example on water or electricity. Extending formal or informal, public or private.
this to look more concretely at how food is implicated A final section focuses on the need for both urban plan-
within infrastructure assemblages, we draw on urban polit- ning and urban food systems thinking to be updated in rela-
ical ecology and other critical studies of urban systems to tion to such developments. The use of food as a lens into 
understand how such urban infrastructures function, i.e., the contemporary Southern city facilitates a rich, thick and 
the everyday improvisations, negotiations, contestations robust enquiry into Southern urban infrastructure challenges 
around key forms of urban infrastructure in relation to and emergent responses and politics, not just on questions 
food. This is based on our premise that people’s food and of food, but also consideration of multiple urban challenges. 
nutrition situations are both dependent on infrastructure Yet to a large extent, enquiry into urban food systems, and 
and can be indicative of wider wellbeing in urban con- proposed responses, have been informed by limited perspec-
texts including broader infrastructural or societal health. tives, as well as assumptions emerging from Northern cities 
Drawing on the wider literature and some of the earlier and processes. These assumptions include those in policy 
empirical work of our partners (Box 1), this paper focuses and mainstream infrastructure financing that services will 
on the multiple relationships between food and infrastruc- be delivered through increasingly integrated grids that are 
ture to provide a thorough conceptual grounding to the formal, static and physical and via imagined and ‘progres-
work ahead. sive, universal’ access. Such assumptions have little engage-
The first section of this paper focuses on the relationship ment with the political economy of cities in the Global South 
between urban food systems and city systems. While there is (Gillespie & Schindler 2022; Schindler & Kanai 2021; Gol-
some—albeit patchy—work on urban food and malnutrition lin et al. 2016). Embracing the idea of hybridity and the 
in the South, dominant conceptualisations of food systems continuum of access we set out here can help new planning 
and urban systems have been operating in thematic or epis- rationalities adapt to Southern realities of urban food and 
temic silos and therefore have decades of lost conceptual and urban infrastructural access.
empirical ground to catch up on. We argue that urban food 
systems cannot and must not be theorised and studied as The Living Off‑Grid Food and Infrastructure 
separate from urban systems because a lack of understanding Collaboration
of the realities facing urban dwellers and urban systems will 
only lead to maladaptive policies, including those that crimi- The Living Off-Grid Food and Infrastructure Collabora-
nalise existing coping strategies and ways of living which do tion is a research partnership of the African Centre for 
not conform to a planned ideal. Cities (ACC) at the University of Cape Town, Colombo 
The second section then focuses on the relationship Urban Lab, the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) 
between food and infrastructure. The infrastructural turn in at the University of Sussex, UK, the Indian Institute for 
urban studies, geography and other disciplines has largely Human Settlements (IIHS), and the University of Ghana. 
ignored—and been ignored by—food studies. Infrastructure IDS convened the partnership in March 2020 with fund-
here is taken to mean the social and material and discursive ing from the UK’s Economic and Social Research Coun-
cil. Work has focused on 5 cities across South Asia and 
Sub-Saharan Africa: Bengalaru, India; Colombo, Sri 
1 By ‘off-grid’ we mean in settlements lacking continuous access to a Lanka; Mossel Bay, South Africa; Harare/Epworth, Zim-
formal grid or network of traditional infrastructure – but as we go on 
to argue, both the traditional idea of the ‘grid’ and being ‘off-grid’, as babwe and Tamale, Ghana. These cities present a selec-
well as the notion of infrastructure, need re-examining in the light of tion of secondary cities, one capital city and a satellite 
much recent literature in this area.
1 3
Bringing together urban systems and food systems theory and research is overdue: understanding…
(Epworth) of a capital, with populations ranging from national development and political processes. As Pieterse 
under two hundred thousand (Tamale) to over thirteen et al (2018:151) have argued in the context of Africa “this 
million (Bangalore). Research and research outputs are scalar recalibration assumes greater urgency for Africa[…]
led by teams who live in each city and in most cases have because the urban transition of the next few decades will 
researched the urban environment for many years. Our be formative of future developmental opportunities … 
backgrounds include training in anthropology, geogra- the demographic clock is ticking and the next two to three 
phy, urbanism, planning, as well as activism and policy decades will define the urban transition”. Avoiding a path 
making. Our enquiry into the intersections between food dependency embedded in unsustainable physical and social 
and infrastructure at the city scale is the result of research infrastructures requires urgent theoretical and policy engage-
activities over the past 15 years into urban food, health ment given the uncertainty as to how Southern countries, 
and nutrition, has been informed by various collabora- and cities, figure out different approaches to ensure that the 
tions between project partners and insights from the basic needs of their citizens are met, whilst simultaneously 
research sites. This is the first in a series of papers to creating the infrastructural platforms for growth, but within 
emerge from this present collaboration and is intended to the context of significant climate and ecological limits.
bring our thinking together as a partnership and provide Related to this demographic and urban transition is a 
a conceptual grounding for further work ahead: as we nutritional transition. The population of food and nutrition 
write in May 2023, we have a number of further empiri- insecure urban residents is growing in absolute terms in 
cal contributions already planned and underway. Further many cities in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa (Hawkes 
outputs from the project will be available at www.i ds.a c. & Fanzo 2017; Ruel et al. 2017; Crush et al. 2012; Popkin 
uk/ projec ts/ rethin king- the- off- grid-c ity. et al. 2012) and is relatively higher in informal and mar-ginalised urban settlements (Huey et al. 2019; Crush & 
Frayne 2010). The globalisation and industrialisation of 
The context of Southern Urbanism: linked many urban and national food systems has led to longer and 
rapid urban and nutrition transitions more complex food value chains reaching the cities of the global South, as basic ingredients undergo multiple trans-
Many cities in the South are undergoing significant and rapid formations that result in increasingly more complex and 
demographic (UN DESA 2018) and dietary change (GNR processed food products (Gillespie & van den Bold 2017). 
2020), albeit at different speeds and from different starting This has happened to a great extent in Sub-Saharan Africa, 
points. In South Africa, for example, there has been a rise particularly South Africa, though to a lesser extent in India, 
in the consumption of unhealthy foods and, in particular, where national legislation has held multinational entry into 
ultra-processed foods (Moodie, et al. 2021, p. 970), existing supermarket retail in check.
also alongside conditions of urban food scarcity (Van der While processing infrastructure can reduce food losses 
Berg et al 2022; Battersby & McLachlan 2013). In India, (e.g. spoilage or wastage due to palatability) and the like-
rates of urban obesity have been estimated as high as 44% lihood of food-borne illnesses, especially where storage, 
for women and 34% for men (National Nutrition Monitoring refrigeration, energy and water and sanitation infrastructure 
Bureau 2017). are inadequate, it can also lead to increased consumption of 
It is possible to contextualise these changes as a set of ultra-processed foods and foods high in saturated fats, sugar 
interrelated transitions, which form the backdrop of this and salt (Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for 
research and the wider policy exigencies faced by municipal Nutrition 2016; International Food Policy Research Institute 
and national actors. The first is a continuing demographic 2017; HLPE 2017; Baker et al. 2020). These consumption 
transition, with the population of SSA African countries, patterns are also influenced by the intensification of adver-
combined, expected to reach 2.1 billion and the popula- tising and marketing of comparably cheap industrialized 
tion of South and Central Asia 2.6 billion, by 2050 (United products (Moodie et al. 2021). Data from six countries in 
Nations 2022). This is also an urban transition – with 1.56 Sub-Saharan Africa show that over 30% of the purchase of 
billion more people living in cities by 2040 compared to those living on less than $2 day is highly processed foods, 
2020; with 52% of this growth in Asia and 30% in Sub- contributing calories but not micronutrients to the diet 
Saharan Africa (Satterthwaite 2020 citing UN DESA 2018). (GOPAN 2016), influenced by poor availability and limited 
Related to this rapid expansion of Southern cities there is a affordability of healthier options.
concerted drive, informed by shifting geopolitics, invest- Understanding how these transitions combine and inter-
ment objectives and a general development trajectory, to act – and particularly who are the winners and losers of 
invest heavily in urban infrastructure. (Gillespie & Schindler such processes—is the urgent agenda of food systems and 
2022). These urban processes influence and direct, in turn, urban systems scholarship and policy in Southern cities. The contribution of this paper is to focus on some of the 
1 3
 J. Battersby et al.
most contested and important relationships, those between interlinking parts and feedback loops, connecting the food 
everyday infrastructure access and the food and nutritional supply chain, the food environment and individual behav-
wellbeing of urban populations. iour (Berkum, Dengerink, & Ruben 2018; HLPE 2017). This 
food systems approach supports a shift to better food and 
urban studies integration, with an attendant movement away 
Understanding city systems through the lens from linear conceptualizations of agricultural ‘value chains’ 
of food and understanding food systems bringing food from farm to fork, to thinking in terms of 
through the lens of cities processes and interactions in which environmental, techno-
logical, political, economic, social, demographic and infra-
“In many cities in developing countries, hunger and structural factors shape food environments, which eventually 
malnutrition are common amongst the poor, even influence diet quality (HLPE 2017). In this understanding, 
when food is relatively abundant. Over the past two material flows and market exchanges are still important, but 
decades, a considerable literature has accumulated are conditioned by technologies, information and infrastruc-
on the problems associated with rapid urbanization ture as well as formal and informal governance processes 
in developing countries – a literature that for the and their inherent power dynamics. As we argue in the next 
most part has neglected the important dimension section, these developments in conceptualising food systems 
of urban food systems and how these link produc- bring food systems thinking more in line with urban systems 
tion and consumption networks at local, regional thinking than has been the case for decades.
and global levels. Similarly, whilst there is a newly Despite these developments, city systems and the range 
burgeoning literature on global food systems, the of human and non-human agents which inhabit them are 
contextual role of the urbanization process is rarely often viewed simply as recipients of food flows, not as active 
addressed.” agents in food systems at different scales. This invisibilises 
Smith, 1998: 207 the important overlap between informal food retail as a 
source of livelihood and as a source of food access, espe-
Despite Smith’s call to arms nearly 25 years ago, analysis of cially for marginalised populations in cities of the Global 
how urban systems and the food system intersect have not South. Equally, urban residents are often viewed as the key 
been the primary focus of urban research in the global South food system decisions makers (in part as a result of Sen’s 
(Hunter-Adams et al. 2019; van der Valk & Viljoen 2014; (1981) entitlements framing). But without context, a view 
Donovan et al. 2011). Food and the wider externalities pro- of active individual and household agency driving food sys-
duced by the food system remain largely the focus of rural tem outcomes can be prejudicial, blaming the poor for bad 
and agrarian studies in Southern contexts. Urban food and decisions, and for not exerting relevant voice and agency 
malnutrition have been studied, yet still in a very patchy way “if they do know better” on one hand, and criminalising 
compared to the sheer volume of work on rural food security the forms of agent- driven, non- formal food retail that are 
and nutrition. Urban planning policies focus on transport or prevalent across cities of the Global South, on the other. 
sanitation infrastructure and other public services, paying A more radical vision, one that would be recognisable to 
little heed to food-specific concerns (Pothukuchi & Kaufman David Smith’s urban political economy of uneven develop-
1999; Battersby 2017). Many urban food responses remain ment, sees the current urban food system as the result of 
small and are largely project based, seldom engaging in deep historical structuring aligned to both dispossession and 
wider food system or urban policy questions directly. But marginalisation of particular urban communities, cultures, 
greater understanding of food and nutrition in relation to workers (Duminy 2018) and their interaction with socio-
urban arrangements is essential to engage in effective urban natural processes or infrastructures such as water or food. 
food, urban governance and nutrition planning in Southern Brunori et al (2020) also challenge the conventional food 
cities. This understanding needs to interrogate the range of systems model by suggesting that territories often have mul-
material, structural and socio-political inadequacies in the tiple, co-existing food models, with multiple conventions, 
urban environment that shape both food and urban systems, configurations (Fournier & Touzard 2014; Reardon & Tim-
particularly if it is to be alive to the situation of marginalised mer 2012), and actors, which adapt and evolve in keeping 
urban residents. with changing needs, objectives and capabilities, over time.
It is a productive time to better link together work on Marginalised populations are those socio-economically 
urban systems and food systems. In studies of food and food poorest groups in the city who, by dint of further dimensions 
security, the past 5–10 years has seen a transition towards of exclusion, find access to formal infrastructure (publicly 
thinking about food in its totality, moving towards an provided or by a state contracted provider) particularly dif-
understanding of food as a complex system with multiple ficult. These dimensions of exclusion can include physi-cal settlement type and location (e.g. informal slum/shack 
1 3
Bringing together urban systems and food systems theory and research is overdue: understanding…
dwellings and the range of associated tenures, or resettle- assemblages as a way of describing relationships between 
ment schemes), which intersect with forms of identity based things, people and ideas that come to matter in immanent 
/ embodied discrimination (e.g. on the basis of gender, age, socio-material arrangements (Anderson & McFarlane 2011). 
caste, ethnicity, sexuality or disability or identities pertain- Such arrangements can reflect a kind of distributed agency 
ing to legal status or place of origin e.g. ‘migrant’, ‘rural’). between the components of an assemblage: ideas, for exam-
Residents in neighbourhoods with grid coverage may also ple, only hold power when they are given life by the social 
experience access unequally – with marginalisation mediat- and physical arrangements that manifest them. These struc-
ing different experiences of infrastructure (de Groot et al. tures can be temporary, or more durable, but the role of the 
2017). Women, for example, already experience this pre- scholar is to understand what particular “patterns of differ-
carity to a higher degree: they may face greater barriers for ence which make a difference” (Barad 2007) in any given 
economic and social mobility, may have reduced access to field – and in social science this tends to involve a focus on 
infrastructure and services, such as transport or sanitation, the power dynamics, or political economy of who is served 
and bear the brunt of inadequate infrastructure provision as by difference assemblages. Hence a focus on assemblage 
they spend time on water and fuel collection and waste dis- can aid the move from abstract ideas: “the market”, “the 
posal due to the unequal distribution of care tasks (OECD/ city”, “the food system” or even “social structure” to chart-
SWAC 2020; Parikh et al. 2015; Floro & Swain 2013; Mitra ing particular instances of how these ideas come into being 
& Rao 2019). In many contexts such marginalisation is for people at particular times. Infrastructural assemblages 
experienced intersectionally: Yassa Truelove, for example therefore reference multiple arrangements of infrastructure 
describes how in urban Delhi “[e]verything from one’s age access determined not only by physical infrastructure, but 
and gender identity to one’s position in networks of social the social and political relationships, and ideologies operat-
capital shape the means by which water is actually person- ing and influencing access, at multiple city scales (Desai 
ally procured, the household distribution of such water, and et al. 2015; Redfield & Robins 2016).
the meaning of particular water-related interactions— which Greater understanding is required of how infrastructures 
in turn are productive of subjectivities” (Truelove 2011, p. interact in different ways and at different times to improve 
146). or further burden poor people’s lives. Inadequacies in access 
and supply to infrastructures can undermine the ability to 
safely cook, clean, store, supply, manufacture and grow food, 
Food and infrastructures’ deep and dispose of or reuse food waste (Sibanda & von Blotnitz 
relationalities 2019; Morgan & Sonnino 2010; Morgan 2009). Infrastruc-tural gaps thus become long term stressors that can con-
tribute to the burden of enteric (gut) infection, affecting the 
More than with any other of our biological needs, the long term wellbeing (Hunter Adams et al. 2019), health and 
choices we make about food affect the shape, style, productivity of people in poor settlements, and impact child 
pulse, smell, look, feel, health, economy, street life growth and maternal health in particular (Hunter-Adams 
and infrastructure of our city.... Given the overarching et al 2019; Ahmed et al 2015). Diet related non-commu-
importance of food in urban life, planners need to put nicable disease are increasingly prevalent in LMICs. This 
food closer to the top of their planning menu can be attributed in part to urban diets, which are shaped 
Roberts 2001:4 by responses of both food system actors and consumers to 
lived experiences of infrastructure. Assumptions of health 
As Wayne Roberts wrote not long after David Smith, it is authorities that NCDs are to be addressed at the level of 
also important to take a food lens when considering urban individual consumption and ‘lifestyle’ and dietary ‘risk fac-
infrastructures: food systems influence city form and infra- tors’ ignores the wider infrastructural factors and their inter-
structure use, and infrastructure access influences food linkages that determine, for example, what food people can 
choices. The linked food and fuel crises experienced by choose, afford and cook.
many countries have focused minds and policy on the nexus Because of this dependence on a range of infrastructures, 
of dependencies between energy and food and other infra- food and nutrition security provides a useful lens to interro-
structural flows including water and transport. In any urban gate infrastructure assemblages as well as being a fundamen-
food system, food security and wider nutritional wellbeing tal marker of urban wellbeing. Existing urban research charts 
is dependent on a wide range of material, social and natural the experience of infrastructure access as one of hybridity 
infrastructures, operating as multiple and immanent infra- (Jaglin 2015; Smith 2019; Lawhon et al 2018). These hybrid 
structural assemblages. arrangements are imbued with power structures and socio-
The term infrastructural assemblage draws both on litera- political dynamics that are context specific and further 
ture from within urban studies but also on wider literature on condition their experiences. Together these are the factors 
1 3
 J. Battersby et al.
that condition or shape the possibilities for individuals and Watson 2017; Leck 2012). Furlong (2014) argues that in 
households pursuing different food strategies. cities of the South, infrastructure access is characterised by 
Water stresses represent a classic example of the infra- the coexistence of a number of different configurations of 
structural precarities that have been studied extensively in socio-technical systems e.g. in terms of electricity access 
terms of urban infrastructures and which have obvious links these might include power sharing, off-grid solutions like 
to a number of different aspects of food from production, electricity generators, etc. Other authors agree that formal 
processing and retail, to home preparation, cooking and grids have limited coverage and limited reach amongst the 
waste disposal. In areas of high-water stresses, everyday urban population (Jaglin 2014; Graham & McFarlane 2014; 
access to water can depend on structures outside the con- Bayat 2000; Schulman & Roe 2016) and describe arrange-
trol of many individuals. Infrequent access to water during ments as hybrid (Furlong 2014; Larkin 2008), incremental 
the day, or perhaps access being dependent on proximity to (Silver 2014), post-networked (Coutard & Rutherford 2011; 
the supply or social-political connections means even the Monstadt & Schramm 2017), as well as peopled and lived 
use of water for cooking is precarious and can change in an (Graham & McFarlane 2014; Simone 2004).
instant. Reliance on contaminated water supplies can lead Lawhon et al (2018: 722) propose the concept of ‘hetero-
to health risks that can have knock-on effects on individuals geneous infrastructure configurations’ (HICs), arguing that 
and families, especially when it exacerbates already exist- this enables a clearer analysis of infrastructural artefacts not 
ing gender inequalities where familial roles are pre-defined as individual objects but as parts of geographically spread 
(Borie et al. 2019; Harris et al. 2018). Contaminated water is socio-technological configurations: configurations which 
not just a natural stress, but can also have economic, politi- might involve many different kinds of technologies, rela-
cal and social elements. Within Indian and Sri Lankan cities tions, capacities and operations, entailing different risks and 
there have been examples of how projects, under the guise power relationships.
of development, have led to water being redistributed from 
poorer communities towards wealthier new building devel- [Heterogeneous infrastructure configurations] means 
opments (Björkman 2015), or forcing poorer communities to recognising people and their movements and con-
formally access the grid and thereby making it unaffordable nectivities as well as conditions of precarity. It means 
to access water as they used to previously through public accepting that sometimes [infrastructures] will not be 
taps and other common infrastructure. So in this case access working, but also that working and not working is not a 
is not about physical infrastructure but about the idea of dif- binary but a multifaceted, constrained decision-making 
ferent forms of distribution and ‘cost recovery’. process. It means recognising that [infrastructures] are 
Given the numerous constraints in accessing formalised enrolled in dynamic networks of power that shape not 
grids of infrastructure use, attention has shifted to forms of just permission to use, or cost of use, but the possi-
infrastructure that exist in off-grid categories, sometimes bilities for intervention; there are social norms that 
extolling the possibilities of e.g. domestic solar arrays. construct a toilet’s usability but that usability is always 
Granted, such off-grid service delivery arrangements (Jaglin in relation to what other options exist.
2014) can make everyday forms of coping possible for many Lawhon et al. 2018: 729
urban residents, and sometimes offer more sustainable solu-
tions to particular urban growth patterns. However, they are Drawing on the critiques of formal grid and planning 
also often associated with disproportionately high time and assumptions we outlined above, we have adopted a focus on 
cost burdens, inadequate quality and quantity of services, a ‘gridded continuum’ of infrastructure access as a fram-
and vulnerability to political, social and environmental dis- ing for our own research. In addition to incorporating the 
ruptions (McFarlane 2010). Greater understanding is also insights from the literature discussed above, the idea of a 
required of the different arrangements to access infrastruc- continuum captures our interest in the full range of shifting 
tures: rather than conforming to a binary on/off grid catego- and fluid arrangements, moving between formal and unof-
ries, access can also be viewed as occurring along a more ficial, whilst also enabling understanding of the agency and 
complex and shifting continuum, in which urban dwellers relationships that lie along the grid/off- grid spectrum, and 
build in a number of deliberate system ‘redundancies’ in that animate infrastructure in cities of the global South. In 
order to ensure, or approach, continuity of supply. approaching the lived complexities of infrastructure through 
Coutard (2010), as referenced in Jaglin (2014) defines a the nomenclature of a ‘gridded continuum’, we are acknowl-
grid as ‘a set of interconnected structures, centrally planned edging that state- defined urban plans, as well as much of 
and managed by a single-monopoly based public util- national/ international funding for infrastructure continue to 
ity offering uniform service’. However, the limitations of prioritise ‘gridded’ infrastructure systems and focus finan-
‘gridded’ conceptions of infrastructure in the global South cial and institutional means towards their progressive reali-
has been a recurrent theme for urban scholars (Skinner & zation. As such, pathways of change need to acknowledge 
1 3
Bringing together urban systems and food systems theory and research is overdue: understanding…
these extant regulatory and fiscal structures, and find ways the last to – or never do – access formal provision. Gaps 
to expand and move beyond them. in local authorities’ knowledge and assumptions about the 
relationship between infrastructure and food (including 
how people meet their needs at the interstices of ‘on- ‘ and 
The need to radically overhaul food ‘off-grid’, along a continuum of different provisioning – see 
and Infrastructural visions below) can either undermine (Battersby & Muwowo 2019; 
Steyn et al. 2013; Mboganie Mwangi et al. 2002) or crimi-
For urban planners and urban governance actors, the devel- nalise existing provision (such as street vending) (Skinner 
opment of food systems and the infrastructure that supports 2016; Bénit-Gbaffou 2016; Roy 2005), adding to the precar-
them is often assumed—and then subsequently envisioned ity of food supply, of health and of poor people’s livelihoods.
in formal planning—to involve increasing formalisation of In effect, in many rapidly urbanising cities in low- and 
food trade and, in parallel, the development of gridded infra- middle-income countries, there is a widening gap between 
structure connections (roads, information, water, electric- official plans for spatial and infrastructural planning (and 
ity). However, the Southern urban reality is quite different. their partial implementation) and what people have con-
With infrastructure network priorities often following real structed for themselves, some of which may reference the 
estate development potential in cities, many economically formal grid and official plans, but do not comply with them 
and socially depressed areas continue to remain off- grid fully. This might include, for example, local borewell micro-
despite new capital expenditure. In some cases such service grids that mirror the network plans of city- scale macro- 
denial and resulting perpetuation of informal settlements grids of water that supply water brought into the city from 
might be deliberate to enable future more profitable forms regional water sources such as rivers etc., but do not (for 
of development (Graham & Marvin 2002; Cabannes et al. example) comply with the municipal water treatment pro-
2010; Roy 2005; Swilling 2011). Formal grids of infrastruc- tocols that water supply in the macro grids have to adhere 
ture for basic services often cater to only a small proportion to.. This translates to limited official capacities to improve 
of the urban population and official plans are often not fully and regulate on-ground infrastructure arrangements. Perhaps 
or equally implemented across inhabited urban spaces. compounding the marginalization and penalization of urban 
In the absence of the fixed grids envisaged by formal residents has been the urban planner’ modernist approach 
planning, hybrid assemblages of infrastructure provision- to planning that has produced plans detached from common 
ing, by individuals and private players, fill the need-gap, peopl’s lived experience and even criminalise critical urban 
often at high prices and/or low quality (Jaglin 2014; Gra- food infrastructure such as street trading and hawking.2 
ham & McFarlane 2014) or in ways that transfer risk to the Worse, most urban planners working in these poor environ-
poor. These might include jerry-rigged electricity connec- ments are blind to food matters despite wielding massive 
tions, communal areas for open defecation, water trucks, authority over land use and infrastructure provision (Toriro, 
privately owned bore-wells or generators, networks of kero- 2019). Critical work on planning has therefore focused on 
sene, and gas canister retail or the use of solar panels. Such recognising forms of ‘rationality’ in infrastructure use that 
arrangements can be the reality for people from a range of may be different for the poor (Watson 2003), searching for 
socio-economic backgrounds. Urban populations, including new workable modes of service consumption (Jaglin 2014) 
marginalised households and informal traders, may thus be in the off-grid areas of informal settlements (Swilling 2016) 
‘off- grid’ in multiple and shifting ways, i.e. have limited or and breaking the power regimes that have corrupted efforts 
no access to formal physical infrastructure grids of water, at creating universal affordable service coverage (Cirolia 
energy, sanitation, as well as limited or no connections to 2020). While formal planning policy can assume progressive 
intangible but official ‘grids’ of government records, infor- realisation of ‘grid access’ in the form of greater inclusion in 
mation systems and public communications associated state provision, factors such as reliability (Schulman & Roe 
with public provisioning of key services and support (Bayat 2016) and stability of existing auto-constructed systems that 
2000). Gaining connections in the first place, and ensur- are locally embedded, maintained and repaired, may be more 
ing their maintenance and repair (Graham & Thrift 2007), important to build on.
depends on a complex set of interpersonal relationships that Only by studying a variety of these arrangements will we 
people must navigate (but often imperfectly). This might begin to understand the political economy, the socio- mate-
include negotiations or building relationships over time with rial dynamism (the making, repair, rejigging), and the decen-
a variety of actors such as kin, local fixers, politicians, pri- tering of agency that characterizes the various arrangements 
vate vendors, public servants, police and legal authorities.
A formal gridded approach to planning which attempts 2
to sweep away such other forms of infrastructure may pose  Though such criminalisation might also relate to other forms of municipal or national regulation such as food hygiene (te Lintelo 
unanticipated risks to the most marginalised, who are often 2009). See also Skinner 2016; Bénit-Gbaffou 2016; Roy 2005).
1 3
 J. Battersby et al.
for food and infrastructure access for urban residents in it can itself be considered as part of the essential infrastruc-
Southern Cities. The understanding of these diverse systems ture needed to support people’s basic needs, we find this a 
is also a way to move beyond the traditional role ascribed key omission in both theoretical and policy oriented work. 
to the state as a ‘builder’ of comprehensive macro grids, Simply trying to chart urban systems separately can lead to 
to that of a ‘regulator’ (of quality, price) and manager of top-down visions and responses to urban issues. Instead, pol-
multiple infrastructural provisioning systems, that involve icy and activism, planning and research need to foreground 
not only a corporate version of the private sector, but also the everyday contestations and experience of food within 
other ‘private’ providers, which may be community- led, wider urban systems and view both food and other forms 
non- profit- led, etc.. of infrastructure as intersecting assemblages of people and 
Such findings lead the way to what further engagement ideas as well as the networks or flows or formal ‘gridded’ 
might need to happen between researchers, people with lived arrangements of things most commonly considered as infra-
experience of such arrangements, policy makers, activists structure. Such arrangements are best viewed not as ‘on-
and broader civil society. The kinds of infrastructural assem- grid’ or ‘off-grid’ but as an instable continuum of possibili-
blages we note in this paper are likely to be hidden or invis- ties and barriers to access, particularly when viewed through 
ible to many policy makers, engineers, planners and others the experience of those who are most marginalised in urban 
concerned with governing the urban environment, particu- contexts / forgotten by the rationality of planned visions of 
larly if they are viewed via the binary of being ‘on’ and ‘off- the city, its food and its other infrastructural systems.
grid. Notably, when we began this research, understanding 
food’s infrastructural dependencies was seen as something Acknowledgements The Living Off-Grid Food and Infrastructure Col-laboration (LOGIC), is a research partnership a partnership of the Afri-
of a niche topic. The covid, food and fuel crises that have can Centre for Cities (ACC) at the University of Cape Town, the Indian 
been experienced in many countries has not only highlighted Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), Colombo Urban Lab, the Uni-
the links between, for example, electricity costs and the versity of Ghana and the Institute of Development Studies. We are 
ability to prepare basic meals, but it has also highlighted a funded initially by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). This paper is a product of the Living Off-Grid Food and Infrastructure Collaboration.
number of other aspects of the infrastructural assemblages 
that constitute food and nutrition security for urban fami- Funding We are grateful to UK Research and Innovation for their fund-
lies, from the diversity of food provisioning that has sprung ing, grant # ES/T007958/1. We are grateful to Lesli Hoey and to Annie 
up from communities and civil society to deal with the cri- Wilkinson for their comments on an earlier working paper.
ses (from community kitchens and gardens to community Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attri-
stores and food banks) – bridging in many cases the gaps bution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adapta-
in the continuum of provision that we refer to as gridded- tion, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long 
ness (Jehlička et al. (2019) make a similar point in relation as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes 
to widespread networks of home gardening and sharing in were made. The images or other third party material in this article are 
the Czech republic which they argue represent both a site included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated 
of “low-level resistance and [a potential site of] transfor- otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in 
mation” (p523)). The role of researchers and engaged and the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will 
action research, we argue, is to help translate and make vis- need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a 
ible such arrangements, but not by doing so uncritically or copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
romantically, but by bringing to light the underlying ideolo-
gies and discourses and deeply historicised processes that 
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Swilling, M. 2016. Africa’s game changers and the catalsysts of social Issahaka Fuseini is an urban geographer, specializing in urban govern-
and system innovation. Ecology and Society. https:// doi. org/ 10. ance and urban planning. He is currently based at the Department of 
5751/ ES- 08226-2 10137. Adult Education and Human Resource Studies, University of Ghana. 
te Lintelo, D.J.H. 2009. The spatial politics of food hygiene: Regulating Issahaka’s research interest spans questions of access to urban services 
small-scale retail in Delhi. Eur J Dev Res 21: 63–80. and infrastructure, urban food security, community development and 
Truelove, Y. 2011. (Re-) Conceptualizing water inequality in Delhi, inclusive urban development. Issahaka’s recent research has focused 
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42 (2): 143–152. section between urban governance and urban planning and urban 
UN DESA 2018. World Urbanization Prospects 2018, United Nations citizens’ food and nutrition well-being. He has worked with numerous 
Department of Economic and Social Affairs. https:// popul ation. teams on funded projects that focused on these subjects. Issahaka also 
un. org/w up/ plays an active role in civil society engagement and processes pertain-
United Nations 2022. World Population Prospects 2022: Summary ing to urban governance and service delivery at both the local and the 
of Results, United Nations Department of Economic and Social national levels in Ghana.
Affairs. https://w ww.u n.o rg/d evelo pment/d esa/p d/c onten t/W orld- 
Popula tion- Prosp ects- 2022 Herry Gulabani is a researcher with the Urban Informatics Lab at 
van der Valk, A., & Viljoen, A. 2014. ‘AESOP’s Thematic Groups– Indian Institute for Human Settlements. His research looks at data and 
Part 3: The Sustainable Food Planning Thematic Group’. disP-The quantitative methods in the urban with a focus on planning and eco-
Planning Review, 50(4): 78–82. https:// doi. org/ 10. 1080/ 02513 nomic development in the context of land, infrastructure and urban 
625.2 014.1 00764 7 economy.
Van der Berg, S.; Patel, L. & Bridgman, G. 2022. ‘Food Insecurity 
in South Africa: Evidence from NIDS- CRAM Wave 5’, Devel- Gareth Haysom is an urban food systems researcher at the African 
opment Southern Africa, 39.(5): 722–37 https:// doi. org/ 10. 1080/ Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town. Gareth co-leads (with 
03768 35X.2 022. 206229 9 Jane Battersby) the Urban Food Systems Research Cluster at the ACC. 
Watson, V. 2003. Conflicting rationalities: Implications for planning He holds a PhD from the University of Cape Town and a MPhil from 
theory and ethics. Planning Theory & Practice 4 (4): 395–407. Stellenbosch University. Gareth’s work focuses on the intersection 
https:// doi. org/ 10. 1080/ 146493 50320 0014 6318. between the urban system and the food system. Gareth uses food as a 
lens to better understand urbanisation in cities of the global South with 
Publisher's Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to a specific interest in African cities, working across a variety of coun-
jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. tries and city types. The premise motivating this work is that Africa’s 
future will be an urban one and a narrow window exists in which to 
respond to the specific needs of the varied urban forms and typologies 
before the future is cast in concrete.
Jane Battersby is an urban food specialist based the Department of Ben Jackson is a Senior Project Support Officer at the Institute of 
Environmental and Geographical Science at the University of Cape Development Studies, with a MSc in African Politics from SOAS 
Town. She has worked on urban food issues for over 15 years and has University, London.
worked with a number of NGOs and civil society groups and has served 
as a member of the Independent Expert Group of the Global Nutrition Vrashali Khandelwal is a part of Academics & Research team at IIHS. 
Report, done consultancy and advisory work with a number of UN Her research interests include governance and service delivery arrange-
Agencies and works closely with local and provincial governments on ments; specifically focusing on the role of urban local bodies and the 
food policy issues. She is a member of the IPES Food Expert Panel, informal actors in urban governance and urban markets. Prior to joining 
serves on the FAO-GAIN Urban Food Systems Working Group and IIHS, Vrashali has worked on multiple government consulting projects.
Urban Food Systems Coalition, was a team member on the CFS HLPE-
FSN Reducing Inequalities for Food Security and Nutrition Report and Hayley MacGregor is a professor of medical anthropology and global 
is the Team Leader on the CFS HLPE-FSN Strengthening Urban and health at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sus-
Peri-Urban Food Systems to Achieve Food Security and Nutrition in sex and also has clinical training in South Africa.
the Context of Urbanization and Rural transformation Report.
Sudeshna Mitra is Associate Dean- Academics and faculty, in the 
Mercy Brown‑Luthango is a sociologist with 20 years of research expe- School of Economic Development, at the Indian Institute for Human 
rience in academia and the NGO sector in South Africa. Her main Settlements. Her research looks at questions of urban and regional eco-
research focus is on the creation of sustainable human settlements with nomic transformations, in cities of the Global South, particularly India, 
particular interest in the management of urban land, access to afford- through a variety of lenses, including land, real estate, infrastructure, 
able housing and safe, quality living environments for the urban poor. finance, governance and planning. She is also involved with projects 
Within the broad ambit of sustainable human settlements, she has done advising government agencies on planning for sustainable urban transi-
work on the effectiveness of upgrading of informal settlements as a tool tions, reforms in land and property recording systems, land manage-
to improve safety and reduce crime and violence in informal settle- ment and land-based financing, Transit Oriented Development, etc.
ments. This research also studied how urban communities engage the 
State and other actors in the provision of infrastructure and services. Nicholas Nisbett is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Devel-
A thread that runs through her research and teaching is university- opment Studies at the University of Sussex and a Professor of Global 
community engagement and partnering with non-governmental and Public Policy, Nutrition and Health Equity. His works focuses on food 
community-based organisations to co-produce knowledge on relevant and nutrition equity and justice and he has worked in a range of differ-
urban development challenges. As part of the African Centre for Cit- ent urban and rural contexts in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin 
ies’ CityLab programme and the coordinator or 3 CityLabs she has America and Europe.  He trained originally as an anthropologist and a 
been involved in policy development pertaining to the development of geographer and holds a PhD in Development Studies.
sustainable human settlements as well as informal settlement upgrading 
and violence reduction.
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 J. Battersby et al.
Iromi Perera is a researcher and activist, and is the director of the innovative mixed research methods and instruments, as he leads multi-
Colombo Urban Lab. She works on post-war urban development and country cross-disciplinary and cross-sectoral research collaborations.
spatial justice in Sri Lanka. Her research looks at the lived experi-
ences of communities affected by large-scale infrastructure projects Jodie Thorpe is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development 
and development masterplans, focusing on housing, livelihood, public Studies. Her work focuses on relationships between value chain actors, 
space and social protection. In 2019 Iromi was a Commissioner on the and between business and the state, and how these influence business 
People’s Commission on Land initiated by the People’s Alliance for investments and practices to contribute (or not) to development goals. 
Right to Land (PARL) in Sri Lanka. Iromi was a Senior Researcher at Her research focuses particularly on the governance processes and 
the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), a Sri Lankan public policy institutional structures that mediate these interactions, predominately 
research and advocacy think tank from 2008–2017. in the food, agriculture and nutrition sectors.
Dolf te Lintelo is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Percy Toriro is a practicing urban planner currently engaged on a World 
Studies, University of Sussex, where he leads the Cities research Clus- Bank project as an Urban Planning Technical Advisor in West Africa. 
ter. His research analyses the complex multi-scalar governance pro- He is also a lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe and a researcher 
cesses, actors, state/humanitarian/development policies and practices with the African Centre for Cities. Percy has twenty-five years of 
that govern poor and displaced populations’ incorporation into city experience working in city planning, urban food systems, research, 
life, globally. He has an enduring interest in urban informality; food/ and capacity building. His research interests include urban planning, 
nutrition insecurity, poverty, and wellbeing, and the ways in which informality, food systems, environment and housing.
marginal groups exercise (constrained) agency. Dolf enjoys adopting 
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