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Title:

Vanguard Visions of Vertical Farming: Envisaging and Contesting an Emerging Food Production System

Document type:
Zeitschriftenaufsatz
Author(s):
Gugganig, Mascha
Non-TUM Co-author(s):
nein
Cooperation:
-
Abstract:
Vertical farming is an emerging urban food growth proposal that has gained considerable attention for its ability to be space-efficient, independent of outside weather conditions, and to address a dismal agricultural system and ecoclimatic crises. VF is also a field riddled with debates on the unsustainability and high (energy) costs of a highly automated, indoor growth system that produces only a small range of perishable food. This paper explores arguments, visions, and internal disagreements among scientists, engineers, consultants, and entrepreneurs who form a heterogeneous, elite group of sociotechnical vanguards that popularize not yet widely accepted vanguard visions of future urban food production. It demonstrates that for the dominant vertical farm vanguard vision, a majority of vanguards borrow 1Faculty of Biology, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany 2Department of Science, Technology & Society, Technical University Munich, Germany Corresponding Author: Mascha Gugganig, Faculty of Biology, Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich, Großhaderner Str. 2, 82152 Planegg, Germany. Email: m.gugganig@lmu.de Science, Technology, & Human Values 1-32 ª The Author(s) 2024 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/01622439241240796 journals.sagepub.com/home/st popular concepts and imaginaries from other sectors: containment of plant growth, cleanliness, the capability to feed the world, and the land-sparing narrative. The findings suggest three dimensions that add to the theorization of vanguard visions: the central role of mobilized problem-scripts; internal disagreements that indicate the contingency of vanguard visions and the existence of fringe visions; and that disagreements can reveal caveat politics, where a technical system, like VF, is not seen as the solution, but one of many.
Keywords:
controlled environment agriculture, food security, sociotechnical imaginaries, technological fix, vanguard visions, vertical farming
Intellectual Contribution:
Discipline-based Research
Journal title:
Science, Technology & Human Values
Journal listet in FT50 ranking:
nein
Year:
2024
Journal volume:
0
Journal issue:
0
Pages contribution:
1--32
Language:
en
Fulltext / DOI:
doi:10.1177/01622439241240796
Judgement review:
None
Key publication:
Ja
Peer reviewed:
Ja
Commissioned:
not commissioned
Technology:
Nein
Interdisciplinarity:
Ja
Mission statement:
;
Ethics and Sustainability:
Ja
SDG:
;
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