The DESIRA Living Lab Oosterwold (The Netherlands) met face-to-face on 21 September for its scenario planning workshop. This Living Lab looks at how to organise urban agriculture initiatives that can contribute to a more sustainable local food system, alongside strengthening the ties between Oosterwold and Almere in The Netherlands.
12 people attended the meeting, predominantly residents of Oosterwold. The attendees were split into two groups and each group discussed a potential scenario of future urban agriculture in Oosterwold. These scenarios were: (1) urban agriculture in a low density peri-urban landscape and maximum of self- organisation and (2) urban agriculture in a high density urban landscape and no self-organisation. The first was the preferred scenario by most of the attendees, the second one its antagonist. Both scenarios were based on the main drivers of change, distilled from (6) exploratory interviews held with stakeholders prior to the meeting.
The two groups were facilitated by a moderator and a cartoonist who made live sketches. The discussions were based on three main questions that created a narrative for each scenario. These questions were: (i) what does this scenario imply for urban agriculture in the area?, (ii) and for community building in the area?, and (iii) how can digital technology support urban agriculture and community building in this scenario? The outline of both scenarios will be the input of a second workshop in which the main pathways of change will be discussed.
