Publication details
Agenda 21, Urbanism, and Local Culture: The Farmer’s Market in Brno, Czech Republic
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| Year of publication | 2011 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Citation | |
| Description | There is a great deal of debate in Europe about how to promote sustainable development and devise practical responses to environmental problems ranging from local water pollution to global climate change. Particularly in turbulent times – as resource scarcity, economic crisis, and ecological problems intensify and ramify, making the future more difficult to predict – there is pressure to craft cost effective and politically acceptable sustainability policies that are consistent with local cultures and ecologies. This paper investigates the social, economic, and ecological meanings of the historic Zelný trh, or farmer’s market, in the Czech city of Brno. For the first time in the English language, the history and contemporary social significance of the market is explored and documented. Using qualitative and quantitative data, the paper analyzes the relationship between the practices at the market and official Agenda 21 sustainability goals at the local and national levels. The paper concludes that urban solutions are an important part of any meaningful sustainability policy, and that the most practical responses to current and future environmental problems may lie not so much with new technologies and innovations as with relocalizing agricultural production and economic activity while preserving and revitalizing traditional institutions like farmer’s markets. |