page_title: Austerity urbanism
section_title: The case of Todmorden, England
hierarchical_section_title: Austerity urbanism / Practical interventions under conditions of austerity / The case of Todmorden, England
caption_attribution_description: English: Urban vegetable gardens along the Rochdale canal, Todmorden
context_page_description: Austerity urbanism is a relatively recent notion that refers to urban planning projects emerging from crisis situations. Such initiatives are often temporary, informal and citizen-led as well as taking place in unused, if not abandoned, urban spaces.
context_section_description: Todmorden is a northern English town that engaged in austerity urbanism following the deindustrialization. Between the 1970s and 2010, the city lost about half of its population, mostly being workers that became unemployed. In response to the crisis, citizens had the idea of producing food in public spaces, cultivating vegetables in urban gardens located in every unused space around the city like next to the train station, the main road or even the police station. Todmorden is in fact the first city in the world to have launched, in 2008, a food self-sufficiency initiative, called the Incredible Edible. Nowadays, the project is still successfully going and contributes to strengthening social bonds and solidarity among the population.
caption: Urban vegetable gardens along the Rochdale canal, Todmorden
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