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Name: Alban Hasson
Nationality: French
Thesis: Urban Agriculture and Democratisation: A case-study of Urban Agriculture trajectories in London
Key Topics: Food sovereignty, Food Democracy, Urban Agriculture, Transnational Agrarian Movements, Food Systems, Right to the city, Food Justice.
Alban Hasson owns an International Relations Bachelor from Queen Mary University of London and a Master in Global Environmental Politics from King’s College London.
His PhD research explores the conditions of an expansion of the political space for urban agriculture justice and food democracy, and the resulting democratic effects produced different trajectories of UA: the allotments & community food projects. Starting with a non-exhaustive list of five democratic effects produced by UA (‘fostering food security’, ‘expanding health benefits’, ‘reclaiming the commons’, ‘building places of interaction’, and ‘decoupling from the regimes’) and drawing on theories of environmental justice and democratisation, it seeks an understanding of the pathways available to ensure parity of participation and address distributive and recognitive justice in UA. It investigates how UA projects evolve within and reproduce specific socio-political and food regimes, whilst questioning the power relationships and the influence of institutions, discourses and practices on these urban food growing initiatives.
He has been working as a Postgraduate Teaching assistant for the MSc Environment and Sustainable Development. Besides, he was involved in teaching the ‘Food and the City’ module and supervising student research on Food Security in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
A food grower in his spare time, he also enjoys visiting Urban Agriculture sites and experimenting with various agroecological methods.
Latest Publication:
Hasson, A. (2019) Building London’s Food Democracy: Assessing the Contributions of Urban Agriculture to Local Food Decision-Making. Politics and Governance, 7(4), 154-164.