Paper short abstract:

Based on Participatory Action Research with Foodpark Amsterdam, this presentation develops ‘greyness’ as a form of ‘being in-between’ that has a poetic and revolutionary potential for re-patterning present structures of capitalist market dynamics, making space for community-led urban agriculture.

Paper long abstract:

This presentation aims to develop ‘greyness’ as a form of ‘being in-between’ that has a revolutionary potential for re-patterning present structures of capitalist market dynamics, making space for community-led urban agriculture. With ‘greyness’ as a lens, I examine how activist- and artist-led urban farming initiatives are able to unsettle business as usual, by identifying and using situations of informality and in-betweenness, sometimes also referred to as ‘the cracks’ within the current system (Forter 2022, Fremeaux & Jordan 2021, Nersessian 2015).

This research is based on Participatory Action Research with Voedselpark Amsterdam, an initiative that aims to strategically change the narrative around the development of the Lutkemeerpolder and compare this with the strategies of other successful urban faming initiatives in Amsterdam Nieuw West. This provides the empirical foundation for two areas where ‘greyness’ can be harnessed as revolutionary potential: First, legal grey areas on land use are identified and strategically used. Second, so-called ‘grey literature’ (that is publications that are neither academic nor commercial) are disseminated that reveal unjust procedure or provide alternative plans for the area. The way ‘greyness’ is operationalized for political ends, I want to argue, may be understood as a poetic process, a technique by which meanings become unfixed, the status quo becomes defamiliarized and new politics are able to emerge. With this, I aim to contribute to the scholarly field of transformative change by providing thick ethnographic description of change processes and showing the relevance of artistic methods and theory to engender and understand change processes.