Learning to Find the “food beneath your feet”: Urban Foraging, Social-Meet-ups, and Mobile Social-Ecological Memory in Philadelphia, USA

Urban greenspaces contribute to the maintenance of social-ecological memory (SEM), or the knowledge, experiences, and practices a community develops about and within local ecosystems that support social-ecological resilience. Research on (SEM) associated with food production—or provisioning services—in urban greenspace demonstrates how knowledge about species, spaces, and practices is maintained or (re)produced. To date, however, SEM scholarship in cities has focused more narrowly on (1) urban allotment gardens and other agricultural sites explicitly designated and actively managed for food production and (2) a relatively limited set of associated species (i.e., agricultural cultivars). These spaces and species are generally characterized by clear spatial boundaries, governance dynamics, terms of access, and spatially fixed management, thereby leaving questions about how other urban green spaces and species in cities might support the development of SEM. To address this gap on how SEM is developed and maintained, where these activities take place, and which species are involved in its maintenance, we turn to research on urban foraging. We examine whether and how a wider set of species, spaces, and governance dynamics can foster SEM. Research from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA documents how urban foraging supports engagement with species and spaces through social networks that arise using social media, and which lead to the maintenance and emergence of mobile SEM practices. Our study of the Wild Foodies of Philly reveals how human–species interactions in diverse urban green spaces can foster SEM and the adaptation of SEM to new places and contexts throughout the city.