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In the West, the local food movement began with the hope of constructing sustainable food systems, but the philosophy’s actual impact must be examined in specific sociocultural contexts. Focusing on the daily food practices of consumers in Guangzhou, China, this study explores how Chinese consumers define, understand, and experience local food, the characteristics of local food initiatives in China, and their multifaced impacts on social sustainability. The results show that Guangzhou consumers actively seek out local food and even become involved in the production, a highly effective strategy for addressing food quality challenges. Consumer perspectives on local food can be grouped into three categories: placed-based native food, culture-based hometown food, and value-based ecological food, with localness conferred by the pathways of visceral experience, cultural heritage, and value identity. The study argues that, theoretically, the definition of local food should transcend geographical boundaries and incorporate relational proximities among consumer bodies, places, cultures, and producers as robust parameters. Practically, consumer-led local food initiatives promote social sustainability at different levels by alleviating people’s diverse food anxieties and connecting various communities. They also demonstrate the possibility of solidifying the urban-rural nexus, but efforts to motivate broad public participation and institutional support are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban waterfronts are time-space constructions encompassing various social relationships and functions. They become tourism spaces in the context of particular interactions among multiple stakeholders, including local governments and tourism enterprises. Yet the processes for and approaches to transforming urban waterfronts into tourism spaces remain under-researched. Based on the lens of Lefebvre's space production theory, this research explores how tourism spaces are generated in the waterfront area of Pearl River in Guangzhou that originally featured no tourism attributes. The city government has conceived the shifting representations of space for the Pearl River waterfront over time including commercial space, scenery space, and a showcase of a prosperous city image, but neglected tourism development. Cruise companies are the key entity facilitating the spatial processes of the Pearl River Tour. The approach to space production presents itself as a means of 'borrowed production,' where cruise companies produce tourism spaces by embedding themselves into government plans and flexibly utilizing public projects that significantly improve waterfront infrastructure and views. This study contributes to the literature on tourism space production by clarifying the negotiating relationship between urban politics and tourism enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wet markets serve as a cornerstone of food distribution in China but are increasingly being threatened by urban displacement. This study explores the various motivations for local governments in Sanya City and Beijing City to enact aggressive policies limiting wet markets, the dynamic nature of the governing process and the multifaceted impacts such governance has on the everyday practices of vendors and consumers. Drawing upon Foucault's notion of problematisation, this study found that wet markets have become representations of 'problems' such as insanitation and disorder, lowlands of economic revenue and 'low-skilled industry'. Specific governance is regularly entangled with multiple means of problematisation, shaped and conditioned by forces such as administrative capacity, policy intensity, market configuration, business activism and consumer demand, as well as the interrelationships among them. Current governance is attempting to 'correct' wet markets to desired forms, but ignores the holistic value they embed in urban life. Thus, this research suggests more inclusive governance and sustainable development with regards to wet markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]