A City Without Supermarkets: Reimagining How We Feed Ourselves
Author
Omegna, Carlotta
Term
4. term
Education
Publication year
2026
Submitted on
2026-05-22
Pages
101
Abstract
This thesis explores how service design can support a city food system that does not rely on supermarkets by strengthening young adults’ (18–30) ability to act independently as consumers. Using Transition Theory and Frank Geels’ Multi-Level Perspective (frameworks for understanding how systems change), the study treats the supermarket not just as a shop but as a socio-technical regime—a web of technologies, rules and habits—that dominates by offering low-friction convenience while pushing environmental and social costs out of sight. In contrast, decentralized sustainable options (such as local cooperatives, community kitchens and urban farm networks) often require much more planning, coordination and mental effort from consumers. This added “operational burden” keeps many informed young people in a state of “informed inertia”: they care about sustainability but do not translate it into daily action. The project uses Research through Design (learning and testing by making prototypes) and Problem-Based Learning to conduct empirical fieldwork in two settings: a highly digitized, institution-driven context in Copenhagen, Denmark, and a more relational, high-social-trust context in Turin, Italy. Through co-design workshops and Figma-based ideation sprints, the study develops a gamified educational toolkit built around localized Action Cards, including The Super-Senses Squad and The Nature Banker. These artifacts act as service mediators designed to lower the user’s operational burden. The toolkit helps shift behavior from reliance on industrial, institutional safety markers such as expiry dates and barcodes toward biological sensory autonomy—what the thesis calls autopoietic trust, or confidence in one’s own senses. In doing so, it builds the practical skills needed to activate unused urban food niches—overlooked local opportunities to access food outside supermarkets. The thesis also provides a strategic roadmap for scaling: horizontally into autonomous neighborhood systems and vertically into municipal urban policy. Overall, it concludes that moving away from corporate food retail is not simply a logistical task of moving calories, but a behavioral and systemic “de-locking” process that service design is uniquely positioned to mediate.
Denne afhandling undersøger, hvordan servicedesign kan understøtte et bybaseret fødevaresystem, der ikke er afhængigt af supermarkeder, ved at styrke unge voksnes (18–30) evne til at handle selvstændigt som forbrugere. Med udgangspunkt i Transition Theory og Frank Geels’ Multi-Level Perspective (rammer for at forstå systemiske forandringer) betragter studiet supermarkedet ikke kun som en butik, men som et socio-teknisk regime—et netværk af teknologier, regler og vaner—der dominerer ved at tilbyde friktionsfri bekvemmelighed, mens miljømæssige og sociale omkostninger skubbes ud af syne. Omvendt stiller decentrale, bæredygtige alternativer (fx lokale kooperativer, fælleskøkkener og netværk af urbane gårde) ofte langt større krav til forbrugeren i form af logistik, mentale kræfter og tidsplanlægning. Denne ekstra “operationelle byrde” fastholder mange oplyste unge i en tilstand af “informeret inerti”: de går op i bæredygtighed, men ændrer ikke deres daglige praksis. Projektet anvender forskning gennem design (at lære og teste ved at lave prototyper) og problembaseret læring til at gennemføre feltarbejde i to forskellige kontekster: en højt digitaliseret, institutionsdrevet kontekst i København, Danmark, og en mere relationel, høj-tillidskontekst i Torino, Italien. Gennem co-design-workshops og Figma-baserede idésprint udvikles et gamificeret læringsværktøj baseret på lokale Action Cards, herunder The Super-Senses Squad og The Nature Banker. Disse artefakter fungerer som serviceformidlere, der er designet til at sænke brugerens operationelle byrde. Værktøjet hjælper med at skifte adfærd fra at læne sig op ad industrielle, institutionelle sikkerhedsmarkører som udløbsdatoer og stregkoder til biologisk sensorisk autonomi—afhandlingen kalder det autopoietisk tillid, altså tillid til egne sanser. Dermed opbygger det de praktiske færdigheder, der skal til for at aktivere ubrugt madnicher i byen—lokale muligheder for at skaffe mad uden om supermarkeder. Afhandlingen præsenterer også en strategisk køreplan for skalering: horisontalt til selvstyrende naboskabssystemer og vertikalt til kommunal bypolitik. Samlet konkluderes, at et skifte væk fra corporate detailhandel med fødevarer ikke kun handler om logistik, men om at låse adfærd og systemer op—en proces, som servicedesign er særligt egnet til at understøtte.
[This apstract has been rewritten with the help of AI based on the project's original abstract]
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