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The paper attempts to investigate the capacity of agroecological cooperative supermarkets in Spain to promote scaling of food products by means of a double perspective. We first employ a vertical scaling approach to analyze the issues affecting the governance and collective organization of the Cooperative Supermarket Network (CSN), set up in May 2022 and comprising eleven Spanish supermarkets. Secondly, we employ a perspective of horizontal scaling to investigate the potential for increased numbers of members, as well as the geographic and sociodemographic variables at play which limit the abovementioned scaling: to this end we use the case study of the cooperative supermarket La Osa, opened in Madrid in December 2020. We adopt a methodology based on participatory action research throughout the years 2022 and 2023, in which the research team was involved in the real processes of creation and development of the CSN or of La Osa. The study confirms the hypothesis that agroecological cooperative supermarkets constitute a formula for efficient retail distribution for scaling sustainable food in Spain. As opposed to the first-generation options for responsible consumption, these supermarkets appear to contribute to generating significant economies of scale and scope. In terms of vertical scaling, joint provision of services, as well as the gaining of political influence in society, constitute the main advantages in relation to the functioning of the CSN. While the recruitment of new members has heretofore been considered a priority in horizontal scaling, particular emphasis should also be placed on loyalty strategies targeting existing members.

Joaquín Farinós Dasí & Jorge Olcina Cantos –eds. y coords.–, Ordenación del Territorio y Medio Ambiente, Valencia, Tirant Humanidades, 2022, 812 páginas, ISBN: 978-84-19376-78-7.

This paper explores the usefulness of spatial centrality measures (traditionally used in urban environments) in the context of rural landscapes. Specifically, measures of reach, closeness, betweenness and straightness have been calculated on the road network of the Vega de Granada, considering this road network as a primal graph. The results show novel centrality maps in which patterns can be distinguished, being of interest for the interpretation of structural and functional aspects of the study area.

La caracterización morfológica del borde urbano es un ejercicio que reviste un interés especial porque, por una parte, ayuda a entender los crecimientos urbanos que tienen lugar en las zonas periféricas y, por otra, permite descifrar las claves de las relaciones de continuidad o discontinuidad que existen entre la ciudad y su entorno. En este contexto, son muchos los enfoques desde el análisis. En este artículo, se exploran en concreto las posibilidades que ofrece la utilización de mapas auto-organizados, elaborados a partir de los resultados de la aplicación de medidas de centralidad de la red viaria mixta que forman los sistemas de calles, los viarios metropolitanos y los caminos agrarios. La aplicación de diferentes medidas de centralidad en una red viaria mixta, supone en sí un ejercicio innovador, ya que, normalmente, los análisis de centralidad se aplican en el ámbito más puramente intraurbanos. La base espacial de los perfiles obtenidos en las series se puede comparar con la naturaleza del propio borde. La Metodología propuesta se ha testeado en la ciudad de Granada (España), específicamente, sobre el borde de contacto de la ciudad con el entorno de la Vega de Granada, un paisaje agrario singular ligado al Río Genil.

The Guadalfeo’s Vega belonging to the Granada’s Province is a Mediterranean litoral heritage under pressure during the last decades due to the planned and unplanned growth of urban and touristic land uses. The first step to overcome the crisis of these territories is the renewal approach of the agrourban landscape which means a complex focus. The agrourban landscape is a new scenario or evolutionary spatio-temporal gradient where urban and agrarian land-uses interweaving new functions. This special condition of Guadalfeo’s Vega may be addressed in a positive way by means of the pro-active tools of the ecoestructure and the multifunctionality. The positive feed-back between multifuncionality and ecostructure would be the main resource to encourage and design a hybrid strategy for the environmental planning. That’s the challenge for the decades ahead, balancing with success nature and city in the agrourban landscapes.

ABSTRACTChanges in human mobility due to the COVID-19 pandemic have particularly impacted urban parks, altering their use patterns. The use of Big Data sources enables the quantification and tracking of changes, although few studies delve into their spatial representation and the socio-demographic characterisation of park users. In this research, we use anonymised cellular network-based data with associated user profile information to quantify and map the changes operated in trips to Madrid’s urban parks in a week of reference before and after the pandemic. Our results show a general decrease in trips to urban parks, especially by males in all age ranges. We also observe a marked decrease in trips by the high-income population. Finally, we have nicely presented some of these results in a composition of several maps that provide visual insight into the main changes.