Mobilizing Food Vending: Gourmet Food Trucks in the American City

Mobilizing Food Vending investigates the gourmet food truck movement in the United States and provides a clearer understanding of the social and economic factors that shape vendor autonomy and industry growth. The book features case studies in a variety of American cities and uses top-down and bottom-up urban theory to frame a discussion of food trucks’ rights, displacement, and resiliency. Using ethnographic and archival research collected from industry experts, the book examines vendors’ operational strategies, their regulatory challenges when navigating the city, and their economic, cultural, and political roles in shaping urban space. Mobilizing Food Vending argues that food truck vendors are critical actors that support local economies and contribute to the public realm while shaping regulatory policy from the bottom up. This book will appeal to urban scholars studying the contemporary neoliberal city, the public realm, and communication technology and mobility, as well as to urban planners seeking to understand how vendors shape city plans and policies.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1. Shifting Spatial Geographies in Los Angeles 2. Top-Up Placemaking in the San Francisco Bay Area 3. Portland’s Food Vending Paradise 4. Pandemic Resiliency and Local Activism in Charlotte 5. Conclusion: Vending, Space, and the City

About the Author :
Ginette Wessel is an Associate Professor of Architecture at Roger Williams University, USA, where she teaches courses in urban design, urban planning, and environmental design research.

Review :
"Using a human-centered lens, Wessel brilliantly enrolls ethnographic, network and participatory methods to understand food truck vendors as active rather than passive agents in city foodscapes. Using case studies from four key cities, she highlights food truck roles in the production, transformation and socio-cultural life of urban space." Julian Agyeman, Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning, Tufts University "This pioneering study illuminates the surprising complexity of the food truck phenomenon. Combining ethnography, policy analysis, and spatial interpretation, Wessel reveals the dynamics of this new urban process and its importance in the changing contemporary city. The book is essential for planners, urban designers, and city officials, but anyone interested in cities or who has ever eaten at a food truck will find it a compelling read." Margaret Crawford, Professor of Architecture and Urban Design, University of California at Berkeley "Wessel’s work on food trucks is remarkable for its depth of research and wide-ranging analysis of political, economic, legal and spatial influences. This book uses a variety of methods to uncover distinctive food truck narratives in four American cities. Her use of interpretive ethnography is critical to her ability to develop these narratives and is an implicit challenge to top-down objective strategies of urban design." Eric Sauda, Professor Emeritus, University of North Carolina at Charlotte "In this fascinating and deeply researched book, Wessel explores the role of grassroots food vending in revitalizing urban space. In recent years, technology and social media have played a major role in transforming dead urban spaces into vital food truck markets. While Los Angeles is often called the food truck capital of the US, most cities in the country have experienced the phenomenon. Artisan vendors in Portland, Oregon transformed a barren block of parking into a gourmet food truck paradise. Similar sites of pop-up urbanism are found throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Although many businesses struggled during the pandemic, Charlotte’s food truck scene demonstrated surprising resilience. An example of bottom-up urbanism, Wessel shows how food truck vendors have asserted rights to urban space, often challenging local regulations, but then becoming an established and valued part of the urban foodscape. Using networking technologies, vendors have contributed to placemaking, while giving an economic and social boost to many cities." Michael Southworth, Ph.D., FAIA, Professor Emeritus, University of California at Berkeley "Wessel has produced an account of food trucks that is as nourishing of the mind as it is of the imagination! Readers will be delighted by the description of food trucks from corporate campuses to U-Haul lots in cities around the country. The vibrant images complement the detailed description of social, regulatory, and economic circumstances of this most American of practices, vending on the street! Inspiration is in these pages for urban planners, policymakers, and anyone attracted to this vibrant slice of our society." Alfonso Morales, Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor, University of Wisconsin at Madison