The Motivation of Urban Gardens in Mountain Areas. The Case of South Tyrol

Urban Farm DB summary

Urban gardens have attracted considerable academic attention in recent years, with studies emphasizing their positive contribution to social integration, community health, urban regeneration, and food security, as well as exploring individual gardeners' motivations. While these topics are well documented for metropolitan urban areas, few studies have examined mountain areas, an interest gap likely due to lower urbanization in such areas, a preference for other forms of horticulture (essentially home gardens), or the use of different approaches to mitigate negative social effects. The recent proliferation of urban gardens in South Tyrol, Italy, makes this mountain province an interesting setting for studying the practices and narratives associated with socially innovative urban gardening. The paper characterizes all urban gardening initiatives in South Tyrol through cartographic representation and explains gardeners' and public institutions' motivations as well as non-gardeners' perceptions, based on semi-structured interviews conducted in the South Tyrolean municipalities where urban gardening projects have been undertaken. The results suggest that the social and environmental aspects of urban gardens are of great importance, and that there is interest in reconnecting with food practices even when food access is not a priority.