Towards Urban Resilience

Urban Farm DB summary

This chapter examines urban gardening in Christchurch, New Zealand, since the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquakes through the lens of resilience — disaster resilience, community resilience, food resilience, and the broader notion of urban resilience. After discussing post-earthquake urban gardening projects in Christchurch, it shows that notions of food resilience are contextually interwoven with the region's earthquake disaster history. It finds, however, that recent initiatives show discussions of food resilience have broadened to become inclusive of a range of environmental, socio-economic, and cultural challenges, with Christchurch's urban gardens becoming part of a wider resilience narrative responding to more diverse crisis scenarios. The chapter argues that this broadening of discussion and focus creates new opportunities — including new funding avenues, research, and strategic investment — for urban gardening.