Von der Allmende zur urban agriculture: Kleinstlandwirtschaft und Gärten als weibliche Ökonomie

Urban Farm DB summary

An essay arguing that, against the recent hype around the term "urban gardening," the term "urban agriculture" (Agrarkultur) better captures its significance for a subsistence economy. It frames community gardening as a women-led social movement that brings previously hidden housework into public view, tracing a history in which the 1806–1813 Stein-Hardenberg reforms suppressed peasants' rights to the commons, causing widows who lost their means of subsistence farming to move into cities; Max Weber's late-19th-century account of farmhands' wives running an autonomous subsistence economy; the 1919 Imperial Allotment Garden Regulation, which established a right to allotments for people in need; and the Second World War, when women were required to supply fresh vegetables from home gardens, allotments and "victory gardens." The essay also notes that today, urban gardening helps voiceless immigrants and refugees settle in unfamiliar surroundings.