Research & reports

Sjsu ScholarWorks, Gabriel R. Valle · · United States

This paper explores the self-valorization of work in community gardens as a path to environmental justice, arguing that community gardens disrupt capital's system by removing food as a commodity and revaluing time outside market-driven speed. The Chicano community, being susceptible to workplace inequalities, has a particular stake in this self-valorization, as these inequalities are reflected in unhealthy communities, economies, and environments. The study suggests that self-valorization through work creates natural wealth, reconstructing time, oppression, and communities.

Cécilia Claeys, Jean-Noël Consalès, Carole Barthélémy · · France (Marseille)

This paper re-examines the question of nature in the city through emerging environmental paradigms, using Marseille, a French Mediterranean city, as a case study. An interdisciplinary analysis combining sociology and geography revealed that new modes of urban and suburban nature management (e.g., National Park, greenways, community gardens) question spatial boundaries between wild and artificial. However, the uses of these spaces are still marked by persistent social segmentations.

Monica J Kelly · Scholarship@Western (Western University) · Canada (Toronto)

An ethnographic study conducted in summer 2010 at HOPE community garden in Parkdale, Toronto, explored how collective belonging is built. The research found that differences and interpersonal conflicts within the garden were embraced as opportunities to strengthen community cohesion. Contrary to romanticized views of harmonious community gardens, the study revealed that conflicts, negotiation of differences, and institutional practices of inclusion and anti-discrimination significantly contribute to a successful and inclusive community project.

Mahbubur Meenar, Brandon Hoover · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · United States (Philadelphia)

This paper examines urban agriculture (UA) projects' role in addressing food insecurity in lower-income neighborhoods of post-industrial U.S. cities, using Philadelphia as a case study. While UA projects are vital, findings indicate concerns regarding their geographic, economic, and informational accessibility, social exclusion, and spatial mismatch between participants and neighborhood demographics. Challenges also exist in distributing fresh produce to impoverished populations and UA's economic contributions in underprivileged areas.

Robert Emmett · ISLE Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment · United States (Los Angeles)

The South Central Farm in Los Angeles, a 14-acre community garden cultivated by hundreds of residents for over a decade, was a significant site against environmental racism. However, urban development ultimately led to its destruction. As of this writing, satellite images show the former lush gardens replaced by a scraped, vacant field, highlighting the impermanence of such community-led green spaces in the face of dominant urban development narratives.

Siny Tsang, AM Holt, Eduardo Bessa Azevedo · Chronic diseases and injuries in Canada · Canada (Cobourg, Ontario)

This needs assessment in Cobourg, Ontario, interviewed food program clients to identify barriers to food access. Clients reported lack of transportation, insufficient food quantities, and inconvenient operating hours as barriers to using food programs. They also cited lack of available vegetables and fruit at home and income as barriers to consuming more produce.

Julian S. Yates, Jutta Gutberlet · Environment and Planning A Economy and Space · Brazil (Diadema)

This paper analyzes food waste flows in Diadema, Brazil, through an urban political ecology lens, focusing on integrated organic waste management for composting and urban food production. While presented as a means for positive socioecological change, the process is characterized by conflict and potential exploitation. Broader structural conditions also constrain the system's ability to offer an alternative to existing waste-management models.

Miranda Martinez · · United States (Lower East Side)

This work explores the dynamics of gentrification, community gardens, and their impact on the Puerto Rican community in the Lower East Side. It examines class cultures in conflict, neighborhood transformation, and the symbolic significance of the area.

Geoffrey Ross Owens · Africa · Tanzania (Dar es Salaam)

This article, using ethnographic and historical approaches, examines unplanned peri-urban settlements on Dar es Salaam's northern and western fringe, Tanzania, between 1975 and 2000. These districts were established by educated urban professionals who used urban farming as an economic diversification strategy. The study found that these settlements contributed to the reproduction of socio-economic inequality, attracting additional economically influential urban in-migrants after 1991.

Diana Lee-Smith, L. J. A. Mougeot, Michael Levenston, Peter Mann, Katherine Brown, Jerry Kaufman · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · Global

This reflection on the urban agriculture movement notes that 19th and early 20th-century urban reforms, including urban gardens, aimed to improve living conditions in industrial cities. However, these initiatives also shifted the burden of sustenance from industrialists and fair-wage policies onto urbanizing families, particularly women. Despite this, garden spaces provided nourishment and retreats in densely populated areas.

Alec Thornton · Development in Practice · Fiji

This article examines the impact of Fiji's squatter-resettlement scheme on the livelihoods of 'farming squatters' engaged in urban agriculture. Interviews with key informants and squatter residents revealed contrasting attitudes and approaches, indicating that the scheme threatens these livelihoods. The article suggests a more participatory process to address the needs of 'farming squatters'.

Crispen Dirwai, P.M. Makonese, N. Mboto · Figshare · Zimbabwe (Harare)

This study investigated how urban poor (Mabvuku-Tafara) and urban rich (Mabelreign, Marlborough, Westgate) communities in Harare, Zimbabwe, addressed the food crisis between 2005 and 2008. Using a mainly qualitative methodology to compare urban agricultural activities, findings showed that the urban poor engaged in seasonal, often inorganic, less paying off-yard farming, exposed to nature's vagaries. In contrast, the urban rich practiced on-plot perennial, often organic, researched (including soil testing) farming with greenhouses, which yielded better returns.

Nathan McClintock · · United States (California)

This paper uses urban political ecology to explore the rise of urban agriculture (UA) in Oakland, California, where the city aims to source 30% of its food locally, partly from UA in "food deserts." The analysis argues that 20th-century industrial capital flows and racialized urban planning concentrated capital devaluation in the flatlands, leading to the creation of food deserts. Food justice activists are mobilizing through UA to counter these uneven transformations.

Nathan McClintock · eScholarship (California Digital Library) · United States (California)

This paper explores the rise of urban agriculture (UA) in Oakland, California, using an urban political ecology framework. A macro-level structural analysis of Oakland's history reveals how 20th-century industrial capital flows and racialized urban planning concentrated capital devaluation in the flatlands, ultimately giving rise to food deserts. The study suggests that food justice activists are mobilizing through UA to counter these uneven transformations, despite critiques that some urban garden programs are neoliberal, emphasizing self-betterment while filling state-left gaps.

Alice J. Hovorka, Damell Smith, R. van Veenhuizen · · Global

This article argues that a gendered perspective on urban food security is essential to understand dynamics shaping food production and marketing in urban centers. It highlights that failing to explore women's distinct roles risks leaving gender inequities and food supply hindrances unaddressed, countering the invisibility of women's work often assumed as automatic domestic duties. The article emphasizes women's significant role in domestic food supply, even in societies with minimal household food production, citing examples like Latin American women organizing to address urban hunger.

Alice Franck · Revue internationale des études du développement · Sudan

This study of market gardeners in Khartoum, Sudan, reveals limitations in the integrating capacity of urban agriculture. Uncontrolled urbanization in the capital creates intense competition for property, restricting the potential integration of farm-workers in the downtown area. This activity is strictly commercial and primarily carried out by a migrant population.

Alice J. Hovorka · Annals of the Association of American Geographers · Africa

This study empirically examines the effects of gender on commercial urban agriculture in Greater Gaborone, Botswana, using a conceptual framework bridging sociospatial and human-environment geography. It found that gender clearly shapes both the quantity and type of foodstuffs produced for the urban market, with men and women farmers entering production and participating in this economic sector on unequal terms defined by socioeconomic status, location, and environmental interaction. The study argues that gender relations of power, as produced through sociospatial and human-environment relations, remain an unequal structuring force in the sector that must be accounted for if urban agriculture is to support food security and economic growth.

Troy D. Glover · Leisure Sciences · Global

This 2004 global narrative inquiry explored a community garden as a social context for social capital among gardeners. The study found that social capital can be both a benefit and a cost, depending on an individual's position within the social network. This suggests a potential for inequitable or corrupt application of social capital within community garden groups.

Clare Rishbeth · Journal of Urban Design · United Kingdom (London)

This paper investigates how urban greenspace can be designed and managed to reflect ethnic diversity and how this is perceived by users, using two case studies of community gardens in London. It found some differences in the response to the gardens by people from different ethnic backgrounds. The use of obvious symbolism was not necessarily a primary means of encouraging users from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds, though appreciated for educational and design strengths. Concern is expressed about aspects of the physical and psychological containment of ethnic groups in fixed places and identities leading to the perpetuation of stereotypes.

Prebus, Olivia · Occidental College Scholar (Occidental College) · United States (Los Angeles)

This work addresses the gross inequity of food access in low-income neighborhoods of Los Angeles, such as MacArthur Park, where grocery stores are scarce. The author's internship at the Center for Food and Justice involved projects like a Community Food Assessment and organizing a community garden, all focused on empowering communities to tackle complex food access issues. The abstract highlights the severe problem of limited healthy food options leading to simultaneous obesity and malnutrition.

Jan Perez · eScholarship (California Digital Library) · United States (California)

This 2003 research brief investigated the experiences of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) growers on the central coast of California. The study examined their motivations, economic viability, challenges, and issues related to equal access to their products. The research brief indicates that challenges and issues of equal access are present in CSA projects.

C. Clare Hinrichs, Kathy S. Kremer · Journal of Poverty · United States

This 1997 case study examined a Midwest community supported agriculture (CSA) project that aimed to increase low-income participation through financial subsidies, using a telephone survey of 41 member-households. The study found that while subsidized households had lower incomes, the overall CSA sample was more advantaged in income, occupation, and education compared to local populations. The project inadvertently served the "advantaged" poor, indicating that social inclusion efforts in local food systems may not effectively reach the most vulnerable.

Hilda E. Kurtz · Urban Geography · United States (Minneapolis)

This paper examines the variations among community gardens in Minneapolis, Minnesota, suggesting they reflect differing interpretations of "community" and "garden" in urban settings. While community gardens are seen as responses to urban decay, the study highlights that issues of enclosure, inclusion, and exclusion are central to their function. Decisions regarding garden enclosure shape their role in urban neighborhoods, indicating potential limitations related to equity.

Huei-Hsuan Lin · Syracuse University Libraries (Syracuse University) · United States

This three-year qualitative study of an urban community garden in a mid-size city in upstate New York, United States, examined how women community gardeners perceive their participation. It found that the community garden, intended as a space for social change, paradoxically became a site of internal struggles among participants. Emancipatory efforts to build a less unequal society did not automatically result in an egalitarian space, as the process of community building by individuals with various social positions required arduous efforts and involved negotiation and confrontations, rather than simple unity.

Melford Mj W. Gunderson · UND Scholarly Commons (University of North Dakota) · United States

A study of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation and the community of Elbowoods, North Dakota (2001) describes the social disorganization and community upheaval inflicted on Native Americans by the 1954 construction of the Garrison Dam by the US Army Corps of Engineers. Flooding of thousands of acres stripped Elbowoods residents of farmland, natural shelter for people and cattle, family structure, community gardens, and a way of life that had existed for thousands of years. Drawing primarily on interviews with ten former Elbowoods residents, supplemented by newspapers, published reports, photographs, video, and congressional records, and framed through social disorganization and community theory, the study documents that the dam's construction and the resulting relocation devastated the community and forced residents to cope with and adapt to a "loss of community."