Research & reports

Valentine Opanga · Urban Political Ecology · Kenya

A study examines how green urbanism is imagined, politicised and contested in two informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya, Korogocho and Pumwani-Majengo, using a mixed-methods approach combining Feminist Urban Political Ecology, Postcolonial Urbanism and Travelling Models, drawing on 45 semi-structured interviews, six focus group discussions and a review of policy documents. It shows that international greening agendas are selectively interpreted, reworked or resisted rather than adopted as a unified global sustainability narrative. Findings reveal that state-led greening initiatives, even when aligned with global frameworks, can reinforce spatial inequality, displace low-income residents and obscure colonial-era land injustices. At the same time, grassroots actors engage in context-specific greening practices such as urban farming and dumpsite reclamation driven by survival and care, representing forms of environmental agency that challenge dominant models.

Jennifer Jettner · Journal of Social Work and Social Welfare Policy · United States

A qualitative study (Journal of Social Work and Social Welfare Policy, 2025) interviewed ten garden leaders representing nine urban and rural community gardens in Alabama, USA, analyzing themes through a racial capitalism and black geographies framework. It found that health-focused garden efforts were white-led while justice-focused efforts were BIPOC-led, and that all of the gardens struggled to engage a racially diverse membership reflective of their surrounding neighborhood. For white-led efforts, the main impediment was found to be importing racial diversity rather than centering and celebrating BIPOC leadership and knowledge. BIPOC-led efforts held differing interpretations of the impact of historical trauma, possibly linked to a "rural imaginary." All gardens studied struggled to engage youth and expressed fear of losing food and growing knowledge across generations.

Parisi A., Walthall B., Clerino P., Firmbach P., Onyszkiewicz M., Vicente Vicente J. L. · Environmental Evidence · Global

A protocol for a systematic map of the scholarly literature on the relationship between urban agriculture (UA) and gentrification. The authors note that existing accounts variously present gentrification as a possible outcome of UA activities, as a risk that UA initiatives themselves face, and as other kinds of relationship, and argue that these divergent accounts are partly explained by different theoretical engagements with gentrification and by the breadth of activities gathered under 'urban agriculture'. It sets out the search and review strategy and aims to expose gaps in dominant academic discourses. Being a protocol, it reports no findings yet.

Ylva Wallinder · Local Environment · Europe

A study of Gothenburg, Sweden, examines the city council's shift over the past decade from associational (collective) urban gardening toward entrepreneurial gardening on municipal land, promoted through a scheme called "from garden box to hectare" that draws residents into entrepreneurial training while taking municipal gardening classes. Analyzing the consequences of this commodification of urban sustainability projects, the study finds that socio-economic resources and social relations both limit and strengthen entrepreneurial gardening practices and participants' quality of life, and that perceived competition among gardeners has turned urban gardening into a lonely, precarious, and individualized activity compared with the formalized associational gardening the municipality previously promoted. The finding points to a mismatch between the local government's sustainability visions and gardeners' actual experience.

Clara Camargo · Revista Latino-americana de Geografia e Genero · Brazil (São Paulo)

This study investigates the socioeconomic profile and agroecological production strategies of female urban farmers in São Paulo's peripheral territories, using Feminist Economy Theory and Ecofeminism perspectives. It highlights that while these women are crucial for food security and green spaces, they remain largely invisible in economic theories and have limited access to public policies due to their non-generation of direct monetary income. The methodology included participant observation in RAPPA meetings, semi-structured interviews, and guided tours of women-led production units.

Pierric Calenge, Maie Gérardot · Métropolitiques · United States (Cleveland)

The work by Max Rousseau and Vincent Béal illuminates the ambiguities of a policy that organizes urban decline and racial segregation in Cleveland. This policy promotes urban degrowth and racial segregation, balancing algorithmic management and urban greening. The study focuses on the Rust Belt region, which experiences de-urbanization marked by the subprime crisis, racism, and segregation.

Samina Raja · Urban agriculture · United States

Urban agriculture initiatives in US cities face complications, including information asymmetry and elite capture, which limit their potential for equitable development. This chapter introduces a volume exploring the opportunities and quandaries in addressing questions of equity in the research, pedagogy, and practice of planning for urban agriculture.

Micaela F. Lipman, Marcia Caton Campbell · Urban agriculture · United States (Wisconsin)

This chapter examines local government food systems policy and planning in Madison and Dane County, Wisconsin. Despite a history of regulatory innovation in urban agriculture, the city and county have been slow to address food injustices in local food systems planning and policy development. The study highlights local government collaboration with the nonprofit sector and how codification of goals supports or hinders urban agriculture.

Ahmed Alhuseen, H. M. A. M. Omer, Eva Pauditšová, Hussein M. Sulieman, Mária Kozová, Pavel Cudlín · · Sudan (Khartoum)

A study assessed spatial accessibility disparities and users' opinions regarding public green spaces (UGSs) in Khartoum State, Sudan. Using GIS and questionnaires, it evaluated potential accessibility to 44 urban parks, community gardens, and city forests within 5, 10, and 15-minute travel intervals. Results showed inequitable access opportunities to UGSs, primarily favoring first-class residential areas. Within a 5-minute walking interval, the UGSs service zone covered less than 1% of the population. User opinion assessment revealed that 80% of parks required entrance fees, and the study concluded that UGS accessibility does not correspond to international quality of life indices.

Shawn A. Trivette, Shannon McCarragher · Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems · United States (New England)

This paper examined three types of locally oriented Short Food Supply Chains (SFSCs) in southern New England and their spatial alignment with demographic factors. The findings indicate that pay-as-you-go operations are more prevalent in predominantly White areas and, to some extent, higher-income areas. Box share arrangements (community-supported agricultures) showed stronger associations with educational attainment. The study concludes that local food availability is a systematically uneven phenomenon, varying with both outlet type and social characteristics.

Mitchell McLarnon · · Global

This chapter describes the practice, processes, and ethical tensions of using cell phones for visual data collection, representation, and analysis in school/community garden research projects. The findings suggest that while gardens and cell phones have the potential for enhancing experiential learning, increased well-being, and ecological awareness, their use needs to be highly contextualized within critical discussions related to settler colonialism, consumerism, neoliberalism, and (green) gentrification.

László Csambalik, Izóra Gál, Krisztina Madaras, Andrea Tóbiás, Péter Pusztai · Urban Science · Global

This review examines soil-based urban agriculture and high-tech plant factories for urban food resilience. It finds that while vertical farms produce high yields, inhabitant involvement is minimal, offering no social advantages. Automated plant factories require few highly qualified personnel and are unlikely to contribute to urban social well-being in the future.

Alessio Russo · Urban Science · Global

This paper synthesizes existing literature to examine the essential role of urban green spaces in fostering healthy living, emphasizing their strong positive associations with physical, mental, and social wellbeing. It discusses the importance of designing attractive and accessible green spaces that encourage physical activity and mental health, and the potential of local food production for diet improvement. The study also highlights disparities in access to quality green spaces, particularly between the Global North and South, advocating for equitable design strategies.

Tanya Denckla Cobb, Shantell Bingham · Urban agriculture · United States (Charlottesville)

Using the University of Virginia's experience with Charlottesville, USA, this study demonstrated how university classroom engagement with the community can perpetuate inequities and legacies of harm. The research noted the potential for communities to view universities as "extractive industries" and proposed a new framework called "equitable pedagogy" to avoid perpetuating privilege and systemic inequities.

Jacqueline L. Scott, Ambika Tenneti · Environmental Research Ecology · Canada (Toronto)

This autoethnography by two racialized volunteers (Black and South Asian) in Toronto, Canada, examines how race intersects with urban nature stewardship, including tree planting and community gardens. It finds that racialized people are largely absent from nature stewardships despite being the majority population, and that most projects use a color-blind approach that masks systemic racial inequities at personal, place-making, and ecological levels.

Rob Roggema, Aleksandra Krstikj, B. J. Erazo Flores · Nutrients · Mexico (Monterrey)

This study in the Noreste of Mexico, focusing on Monterrey, investigated spatial and non-spatial barriers to adopting healthy diets and accessing plant-based foods. Findings revealed significant disparities in food access across the Monterrey metropolitan area, with central urban zones having superior access to fresh foods compared to suburban and peripheral regions. This inequality disproportionately affects marginalized areas with higher poverty rates, worsening food insecurity.

Ricardo Jacobs · Oxford University Press eBooks · Global

This chapter argues that rapid urbanization and global capitalism are destroying established livelihoods faster than creating new ones, leading to a growing surplus population. Dispossessed rural classes are reproducing themselves in urban spaces and converging with wage laborers to create agricultural livelihoods in cities of both the global South and North. This makes urban agriculture an important arena for land struggles and a livelihood option, shaping urbanization and socioecological relations.

Ophélie Véron · Antipode · Germany (Berlin)

This paper, based on activist ethnography in Berlin's community gardens, people's kitchens, and co-operative projects, explores how community food spaces reproduce, exacerbate, or dismantle power relations and socio-environmental injustices. It systematically examines exclusion and inclusion dynamics, arguing that diversity alone is not a sufficient indicator of social equity and can overshadow forms of injustice. The study exposes the complex, dual nature of Berlin's food activist landscape, where privilege and power contribute to social inequities.

Jill L. Edmondson · Cell Reports Sustainability · Global

Growing fruits and vegetables in cities is recognized as a potential contributor to local food security and can provide additional benefits for urban dwellers. However, it is crucial to ensure equity in access to land for all urban communities and to support the development of necessary skills and knowledge for successful cultivation.

Karla L. Hanson, Claire Concepcion, Leah C. Volpe · Nutrients · United States

This scoping review explored factors associated with Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) participation among low-income households in the United States. Analyzing 18 articles, findings suggested that women may be more likely than men to enroll in CSA. A lack of familiarity with CSA may hinder enrollment, whereas more education and self-efficacy for food preparation may facilitate participation.

Shweta Vaishnav, Poonam Saini, Aarti Grover · International Journal of Latest Research in Engineering and Management (IJLREM) · India (Delhi)

A qualitative survey analyzing the July 2023 Delhi flood and its impact on women revealed that changing climatic patterns over the last 20 years pose survival threats to the most vulnerable group, women and cattle, in urban agricultural societies. The study also indicated that various infrastructure projects have altered the terrain in the Yamuna River floodplains, leading to changes in the river's course and annual floods.

Mitchell McLarnon · Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education · Canada

This paper described and analyzed the social relations emerging from an adult education internship and community-based garden project in Montreal, Canada. Using institutional ethnography, it uncovered how adult education internships in community gardens and gardening programming can produce disproportionate outcomes for adult learners, community workers, and community members. It elucidated that specific institutional contrivances, such as funding, policy, work processes, and discourse, structure and define who experiences access to gardens, gardening, its ostensible health and well-being benefits, and adult education.

Domenic Vitiello · Urban agriculture · United States

US cities have developed urban agriculture support systems reflecting competing values, with some prioritizing public good and others economic gains. A chapter reflecting on urban agriculture planning in Chicago and Philadelphia notes that institutional structures significantly impact equity and justice. The study indicates that the existing urban agriculture support systems in these cities may not adequately promote equity and justice.

Efadul Huq · International Journal of Urban and Regional Research · Bangladesh (Dhaka)

This article argues that in the global South, ecological infrastructure often displaces marginalized urban dwellers by erasing existing informal agricultural practices, or "green informalities." Based on research with urban farmers facing eviction in Dhaka, Bangladesh, it highlights that these green informalities are crucial for understanding grassroots practices and collective power-building. The study advocates for recognizing the political and affective dimensions of informal urban agriculture as a socially just ecological infrastructure that prioritizes justice and dweller agency.

Brenda B. Lin, Peter Bichier, Heidi Liere, Monika Egerer, Stacy M. Philpott, Shalene Jha · Sustainability Science · United States (California)

A study of 18 urban community gardens in Central Coast, California, USA, used gardener surveys and field measurements to evaluate food production and its distribution. Gardeners produced an average of four pounds of food per week, saving an estimated $16 USD weekly. However, gardeners with greater food insecurity (larger families or lower incomes) were not the largest producers, indicating uneven benefit distribution despite high overall productivity.