Research & reports

Berliner, Susanne · · Germany

An ethnographic inquiry into a "refugees welcome" community garden in Germany offers power-critical reflections on social encounters, participation, inequalities, and the dynamics between 'the host' and 'the newcomer' in home-making. The study enhances understanding of how people with refugee biographies shape their surroundings and how communities navigate social heterogeneity. Specifically, it highlights inequalities and power dynamics within the context of home-making.

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.

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.

Lukas Egli, Judith Rüschhoff, Joerg A. Priess · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · Global

A systematic review of quantitative empirical research on the sustainability effects of community-supported agriculture (CSA) covered 39 studies. Fewer than 30% of the studies assessed ecological sustainability aspects, but where CSA farms were compared to reference systems, they mostly performed better on resource use efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions. Most studies assessed social aspects; many showed that CSA still fails to reach low-income households, so members do not represent the average population, while CSA membership was associated with improved health and sustainability behavior. Economic variables were assessed in more than half of the studies, but knowledge of CSA's relative economic performance remains scarce, though early studies indicate high economic viability. The review calls for more research on ecological aspects specifically, comparisons across farming and marketing systems, and integration of knowledge from theses and practical sources in multiple languages.

Emmanuel Patroba Mhache, Elna Lyamuya · Huria Journal of the Open University of Tanzania · Tanzania (Dar es Salaam)

This review paper examined the role of urban agriculture in alleviating poverty for women in the Dar es Salaam Region, Tanzania. It found that women's participation in urban agriculture contributes to food security, increases household income (average net income Tshs 58,356.2 per month), offers employment, and reduces poverty. However, numerous bottlenecks hinder women's involvement in urban agriculture, including poor markets, water shortage, land shortage, seed unavailability, lack of capital, lack of government support, crude working tools, lack of water pumping machines for irrigation, poor storage facilities, and lack of agricultural extension services.

Àngels Viladomiu Canela · AusArt · Global

This article reviews artistic interventions that address urban land uses and farming methods. These actions, through planting and cultivating, generate spaces for the expression of artistic, political, and social identities, often in urban interstices like abandoned lots or non-urbanized areas. The study identifies these practices as spaces for social critique and ecological activism.