Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
134 results(1 / 6)
Urban Agriculture as a Survival Strategy: Food Security, Inequality, and Community Development in Enugu State, Nigeria
2026Oshaba Patience Chizoba, Chinedu Augustine Igwenagu · Path of Science · Nigeria
A survey of 222 households and interviews in Enugu State, Nigeria, showed that urban agriculture (UA) is a critical coping strategy for food availability. However, UA perpetuates gendered inequalities as a "patriarchal bargain," where women's expanded reproductive labor does not necessarily lead to improved economic empowerment. Furthermore, UA strongly promotes bonding social capital but does not foster bridging social capital with formal institutions, thereby undermining its transformative potential.
Equity & displacementFood sovereignty & justiceCommunityWelfareEconomicsThe Local Food System and Its Potential for Empowering Black Farmers and Growers
2026Mya O. Price · · United States
This chapter examines how local food systems can empower Black farmers and growers through direct-to-consumer and community-based markets, analyzing tools like farmers’ markets and urban agriculture. While case examples show Black-led initiatives, persistent barriers include limited capital, discriminatory pricing and lending, bureaucratic gaps, and uneven USDA support despite civil rights settlements. The study details these challenges.
Equity & displacementCommunityEconomicsFood sovereignty & justicePolicyFood sovereignty, capitalism and migrant workers
2026Sinem Kavak, Lorenza Arango, Doi Ra, Zeynep Ceren Eren Benlisoy, Carlo John Arceo, George T. Mudimu, Daren Shi-chi Leung, Adwoa Yeboah Gyapong, Mnqobi Ngubane · The Journal of Peasant Studies · Global
Migrant workers often remain marginal in food sovereignty discourse and practice despite their central role in the global food system. The emphasis on localization within food sovereignty often overlooks trends towards semi-proletarianization within small peasant and worker households, and a more inclusive food sovereignty agenda must address migrant workers' access to land.
Equity & displacementFood sovereignty & justiceUrban–rural linkageEconomicsA Green(er) Roof over the Head: Reflecting on Strategies Targeting Homelessness with Urban Agriculture for Cape Town, South Africa
2026Louis Lategan, Charné Erasmus · REAL CORP Repository (University of Southampton) · South Africa (Cape Town)
This qualitative study, using semi-systematic literature reviews, explored strategies targeting homelessness with urban agriculture (UA) in Cape Town, South Africa. The research found that very few published case studies link UA and homelessness in developing contexts, and information on such strategies in Cape Town remains limited despite its substantial homeless population. In the global South, UA approaches largely prioritize food security, poverty alleviation, and entrepreneurship.
Equity & displacementWelfareCommunityEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceGentrificación y la etnogénesis de la colonialidad: su antagonismo en la interculturalidad en la Cuidad de Cayambe
2026Eduardo José Terán Duque · Revista Multidisciplinar Epistemología de las Ciencias · Ecuador (Cayambe)
This article examines sociocultural issues in indigenous communities in Cayambe, Ecuador, caused by gentrification. The study, using situated ethnography, cultural cartography, life stories, and body biographies, found that urban renewal for higher-income residents marginalizes ancestral practices like community gardens and leads to the loss of community autonomy and traditions. Regressive ethnogenesis renders indigenous existence invisible and produces epistemic violence, reducing collective activities to social entertainment.
Equity & displacementCommunityPolicyEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceThe potential roles of vertical urban agriculture to promote the right to food in Brazil
2026Felipe Jardim, Eduardo Alberto Manjarrés Trelles, Caren Freitas de Lima · Revista de Direito da Cidade · Brazil
This study investigated the role of vertical urban agriculture in promoting the right to food in Brazil, considering the food system crisis as a problem affecting the right to the city. An inductive method with a qualitative approach, including literature review, documental research, and case studies from Japan, Singapore, Germany, the USA, and Brazil, revealed that vertical urban agriculture has "cons" when appropriated as a profitable system with restricted access products, and "pros" such as occupying vacant urban land and being produced by or supporting poor families.
Equity & displacementFood sovereignty & justicePolicyEconomicsDigital agricultureGrowing food and radical hope in Glasgow: A review of The Practice of Collective Escape
2026Rose Jennings · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · United Kingdom (Glasgow)
Helen Traill's book, "The Practice of Collective Escape," presents ethnographic work over six years in Glasgow, Scotland, following two community growing sites. The book critically examines urban agriculture projects as "Petri dishes for individual and community transformation," exploring concepts of inclusion, individual escape, and political activism, and highlighting social complexities and issues of inclusion and exclusion.
Equity & displacementCommunityPolicyHealthFood sovereignty & justice‘It's a Gender Issue’: Women Farmers in Community‐Supported Agriculture
2026Guilherme Raj, Giuseppe Feola, Irina Velicu · Sociologia Ruralis · Portugal
Case studies of three women farmers in two Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) initiatives in Portugal used data from semi-structured interviews and participant observation. The study demonstrated that while CSA initiatives are conducive to women farmers’ emancipation, the absence of collective efforts to address unequal gender relations hinders their transformative potential. CSA initiatives tend to overlook power imbalances emerging from their internal micro-politics and neglect the ambivalent effects shaping their transformative efforts.
Equity & displacementCSA & TeikeiCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceUrban Agriculture: The Food Movement Moves On
2025Paul Β. Thompson · · Global
This article discusses urban agriculture, noting that the decline of grocery stores in inner cities and projected vulnerabilities in megacities outside the global West suggest distinct moral imperatives. It contrasts urban agriculture with rural resilience and sustainable intensification, highlighting its focus on consumption and present needs. The article describes two urban agriculture archetypes: one embracing high-tech solutions and another emphasizing local solidarities and urban-based control over the food system.
Equity & displacementFood sovereignty & justicePolicyDigital agricultureArchitecture for Spatially Just Food System Planning with and for Urban Youth South Sudanese Refugees in Kenya
2025Katie Schofield, Jacqueline Fanta, William Kolong Pioth, Alissa Cook, Samuel Owuor, Cherie Enns · Youth · Kenya
This youth-led study, involving 40 South Sudanese urban refugees (aged 19-32) in Kenya, mapped food supply chains and identified barriers to procuring, growing, and selling food. Findings indicate that improving the quality of life and food security for refugee youth is complex. Without education and improved livelihoods, including urban agricultural opportunities, their health and wellbeing will continue to be negatively affected.
Equity & displacementWelfareFood sovereignty & justiceCommunityEffect of Land Grabbing, Forced Evictions and Inadequate Compensation on Economic Capital and Food Security of the Displaced Pre-Urban Farmers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
2025Kejela Gnamura, Michael Akwasi Antwi, Abenet Belete · Research of Economic and Financial Problems · Ethiopia (Addis Ababa)
This mixed-methods study in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, compared 446 households (223 displaced and 223 non-displaced) to investigate the effects of urbanization-induced displacement on economic capital and food security. Evicted households showed a 72.7% lower likelihood of achieving economic capital security and 93.4% reduced odds of maintaining food security compared to non-evicted households, indicating significant negative differences.
Equity & displacementFood sovereignty & justicePeri-urban agricultureEconomicsPolicyFeeding the green gentrification machine: urban agriculture and the barriers to a just ecological transition in Montréal, Québec
2025Christina Frendo · Urban Geography · Canada (Montréal)
This study analyzed how urban agriculture contributes to green gentrification in Montréal. Based on interviews with planners, developers, and community actors, and discourse analysis of municipal policy documents, it showed that ecological initiatives are prioritized over housing, and sustainability fixes reconcile progressive rhetoric with growth imperatives, leading to policy trade-offs that undermine housing affordability. These findings reveal how progressive governments reproduce structural injustices through their ecological transition agendas within the context of a housing crisis.
Equity & displacementCommunityPolicyEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceTilling the urban soil: rural-urban alliances and the spatial politics of radical urban agriculture in the Philippines
2025Marvin Joseph F. Montefrio, Nathalie Dagmang · The Journal of Peasant Studies · Philippines (Metro Manila)
This article examines two cases of radical urban agriculture in Metro Manila, Philippines, where urban poor communities strive for food sovereignty and assert rights over contested urban lands. It highlights that the spatiality of material constraints in cities acts as a mediating factor, influencing the formation of rural-urban alliances and the sustainability of urban resistance efforts. The study reveals challenges in establishing and maintaining these alliances due to urban material limitations.
Equity & displacementFood sovereignty & justiceCommunityPolicyUrban–rural linkageFAZENDAS VERTICAIS NA SEMIPERIFERIA DO CAPITALISMO
2025Claudia Rochael Oliveira · Terra Livre · Global
This article argues that while vertical farms (VFs) are often presented as indispensable for sustainable cities, their purported sustainability is difficult to achieve without structural changes to reduce social inequalities. Critiques of urban agriculture, including VFs, point to their contribution to gentrification, racialization of space, and vulnerability to real estate capital, indicating a critical finding regarding equity. The article advocates for VFs to be appropriated by social movements to foster critical stances against conventional agriculture and catalyze urban utopias.
Equity & displacementFood sovereignty & justicePolicyCommunityEconomicsFood banks, food diversion, and other responses
2025Dennis Raphael · Policy Press eBooks · Canada; United Kingdom
This chapter documents the growth of charitable non-governmental responses to food insecurity in Canada and the UK, including food banks, food diversion schemes, and community gardens. It is shown that these responses are problematic as they fail to address the economic and political causes of food insecurity. Further failures associated with charitable responses include the experience of stigma and degradation by food bank users and the promulgation of the belief that food insecurity is being addressed.
Equity & displacementCommunityWelfareFood sovereignty & justicePolicyRELACIONES DE PODER Y GÉNERO EN PROYECTOS DE AGRICULTURA URBANA EN LIMA SUR: UN ANÁLISIS CRÍTICO DE LA PARTICIPACIÓN COMUNITARIA
2025Luis Enrique Serrano Ayasta, Josiane Stoessel-Ritz · Anales Científicos · Peru (Lima)
A doctoral research study in three low-income neighborhoods in South Lima, Peru, analyzed power relations within urban agriculture projects. The findings indicate that these projects, despite aiming for empowerment, often mask asymmetric power relations and reinforce preexisting inequalities, particularly for women gardeners. This perpetuates gender hierarchies and limits their participation and agency, reflecting paternalism from promoting organizations and community leaders.
Equity & displacementCommunityWelfareFood sovereignty & justicePolicyThis is God’s land: Moral economies, spirituality, and insurgent land seizures in Zimbabwe’s urban peripheries
2025Johannes Bhanye, Abraham R. Matamanda, Ruvimbo Shayamunda · Discover Global Society · Zimbabwe
In Lydiate informal settlement in peri-urban Zimbabwe, Malawian migrants mobilize insurgent practices, including informal land seizures, spiritual claims, and communal strategies, to access land for farming. Access to land for urban and peri-urban farming remains a significant hurdle, especially for marginalized migrants. Migrants invoke divine ownership narratives, Nyau cult practices, and witchcraft deterrence as tactical tools for defending seized land.
Equity & displacementPeri-urban agricultureFood sovereignty & justiceCommunityPolicyWelfareEconomicsHealthNúcleo de Estudos e Pesquisas Regionais e Agrários: Investigações e Proposições Geográficas
2025Édipo Alves Lacerda · Espiral revista de geografías y ciencias sociales · Brazil
This book, organized by Gustavo Henrique Cepolini Ferreira et al., compiles texts from Unimontes researchers focused on critical geography and popular struggles for land and traditional territories in northern Minas Gerais, Brazil. It discusses conflicts from agribusiness expansion, disputes over resources, climate change effects on peasant farming, and challenges faced by quilombolas, indigenous, and traditional communities. The book addresses structural racism and other aspects of rural development, highlighting negative impacts on these communities.
Equity & displacementUrban–rural linkageFood sovereignty & justicePolicyClimate changeCommunityReassessing (en)gendered responsibilities for care through community gardening in Aotearoa New Zealand
2025Maria Teresa Braga Bizarria · Gender Place & Culture · New Zealand (Wellington)
This qualitative study explored the embodied experiences of six women in three community gardens in Wellington, New Zealand, focusing on gender roles and care responsibilities. The findings indicate that participants' experiences were permeated by complicity with oppressive structures, and their actions had limitations in fostering transformative justice.
Equity & displacementCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceThe Role of Urban Farming in Enhancing Food Security and Sustainability in Lagos Metropolis: A Stakeholder Analysis
2025S Aliyu, Okhimamhe A. A, I. M. Sule · International Journal of Research and Innovation in Applied Science · Nigeria (Lagos)
This study explored the role of urban farming in enhancing food security and sustainability in the Lagos Metropolis through focus group discussions and quantitative surveys with various stakeholders, including policymakers, urban farmers, and community members. Findings suggest urban farming's potential to reduce food transportation distances, enhance local food production, and mitigate climate change impacts. However, challenges such as land demands and gender disparities persist, necessitating integrated policy approaches and targeted educational programs.
Equity & displacementFood sovereignty & justiceClimate changeCommunityPolicyPeri-urbanization and smallholder farmers’ socio-economic marginality in peri-urban Addis Ababa
2025Girma Mulu Alemu, Sophie Schramm, Wilbard Kombe · Cogent Social Sciences · Ethiopia (Addis Ababa)
This qualitative study in peri-urban Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, explored the impacts of peri-urbanization on smallholder farmers' socio-economic conditions. The research found that peri-urbanization leads to the erosion of capital assets, with dwindling agricultural land causing tenure insecurity and disrupting livelihoods. This process exacerbates smallholder farmers' marginality by weakening social ties and mutual support systems.
Equity & displacementPeri-urban agriculturePolicyEconomicsCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceCidade-Campo no Brasil: dinâmicas e contradições
2025Paulo Ricardo Santos Miranda · Revista Mutirõ Folhetim de Geografias Agrárias do Sul · Brazil
A collection of 13 chapters explores the interactions between city and countryside in Brazil, critically examining how capital traverses urban and rural territories, promoting expropriation and spatial reconfigurations. Studies on Uberlândia, Montes Claros, São Paulo, and the North and Northeast regions highlight land conflicts, peripheral industrialization, urban agriculture, and peasant resistance. The work emphasizes the ambiguous role of the State.
Equity & displacementUrban–rural linkageCommunityFood sovereignty & justicePolicyUrban African food systems as sites of challenges and opportunities for household food equity and resilience
2025Corrie Hannah, Jordan Blekking, Julia Davies, Jane Battersby, Allan Chilenga, Dorcas Kabuya, Percy Toriro · Ecology and Society · Zambia
This empirical case study examined how the COVID-19 pandemic affected urban food systems (UFS) in 14 Zambian cities, using household survey data from 2019, 2020, and 2021. Descriptive and regression analyses assessed household food sourcing, including urban agriculture. Households from diverse socioeconomic quartiles faced similar food security challenges but coped differently based on capacities and resources, indicating a lack of equitable outcomes. Smaller and remote cities sourced food from open-air markets, vendors, and urban agriculture, while more connected cities used local shops.
Equity & displacementFood sovereignty & justiceUrban–rural linkageEconomicsClimate changeCommunityUrban Planning Policies and Architectural Design for Sustainable Food Security: A Case Study of Smart Cities in Indonesia
2025Rafi Haikal, Thoriqi Firdaus, Herdis Herdiansyah, Rizqi Shafira Chairunnisa · Sustainability · Indonesia
This study investigated the relationship between urban planning policies and architectural design in fostering sustainable food systems in 75 smart cities in Indonesia, using a mixed-methods approach. Key findings revealed that food security is significantly undermined by the Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP), indicating distributional inequalities, high food expenditure, and a lack of clean water. Conversely, access to electricity improves resilience.
Equity & displacementPolicyEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceMulheres e Agroecologia no Município de São Paulo. Um estudo sobre agricultura em territórios periféricos
2024Clara 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.
Equity & displacementCommunityFood sovereignty & justicePolicyEconomics