Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
101 results(3 / 5)
Cultivating food or cultivating citizens? On the governance and potential of community gardens in Amsterdam
2020Luca Sára Bródy, Mandy de Wilde · Local Environment · Netherlands (Amsterdam)
Based on a qualitative study of 19 community gardening projects in Amsterdam, this research argues that community gardens function as “controlled space.” Various institutional governance actors, including local government, welfare organizations, green NGOs, and housing associations, exert varied levels of influence and control over the gardens. These relations both impair and enable the civic participation of gardeners, the inclusive potential of gardens, and an alternative, local food provision and distribution.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyEconomicsLegal regulations and the development of German and Polish allotment gardens in the context of the production function
2020Ewa Kacprzak, Barbara Maćkiewicz, Magdalena Szczepańska · Ruch Prawniczy Ekonomiczny i Socjologiczny · Germany, Poland
This study compared legal regulations for allotment gardening in Germany and Poland. Through analysis of legal acts, field research, and structured interviews, it was found that some provisions of legal acts in both countries are not strictly adhered to by users. In Poland, unclear provisions regarding crop cultivation have led to the replacement of the farming function by recreational and residential uses.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyNew School maintains an established garden
2020Lexi Earl, Pat Thomson · · United Kingdom (midlands in England)
This chapter examines a school garden with farm elements at a primary school in a deprived market town in the midlands of England, established as part of an 'eco-school' initiative driven by the former head teacher. The garden included various spaces like a farm, raised beds, a pond, and a herb garden, used for science learning and natural exploration. However, the study notes that the impetus for outdoor learning diminished after the initiating head teacher departed, as school priorities shifted due to other pressures.
Governance failureFood educationCommunityBiodiversityThe ‘fluid governance’ of urban public spaces. Insights from informal planning practices in Rome
2019Chiara Certomà, Lorenzo Chelleri, Bruno Notteboom · Urban Studies · Italy (Rome)
This paper investigates informal planning practices and "fluid governance" in urban public spaces, using the case of Parco delle Energie in Rome, Italy, and a comparative analysis of international cases. It found that politically progressive urban gardening challenges traditional governance networks and redefines public space functioning by transforming green spaces into food production and collaboratively managed areas through informal planning. This demonstrates that urban gardening worldwide challenges traditional planning perspectives and governance, turning citizens' dissensus into a productive force.
Governance failurePolicyCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceUrban Agriculture in shared spaces: The difficulties with collaboration in an age of austerity
2019Rebecca St. Clair, Michael Hardman, Richard Armitage, Graeme Sherriff · Urban Studies · United Kingdom (Manchester)
This study, conducted in Wythenshawe, Manchester, UK, highlights the difficulties of collaboration among organizations in a lottery-funded urban agriculture project. Due to local authority cutbacks and a lack of funding, community groups and charitable organizations compete for space and resources, leading to a "siege mentality" where organizational self-preservation takes precedence over cooperation. This paradoxically results in groups with similar goals working against each other instead of collaborating.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyEconomicsKent Hakkı ve Katılımcılık Bağlamında Kendin Yap Kentleşme: Roma Bostanı Örneği
2019gökçe öcal · Journal of Planning · Turkey (Istanbul)
This study focuses on the Roma Garden, one of Istanbul's last remaining urban gardens, within the context of "DIY urbanism." In Istanbul, historical gardens are threatened by municipal policies favoring urban development, leading to the formation of "DIY" urban gardens on public land since 2013. These gardens operate without legal ties to the local state, and the destruction of urban public space over the last decade is noted as having paved the way for DIY public gardens as spaces of solidarity and shared knowledge.
Governance failureDIYCommunityPolicyBiodiversityPolish Urban Allotment Gardens as ‘Slow City’ Enclaves
2019Robert Bartłomiejski, Maciej Kowalewski · Sustainability · Poland
This article discusses Polish urban allotment gardens (UAGs) as an alternative urban development framework, "Slow City." It notes that increasing problems of soil pollution, abandoned gardens, informal housing, and limitation of access to UAG green areas for other inhabitants reinforce the pressure to reduce the number of UAGs.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyClimate changel’Horta De València: Past and present dynamics in landscape change and planning
2019Carme Melo Escrihuela · International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning · Spain (Valencia)
The evolution in the preservation, management, and planning of l'Horta de València, a historical Mediterranean huerta in Valencia, Spain, was assessed. It is argued that negative changes and impacts in l'Horta are not simply the outcome of global dynamics but result from the region's planning trajectory and landscape management approach. This approach has been shaped by a lack of territorial and supra-municipal perspective and the primacy of culture, identity, and heritage aspects over the landscape's productive dimension.
Governance failurePeri-urban agriculturePolicyUrban–rural linkageTemporary urban landscapes and urban gardening
2019Sofia Nikolaidou · Manchester University Press eBooks · Europe
This chapter examines new forms of urban gardening, often involving informal and temporary reuse of vacant land, and their impact on urban green space governance and planning practices. Using examples from Greece and Switzerland, it highlights differences and similarities in practices, social and institutional contexts, and collaborative governance patterns. The study calls attention to the critical role of the temporary nature of these initiatives, which affects new configurations of urban green areas and public space, and related planning practices.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyUrban–rural linkageEconomicsAn Analysis of the Changes in the Structure of Allotment Gardens in Poland and of the Process of Regulating Legal Status
2018Anna Trembecka, Anita Kwartnik-Pruc · Sustainability · Poland
This study analyzed data on the number and area of allotment gardens, their distribution across Poland, and the process of regulating the legal status of land occupied by allotment gardens. The research identified the number and area of family allotment gardens in Poland, along with the range and types of claims against them. The study found that land occupied by family allotment gardens requires protection and legal status regulation, which is difficult due to various entities submitting claims to these areas because of their attractive urban locations.
Governance failurePolicyCommunityUrban–rural linkageFood localization and agency
2018Lena Partzsch · · Germany (Freiburg)
This chapter examines agency and accountability in food localization projects in Freiburg, Germany, using two case studies: Regionalwert AG and Luzernenhof. Regionalwert AG defines agency through the market, while Luzernenhof, a CSA, relies on trust and charity. It was shown that while food localization is often portrayed as "best practice," it also implies decisions about alternatives, raising questions of agency and accountability.
Governance failureCSA & TeikeiEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceCommunityThe Use and Value of Green School Grounds in Developing Countries
2018Arlinda Sheqiri, Parna Rastgo · Journal of Environmental Science and Engineering - A · Europe
A study on the use and value of green school grounds in developing countries was conducted across five schools in Podujevo, Kosovo. The findings revealed that the potential of green school grounds in most studied cases has not been utilized. Opportunities provided by the municipality and environmental NGOs are insufficient, suggesting a need to rethink the design and use of green school grounds in developing countries.
Governance failureFood educationHealthCommunityPolicyThe Challenges of Governing Urban Food Production across Four European City‐Regions: Identity, Sustainability and Governance
2018Matthew Reed, Evy Mettepenningen, Paul Swagemakers, M.D. Domínguez García, Ingrid Jahrl, Marlinde Koopmans · Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems · Europe
This paper examined urban food governance in four European city-regions: Bristol (UK), Ghent (Belgium), Vigo (Spain), and Zurich (Switzerland). The case studies demonstrated the role of citizens in urban food and the challenges this presents to city-region governance. Urban food activists, through horizontal networking and clear communication of demands, have raised significant questions about how cities are governed.
Governance failurePolicyCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceEveryday urbanism and the everyday state: Negotiating habitat in allotment gardens in Berlin
2017Hanna Hilbrandt · Urban Studies · Germany (Berlin)
This paper investigates the powers at play in informal housing practices and their regulation within Berlin's allotment gardens, where residency is prohibited. It argues that gardeners' ability to remain in these sites depends on their mediation of regulatory practices through relationships with state actors or institutional frameworks. This process highlights the co-construction of order and the establishment of boundaries for inclusion and exclusion.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyEconomicsGoverning the peri-urban agricultural territory. Opportunities and obstacles of integration between spatial planning and the Common Agricultural Policy
2017Annalisa Lodigiani · · Europe
This research addresses the ineffective governance of peri-urban agricultural territory in Europe, noting that spatial planning lacks the tools to guide agricultural sector forces influencing landscape transformation. Public action, through agricultural and rural development policies, significantly transforms the environment and territory but does not directly target space. The study finds that the separation between spatial planning and rural development policy creates ineffectiveness and stalemates in governing peri-urban agricultural land, concluding that integration of these two fields is required.
Governance failurePeri-urban agriculturePolicyFood sovereignty & justiceAgriculture urbaine, agriculture locale, et nouveaux systèmes alimentaires territoriaux.
2017Elsa Perroit · · France
This article reflects on the French agricultural model and the absence of urban agriculture from the "Etats généraux de l’Alimentation" (General Assembly on Food). Despite its multifaceted nature and role in urban food security, urban agriculture was relegated to a non-productive status, with its food functions disregarded. The article concludes that while urban agriculture possesses many qualities, it is not and will not be sufficient to feed urban areas.
Governance failureFood sovereignty & justicePolicyFamily allotment gardens - the case of the Poznań agglomeration
2017Magdalena Szczepańska · Europa XXI · Poland
In Poland's Poznań agglomeration, agricultural functions tend to be marginalized in urban development concepts and documents due to urbanization. Despite their ecological, health, landscape, recreational, and social functions, family allotment gardens are alarmingly perceived as restricting urban spatial development. This study presented the current state of family allotment gardens in the Poznań agglomeration and offered recommendations for spatial policy.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyHealthEconomicsFuture of Allotment Gardens in the Context of City Spatial Policy – A Case Study of Poznań
2017Lidia Poniży, Kamila Stachura · Quaestiones Geographicae · Poland (Poznań)
This case study of Poznań, Poland, examines urban spatial policy regarding allotment gardens. It finds that despite their importance as green infrastructure, allotment gardens receive little attention in city plans and policies, and face threats from investment pressure due to an underestimation of their role. The study emphasizes that preserving these gardens relies on local spatial planning.
Governance failurePolicyCommunityUrban–rural linkageCuatro iniciativas de agricultura en la ciudad frente a la banalización del paisaje histórico urbano | Four urban agriculture initiatives against the banalization of urban historical landscape
2017David Arredondo Garrido · ZARCH · Spain
This study analyzed four urban agriculture and gardening initiatives in the city centers of Seville, Barcelona, Madrid, and Zaragoza, Spain, over the last decade. These projects aimed to counteract the homogenization of urban historical landscapes and create spaces for culture and social interaction. Despite difficulties in their management and their minor impact, these interventions demonstrated a method for reconfiguring urban landscapes in abandoned central areas.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyFood sovereignty & justiceUrban agriculture and place-making: Narratives about place and space in Ghent, Brno and Bristol
2017Marlinde Koopmans, Daniel Keech, Lucie Sovová, Matthew Reed · Moravian Geographical Reports · Europe
This paper analyzed urban agriculture (UA) and place-making in Ghent, Brno, and Bristol, using a spatial lens across three case studies. It revealed that local authorities struggle to find space for UA, leading to its frequent, often temporary, emergence in marginal areas vulnerable to planning changes. The analysis exposed inherent tensions within UA, conceptualized as tensions between abstract space and concrete place narratives. It was suggested that UA, as a collective socio-cultural process, can transform functionally replicable spaces into unique places, contributing to place-making, and urban planning should secure physical spaces and create possibilities for local autonomous governance.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyUrban–rural linkageUrban rooftop farming : sustainability, practices and stakeholder perception on case studies in Europe (Torino, Paris, Rotterdam)
2017Jonida Alliaj · · Europe
This qualitative investigation examined rooftop farming in Turin, Paris, and Rotterdam, focusing on local practices, policies, and stakeholder perceptions of sustainability and social impact. Findings reveal significant differences in governance: Turin's OrtiAlti project faced difficulties due to absent city strategies and policies, while Paris has a moderate number of rooftop farms with recent supportive policies. Rotterdam's Dakakker is a consolidated project, supported by local government through multi-stakeholder participation.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyClimate changeUrban gardens and institutional fences
2017Nadia Tecco, Federico Cóppola, Francesco Sottile, Cristiana Peano · Future of food: journal on food, agriculture and society · Italy (Turin)
This paper, based on fieldwork in two urban communal gardens in Turin, Italy, examined the spatiotemporal dimension of urban gardening, focusing on governance and the impact of regulations. It found that urban garden management is problematic due to the complex relationship between gardeners and allotments. Local government and promoting associations face challenges in adapting to and managing the evolving phenomenon, encountering internal conservative resistance and external pressures for change. These governance aspects have not been sufficiently considered.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyZwischen grüner Imageproduktion, partizipativer Politik und Wachstumszwang: urbane Landwirtschaft und Gärten im Kontext neoliberaler Stadtentwicklung in Wien
2017Sarah Kumnig · transcript Verlag eBooks · Europe
This study, titled "Between green image production, participatory politics, and growth pressure: urban agriculture and gardens in the context of neoliberal urban development in Vienna," was published in Umkämpftes Grün on page 139.
Governance failurePolicyCommunityEconomicsHuertos en precario ¿en peligro de extinción? Su encaje en una propuesta integrada de gestión de la agricultura urbana y periurbana en el área metropolitana de Barcelona
2017Elena Domene Gómez, Francesc Coll, Marta Garcia-Sierra · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Spain (Barcelona)
Informal vegetable gardens have proliferated in Barcelona's urban periphery since the 1980s, serving as leisure spaces and food sources, and are a relevant form of agriculture. However, these "unregulated" spaces are not considered in urban and peri-urban agriculture promotion policies. A GIS methodology mapped these gardens in the Barcelona metropolitan area for 2009 and 2015, showing an increase in occupied surface during the recent economic crisis. The study evaluates contradictions leading municipal managers to eliminate or regulate these informal spaces, attributing them partly to the subjectivity of the urban and peri-urban agriculture concept and its supposed multifunctionality.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyUrban–rural linkageEconomicsPeri-Urban Food Production and Its Relation to Urban Resilience
2016Eva Olsson, Eva Kerselaers, Lone Søderkvist Kristensen, Jørgen Primdahl, Elke Rogge, Anders Wästfelt · Sustainability · Europe
A study focusing on peri-urban land in Gothenburg (Sweden), Copenhagen (Denmark), and Gent (Belgium) analyzed the relationship between peri-urban food production and urban resilience. It found that arable farming has declined in all three areas since 2000 due to urban expansion and recreational land use changes. While policies for farmland preservation exist, strategies for local food production are not expressed in current planning documents, and competing land uses and high dependence on global food systems reduce peri-urban food production and improvements in urban food security.
Governance failurePeri-urban agriculturePolicyUrban–rural linkageFood sovereignty & justice