Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
101 results(4 / 5)
Contesting Neoliberal Urbanism in Glasgow's Community Gardens: The Practice of DIY Citizenship
2016John Crossan, Andrew Cumbers, Robert McMaster, Deirdre Shaw · Antipode · United Kingdom (Glasgow)
This paper examines community gardens in Glasgow, acknowledging their vulnerability to neoliberal cooptation where citizen work may alleviate state service provision. However, it argues that even with neoliberal practices, these gardens cultivate collective practices that suggest a progressively transformative polity. This form of citizen participation, termed "Do-It-Yourself" (DIY) Citizenship, encourages reconsideration of relationships and effective political practice.
Governance failureCommunityDIYPolicyFood sovereignty & justiceVulnerability Analysis of Urban Agriculture Projects: A Case Study of Community and Entrepreneurial Gardens in the Netherlands and Switzerland
2016Ladina Knapp, E.J. Veen, H. Renting, J.S.C. Wiskerke, J.C.J. Groot · Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems · Europe
This study assessed criteria for the successful establishment and continuity of 29 small-scale, bottom-up urban agriculture (UA) initiatives in the Netherlands and Switzerland, using a vulnerability analysis framework. Biophysical and socio-institutional criteria were analyzed through interviews with project leaders. Findings revealed that the vulnerability of UA systems strongly depends on local circumstances, with the main perturbations and causes of vulnerability originating from social-institutional and human conditions, such as the institutional sphere, local authority assistance, and project leaders' determination.
Governance failureCommunityEconomicsPolicyHealthExplorando la relación ser humano-naturaleza: agricultura urbana, ciencias de la conservación y ciudad
2016Ana Cristina Torres, Anne Caroline Prévot, Sophie Nadot · Letras Verdes Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios Socioambientales · France (Paris)
A study of 9 Parisian community gardens revealed the limitations of the dominant approach in conservation sciences and urban planning, which seeks to halt environmental deterioration by establishing an ethical basis of attitudes deemed appropriate for conserving a particular nature, by limiting human-nature interaction. Considering citizen subjectivities, the study offers perspectives to nourish conservation sciences and rethink cities.
Governance failureCommunityBiodiversityPolicyParadoxical territorial management: the case of peri-urban agricultural areas
2016Solange Hernandez · International Review of Administrative Sciences · France
This case study in the urban community of Pays d’Aubagne et de l’Etoile, France, over 25 years, aimed to understand paradoxical territorial management practices in peri-urban agriculture. Based on quantitative analyses of qualitative data, the study demonstrated the relevance of these management practices in action, but identified paradoxes as a recurring source of tension and deadlock in territorial public administration. The research proposes managerial tools applicable in the framework of public action in peri-urban agriculture.
Governance failurePolicyPeri-urban agricultureEconomicsEnvisioning Opportunities for Agriculture in Peri-Urban Areas
2016Elke Rogge, Eva Kerselaers, Charlotte Prové · · Europe
This study explores opportunities and challenges for peri-urban agriculture, examining envisioning processes in Ghent and Kortrijk, Belgium, initiated by local authorities. Results indicate that pressure on farmland is a key issue in both contexts. Multifunctionality is complex in practice and governance, and successful envisioning processes require clear objectives, defined study areas, policy support, strong leadership, and reliable data.
Governance failurePeri-urban agriculturePolicyUrban–rural linkageEconomicsResistances and appropriations. Urban laboratories of social and cultural experimentation in the ci
2015· REGAC - Revista de Estudios Globales y Arte Contempor�neo · Spain (Valencia)
This paper maps collective initiatives in Valencia, Spain, that emerged in response to inadequate national and local cultural policies. These initiatives, including urban orchards, acted as resistance to institutional policies or appropriated spaces due to a lack of public institutional interest. They function as urban experimentation laboratories for social and cultural transformation, forming a dense local network.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyFood sovereignty & justiceVegas and Deltas in the Vicinity of Medium-Sized Cities in Andalucia, Spain: Landscapes under Pressure but Scarcely Considered in Planning
2015Rocío Pérez-Campaña · European Planning Studies · Spain
This research analyzed land-use transformations of peri-urban agricultural deltas and vegas in Andalucía, Spain, focusing on medium-sized cities between 1956 and 2007. It also assessed their consideration in regional spatial planning. The findings indicate that these landscapes are changing land use and sometimes disappearing, receiving meagre attention and vague consideration in spatial planning.
Governance failurePeri-urban agriculturePolicyUrban–rural linkageA desalambrar. Agricultura urbana, huertos comunitarios y regulación urbanística
2014Nerea Morán Alonso, José Luis Fernández de Casadevante · Hábitat y Sociedad · Spain
In Spain, urban agriculture is gaining importance, but faces difficulties in municipal regulation, particularly for community gardens. This regulatory challenge perpetuates the insecurity and precariousness of urban agriculture projects.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyYou are Hungry: Flâneuring, Edible Mapping and Feeding Imaginations
2014Mikey Tomkins · Repository hosted by TU Delft Library (TU Delft) · United Kingdom (London)
This research explored reactions to the idea of potential urban agriculture landscapes through 32 participatory walks with 150 local residents around a 25-hectare site in east London. The walks used an "edible map" that suggested food growing in vacant urban areas. The study showed initial engagement with urban agriculture and local food systems, but also produced a strong critique of urban spatial design and a desire for place-making.
Governance failureCommunityFood educationPolicyPolicies and practices of urban and peri-urban agriculture: a great deal of participation but a little public action/ Politiche e pratiche dell’agricoltura urbana e periurbana: molta partecipazione e poca azione pubblica
2014Giuseppe Cinà · PORTO Publications Open Repository TOrino (Politecnico di Torino) · Italy
This paper examines Italian planning, highlighting an unresolved discrepancy between urban and agricultural policies due to a long-standing separation of urban and rural worlds. It outlines how this historical gap results in two inconsistent and low-effective policies. The paper discusses agricultural parks as an attempt to overcome this planning backwardness by integrating spatial planning and agricultural activity, documenting three Italian examples.
Governance failurePolicyPeri-urban agricultureUrban–rural linkageCommunityEarth under the Nails: : The Extraordinary Return to the Land
2014· Hart Publishing eBooks · United Kingdom (England and Wales)
This paper explores the phenomenon of people in England and Wales returning to the land for various food-growing projects, including over 1,000 community gardens and 82 school farms. It examines the legal frameworks regulating these diverse projects and finds that the legal framework is fragmented, poorly signposted, and often absent, with projects sometimes depending entirely on landowner goodwill. The study concludes that there is little coherency in the law regarding these initiatives.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyUrban–rural linkageFood sovereignty & justiceObserving Guerrillas in the Wild: Reinterpreting Practices of Urban Guerrilla Gardening
2013David Adams, Michael Hardman · Urban Studies · United Kingdom
This paper uses ethnographic data from 'F Troop', a guerrilla gardening group in an English midland city, to re-examine urban guerrilla gardening practices. It argues that these practices may not be as "resistant" or "celebratory" as often suggested in existing literature. The study highlights that the social backgrounds and motivations of participants, along with their relationships with other users of the space, are important but largely unacknowledged aspects of guerrilla gardening.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyUrban–rural linkageUrban Agricultures: Spatial, Social and Environmental Transformations in Rome
2013Giovanni Attili · IRIS Research product catalog (Sapienza University of Rome) · Italy (Rome)
This study focused on community gardens in Rome, Italy, which largely result from informal appropriation practices. While these gardens can enhance environmental and social quality of life, they require institutional support and present a crucial challenge for urban planning. The study highlights the need to explore tensions between social practices and institutional powers, and questions how public policy can legitimize these self-guiding societal expressions.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyBiodiversityHealthHiri-nekazaritza Bilbo inguruan
2012David Tijero · Aldiri: arkitektura eta abar · Spain (Bilbao)
This article criticizes the municipal administration's attitude towards informal allotments on the outskirts of Bilbao. It analyzes the consequences of green space reclamation plans executed in recent years and advocates for policies promoting both formal and informal urban agriculture.
Governance failurePolicyCommunityPeri-urban agricultureBackyard chicken keeping in the Greater London Urban Area: welfare status, biosecurity and disease control issues
2012I. Karabozhilova, Barbara Wieland, Silvia Alonso, Laura Salonen, Barbara Häsler · British Poultry Science · United Kingdom (London)
A 2010 questionnaire survey of 30 backyard chicken flock-keepers in the Greater London Urban Area found that while chickens generally had conditions for natural behaviors, most owners did not comply with regulations on catering waste feeding. Disease prevention measures were rare, and a lack of avian and zoonotic disease knowledge among owners was observed, indicating implications for disease control.
Governance failureHealthPolicyCommunityChapter 29 Public space, urban agriculture and the grassroots creation of new commons: lessons and challenges for policy makers
2012Chiara Tornaghi · · United Kingdom
This academic-activist research on grassroots urban agriculture initiatives, focusing on four projects in Leeds, UK, found that local and regional institutions have limited ability to respond to these new demands. Planning traditions constrain institutions, failing to create flexible public spaces. Consequently, short-term solutions are found in "loose spaces" or ad-hoc negotiations, but these remain emergency or residual practices, highlighting challenges for urban public space management.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyFood sovereignty & justiceUrban–rural linkageRegulation of Farmland Conversion on the Urban Fringe: From Land-Use Planning to Food Strategies. Insight into Two Case Studies in Provence and Tuscany
2012Coline Perrin · International Planning Studies · France, Italy
Case studies in Provence and Tuscany indicate that planning prescriptions and land-market control are insufficient for protecting farmland on the urban fringe. Farmland is not effectively protected if regulatory approaches are not integrated into a global strategy for agriculture and food based on community involvement. Farmland protection policies are more effective when combining top-down policies with bottom-up initiatives and recognizing the multifunctional character of urban agriculture.
Governance failurePolicyPeri-urban agricultureCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceGrowing alone, growing together, growing apart?: Reflections on the social organisation of voluntary urban food production in Britain
2012Richard Wiltshire, Louise Geoghegan · Research Portal (King's College London) · United Kingdom
This chapter explores the social organization of voluntary urban food production in Britain, identifying two dominant modes: collective activities and individual allotment gardens. It notes that the organization of unpaid labor is an under-researched aspect and a key restraint on urban agriculture's expansion. The study found that relations between these two modes can be antagonistic, particularly when land is scarce.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyEconomicsProximité entre ville et agriculture au Nord et au Sud de la Méditerranée
2011Saloua Toumi, Roland Vidal · Projets de paysage · Europe, Africa
Urban agriculture is expanding in various metropolitan areas, but its agro-economic and socio-spatial logic differs by context. Tunisia's urban agriculture is threatened by increasing urban expansion and is not yet integrated into territorial projects. Issues related to land value appreciation are dominant, and its landscape and environmental benefits could be compromised in the relatively short term if it does not find its place in urban development plans.
Governance failureFood sovereignty & justiceEconomicsPolicyUrban–rural linkageThe Cluster of Urban Agriculture: Case of Bartın-Turkey
2009AÇIKSÖZ Sebahat · Tarım Bilimleri Dergisi · Turkey (Bartın)
This study investigated whether urban agriculture activities in Bartın, Turkey, could be organized as a cluster according to Cluster Growth Theory, and examined its cluster characteristics as part of the TR-26 Bartın Regional Development Project. While urban agriculture in Bartın was identified as having cluster characteristics and growth potential, the study found that a fundamental problem for its future development is weak coordination and cooperation among stakeholders. It proposes a model for urban agriculture activities for a "Bartın Urban Initiative" at the city level.
Governance failureEconomicsCommunityPolicyLes documents d’urbanisme, un outil pour la régulation des conflits d’usage de l’espace agricole périurbain ?
2006Samuel Martín, Nathalie Bertrand, Nicole Rousier · Géographie Économie Société · France (Rhône-Alpes)
This paper examines spatial planning documents in two Rhône-Alpes city regions, France, as a tool for regulating land use conflicts in peri-urban agricultural areas under urbanization pressure. The analysis highlights rising tensions between local actors and suggests that agriculture is instrumentalized by spatial planning policies at the inter-communal level. At the communal level, local plans manage neighborhood and land ownership conflicts.
Governance failurePolicyPeri-urban agricultureUrban–rural linkageONE HUNDRED YEARS OF ALLOTMENT GARDENS IN POLAND1
2004Anne C. Bellows · Food and Foodways · Poland
Polish allotment gardeners collectively represent the largest land managers in Poland, with a formalized urban allotment food production system dating back to 1997. This system, combining local and national government policy with NGO management and private use, provides a model for food security and urban open space. However, this arrangement also creates ongoing tension among stakeholders and a contentious debate regarding the private and public uses of urban land.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyFood sovereignty & justiceUrban–rural linkageL'agriculture face au développement économique : un combat inégal ou des politiques périurbaines à construire / Agriculture versus economic development : an unequal fight or a question of new policies for the peri-urban area
2003Nathalie Bertrand, Nicole Rousier · Revue de géographie alpine · France (Grenoble)
This study analyzed the economic role of agriculture in the Grenoble urban region, France. From an economic perspective, agriculture was considered an activity of relatively minor importance in this region, known for its strong technological development. However, in the regional master plan approved in 2000, farming occupies an essential position. The study aimed to understand the role of peri-urban agriculture in the preparation of the urban region's development plan by specifying its assigned functions and analyzing how agriculture has been considered in regional plans.
Governance failurePeri-urban agriculturePolicyEconomicsGrowing Food in Cities: the Implications for Land-Use Policy
2003Joe Howe · Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning · United Kingdom
This article explores the neglect of research concerning food grown within urban areas and its land-use policy implications. It details findings from a UK study on land-use policy and urban agriculture, investigating land-use officials' attitudes and knowledge of urban food production and the regulatory framework used. The article concludes that despite extensive urban agriculture practice, its urban land-use policy implications require more attention from both land-use officials and researchers than previously given.
Governance failurePolicyUrban–rural linkageFood sovereignty & justiceL'agriculture périurbaine : paradigme et paradoxes d'une péri-agriculture. Illustration en région méditerranéenne
2001J.J. Tolron · HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) · Europe
This article examines peri-urban agriculture, which is subject to land constraints imposed by nearby cities. Two case studies in the Mediterranean region illustrate that adaptations to the peri-urban context trigger radical changes in agricultural systems' functioning rationale, leading to sometimes paradoxical operations. The study emphasizes the diversifying effect on systems and the challenges linked to land management.
Governance failurePeri-urban agriculturePolicyEconomicsUrban–rural linkage