Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
274 results(4 / 11)
BUDAYA PERTANIAN KOTA (URBAN FARMING) SEBAGAI OPTIMALISASI LAHAN TERBATAS DI JAKARTA TIMUR
2024M. S. (Muhammad ) Ramadhan, R. (Renny) Nurhasana · Neliti · Indonesia (Jakarta)
This qualitative case study in East Jakarta, Indonesia, investigated urban farming as a means to balance urban life. Field observations, interviews, and documentation identified several obstacles: a lack of community awareness, limited facilities, and challenges from extreme weather. Proposed solutions include community empowerment, improved facilities, and better climate control and supply chain systems.
Governance failureCommunityClimate changeFood sovereignty & justiceSiEUGreen White Paper with best practices
2024Nordregio, Luciane Aguiar Borges, Ana de Jesus · · Global
This report discusses the barriers and drivers of Urban Agriculture (UA) within the framework of the Horizon 2020 project 'SiEUGreen,' across environmental, technological, economic, social/cultural, and regulatory/institutional aspects. Based on insights from five showcases in Norway, Denmark, Turkey, and China, the results suggest that city food provision and UA systems can be designed considering circular economy regenerative cycles. However, key barriers limiting UA uptake include the need for more evidence-based research, further experimentation for innovative technological developments, high investments, difficulties accessing financial support, underdeveloped business cases, limited recognition of UA's benefits, and behavioral/cultural barriers.
Governance failureFood sovereignty & justiceOrganic cycleCommunityPolicyThe Disenfranchisement of Practitioners and the Public Sector in Innovative Urban Farming in Sub-Saharan Africa: Insights from Nigeria
2024Emmanuel Olatunbosun Benjamin, Abiola Adegoke, Gertrud Buchenrieder · Land · Nigeria (Lagos)
This exploratory qualitative research, conducted in Lagos, Nigeria, used focus group discussions to compare the perspectives of private urban farmers and public sector representatives on innovative urban farming. Urban farmers identified a lack of public sector support for circular agri-food technologies, while public sector representatives attributed issues to farmers' behavioral and educational shortcomings, including poor coordination. These differing views highlight complex dynamics and a need for structural changes and stakeholder dialogues to develop effective urban farming policies in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Governance failureFood sovereignty & justicePolicyCommunityDigital agricultureTackling Social Inequality in the City of Porto, Northern Portugal: Grassroots Horticultural Practices and the Desired City
2024Paula Mota Santos · Social Inclusion · Portugal (Porto)
Grassroots urban horticultural plots (hortas) in the Porto Metropolitan Area, Northern Portugal, are informal communities that have existed for decades, often involving over 20-30 people. However, these low-income urbanite horticultural communities are not cherished by city governance, which does not prevent their destruction. This incompatibility between urban governance and grassroots communities hinders the right to the city for the low-income urbanites who created them.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceA tale of service regimes in irrigated urban agriculture: evidence from two cities in the Global South
2024B.J.M. van Vliet, Kamonashish Haldar, Matthijs T. Wessels, Katarzyna Kujawa-Roeleveld, Gert Jan Veldwisch · Water International · Global
This study examined the governance of irrigated urban agriculture in Arusha, Tanzania, and Khulna, Bangladesh, from a service regime perspective. Findings showed how service regimes bridge the gap between formal governance institutions and practices around irrigated urban agriculture. It is concluded that acknowledging, facilitating, and aligning these regimes can strengthen governance arrangements.
Governance failurePolicyHealthFood sovereignty & justiceClimate changePrincipales spéculations maraîchères cultivées dans les zones urbaines et périurbaines de la ville de Kinshasa (<i>Synthèse bibliographique</i>)
2024Jean de Dieu Minengu, Aiko Ikonso Mwengi, Romain Kawanga, Simon Mwengi, Oscar Mangunda Yama · Revue Africaine d’Environnement et d’Agriculture · Africa
Market gardening in Kinshasa's urban and peri-urban areas faces multiple constraints, including land insecurity, low natural soil fertility, the incidence of diseases and pests, weak technical support, climate hazards, poor input supply, and problematic marketing systems. These constraints limit yields in production sites and hinder the development of market gardening activities.
Governance failureUrban–rural linkagePeri-urban agricultureEconomicsClimate changeFood sovereignty & justiceGreen resilience: Securing life through vegetal being
2024Delf Rothe · Political Geography · United States (New York City)
This paper critically examines the concept of "green resilience" through a case study of various green resilience projects in New York City, including survivor trees, memorial groves, and community gardens. The study argues that these spaces function as key forms of state rule and biopolitical power, identifying three tensions or contradictions of green resilience as a form of biopolitical government: visibility and invisibility, knowledge and ignorance, and control and emergence.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyClimate changeFood sovereignty & justiceA profile of urban agricultural growers, organizations, their needs, and challenges in the Northeastern United States
2024Matthew L. Richardson, John Taylor, Megan J. Thompson, Anusuya Rangarajan, Mamatha Hanumappa, Neith G. Little · PLoS ONE · United States (Northeastern United States)
This online survey of 394 urban growers, primarily in the Northeastern United States, profiled growers and assessed urban agriculture's state, identifying needs and challenges. Most growers were white (non-Hispanic), under 45, well-educated but without agriculture degrees. Urban agriculture was dominated by small non-profits and home/community gardens. A critical finding is that urban growers face diverse barriers, with the most common being land availability and long-term access in urban areas, and many reported low revenue or operating at a net loss.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyEconomicsUrban–rural linkageFood sovereignty & justiceFrom Planetary Core to the High Seas
2024Mary Mattingly · Intellect eBooks · Global
This essay shares two research practices stemming from the author's seven-year engagement with extractive supply chains for specific objects. Swale is a floating food forest that uses the common law of the waterways as a loophole to do what was illegal on common land, highlighting governance challenges within existing systems.
Governance failureFood sovereignty & justiceCommunityUrban–rural linkageUrban Farming, Planning and Environmental Jurisprudence in Delhi
2024Anubhav Pradhan · South Asia Research · India
This article analyzes the recalibration of justice for agrarian communities along the Yamuna in Delhi. Following a 2015 ban on edible crop farming by India's apex environmental court, the Delhi Development Authority has conducted multiple demolition drives for nearly a decade to evict farmers and clear land for redevelopment. The ongoing contentions involving farmers, planning agencies, and the judiciary in this region are symptomatic of the erosion of social justice in urbanizing India.
Governance failurePolicyCommunityUrban–rural linkageFood sovereignty & justicePrincipais problemas da agricultura urbana e pontos de alavancagem
2024Juan Camilo Fontalvo Buelvas, Maria Teresa Pulido Silva, Miguel Ángel Escalona Aguilar · Magazine Portal Bibliotech Digital (Universidad Nacional de Colombia) · Global
This bibliographic review identified the main problems of urban agriculture and actions for sustainability. The study found that the primary deficiencies in urban agriculture are inadequate management practices, a lack of organization, and absent or inefficient public policies. Key leverage points for change include agroecology, policies for land access and sustainable financing, and dissemination processes.
Governance failurePolicyEconomicsCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceUrbane Gärten zwischen Graswurzelbewegung und Klimakrisenpolitik
2024Andrea Baier, Christa Müller, Karin Werner · Neue Ökologie · Global
This study discussed the significance of the new urban garden movement for sustainable urban restructuring, focusing on community garden practices over the past two decades. It examined how the movement is integrated into the governance of urban climate crisis policies, how it utilizes this framework, and to what extent the autonomy of gardens as free spaces and commons can be maintained under these circumstances. The findings suggest that the autonomy of urban gardens may be difficult to maintain when integrated into climate crisis policy governance.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyClimate changeFood sovereignty & justiceMETODOLOGIA PARA AÇÕES COMUNITÁRIAS SUSTENTÁVEIS – PRÁTICAS DE INTEGRAÇÃO DO MODELO DAS CINCO HÉLICES EM UMA HORTA COMUNITÁRIA BRASILEIRA
2024Rosângela Míriam Lemos Oliveira Mendonça, Samantha de Oliveira Nery, Ediméia Maria Ribeiro de Mello · MIX Sustentável · Brazil
This paper presents a methodology applicable to sustainable community actions, developed from seven years of experience with low-income communities in a Brazilian community garden. The methodology is based on participatory action research, systemic design, agroecology, food sovereignty, and solidarity economy principles. The study demonstrates the importance of integrated work among the elements of the quintuple helix model (society, government, industry, academia, and environment), but it does not detail specific challenges or limitations regarding governance.
Governance failureCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceWelfarePolicyAlgorithmic Food Justice
2023Lara Houston, Sara Heitlinger, Ruth Catlow, Alex Taylor · Policy Press eBooks · United Kingdom (London)
Workshops critically experimented with the possibilities and challenges of blockchain as an infrastructure for food abundance and reparative work, using fictional scenarios set in a London transformed into a city farm by 2025. This experimentation suggested that blockchain presents challenges to such restorative and sustainable work. For participants, reparation involved working in the aftermath of social and environmental collapse to bring into being more-than-human-value systems that radically decentered human knowledge and experience.
Governance failureFood sovereignty & justiceCommunityDigital agricultureClimate changePanorama das Leis de Agricultura Urbana no Brasil: Relações com o Planejamento Urbano
2023M. Kühn, Geisa Zanini Rorato, Bruno César Euphrasio de Mello, Carolina Cristófoli Falcão · Ambiente & sociedade · Brazil
This research surveyed federal and state urban agriculture (UA) laws in Brazil to analyze their implications for urban planning (UP). Findings indicate that despite an increase in approved laws, there is no articulated national policy, laws vaguely address UA's interfaces with UP, and they do not objectively tackle territorial challenges faced by UA.
Governance failurePolicyUrban–rural linkageFood sovereignty & justiceThe role of Design Thinking to promote a sustainability transition within participatory urban governance: Insights from urban agriculture initiatives in Lisbon
2023Sandrine Simon · Urban Governance · Portugal (Lisbon)
This study examined urban agricultural initiatives in Lisbon, Portugal, and their integration into urban planning strategies for sustainability, using Design Thinking methodology for a literature review. The integration of urban agriculture into urban planning is identified as a complex problem due to conflicting goals among actors. The research suggests that Design Thinking could assist urban planners in addressing this challenge by providing flexible, iterative, and participatory approaches.
Governance failurePolicyCommunityClimate changeFood sovereignty & justiceThe role of urban and peri-urban agriculture in global food security from post-war to the COVID-19 crisis: new perspectives on food justice, global health, and sustainability,
2023Ana María Bertolini, Patrícia Constante Jaime, Gabriela Marques Di Giulio · Saúde e Sociedade · Global
A critical literature review discussed the evolution of food and nutrition security (FNS) and the contributions of urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA). The review found that institutional responses to FNS are concentrated in times of crisis, which favors the maintenance of globalized and unsustainable food systems. UPA practices show peaks of rise and decline, evolving with the FNS agenda.
Governance failureFood sovereignty & justiceHealthClimate changeUrban–rural linkageCultivating an Alternative Subjectivity Beyond Neoliberalism: Community Gardens in Urban China
2023Xin Mai, Yueli Xu, Yungang Liu · Annals of the American Association of Geographers · China (Shanghai)
This study investigated the emergence and development of two flagship community garden cases in Shanghai, China, initiated in 2016. Observations revealed that a nonprofit organization, not local citizens or municipal government, proactively advanced community garden production and participation. The community garden phenomenon was found to reify an alternative subjectivity, emphasizing social organizations as a state "flanking mechanism" for extraeconomic urban governance objectives.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyFood sovereignty & justiceThe role of urban agriculture in food-energy-water nexus policies: Insights from Europe and the U.S
2023Runrid Fox-Kämper, Caitlin K. Kirby, Kathrin Specht, Nevin Cohen, Rositsa T. Ilieva, Silvio Caputo, Victoria Schoen, Jason K. Hawes, Lidia Poniży, Béatrice Bechet · Landscape and Urban Planning · Europe; United States
The relationship between urban agriculture (UA) and food-energy-water (FEW) nexus policies was analyzed using policy data from five case study cities in Europe and the U.S. (Dortmund, Gorzów Wielkopolski, London, Nantes, and New York City). An analysis of 78 policy documents and a Q-sort ranking by UA policy experts showed that the number, type, and degree of support for nexus policies varied among cities, and few policies (19) incorporated all elements of the nexus. Regulations were considered more effective at ensuring resource-efficient UA than incentives or awareness-raising policies.
Governance failurePolicyClimate changeFood sovereignty & justiceSistemas alimentarios urbanos y su gobernanza, ¿una alternativa viable para Venezuela en el marco de los sistemas agroalimentarios sostenibles?
2023José Anido · Agroalimentaria · Venezuela
This exploratory review study examined the viability of urban food systems and their governance in Venezuela, based on secondary sources. While identifying available resources like educational infrastructure and a renewed legal framework, the study highlighted significant limitations. These include increasing deforestation, deteriorating potable water services for urban agriculture, migration of skilled populations, decline in public funding for science and technology, opaque official information, and scarcity of financing for new developments.
Governance failurePolicyFood sovereignty & justiceEconomicsClimate changeFruits of the city: The nature, nurture and future of urban foraging
2023Mallika Sardeshpande, Charlie M. Shackleton · People and Nature · South Africa
This study interviewed 80 urban foragers in four cities in South Africa's eastern coastal region to understand urban foraging in a developing nation context. Foragers began foraging in childhood, viewing it as a cultural and recreational activity, but formal green spaces were not used for foraging and were perceived as poorly provisioned in urban planning. This indicates a lack of governance in urban planning regarding foraging.
Governance failureCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceUrban–rural linkageExperimental urban commons?: Re‐examining urban community food gardens in Cape Town, South Africa
2023Tinashe P. Kanosvamhira, Alexander Follmann, Daniel Tevera · Geographical Journal · South Africa
This mixed-methods study examined 34 urban community gardens in Cape Town, South Africa, to assess their capacity to function as urban commons across six areas: infrastructure, inputs, land, produce, labour, and immaterial components. Findings demonstrated that while these gardens counter neoliberal privatization and individualization, their capacity to function as urban commons is significantly curtailed by their entrenchment within the neoliberal context.
Governance failureCommunityFood sovereignty & justicePolicyEconomicsSuccesses and challenges of a university-based agroecological community garden and educational program in Japan
2023Benjamin Schrager, Hiroki Ikeda, Takahashi Yukitsugu · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · Japan
This article explores Utsunomiya University’s Eco-programs, which combine a pesticide-free community garden with an educational series, using ethnographic data. Findings indicate tensions between the Eco-programs' agroecological goals and other institutional goals at the university. Despite these conflicts, the programs provide a space for agroecological gardening and serve as an example of an alternative agricultural initiative in Japan.
Governance failureCommunityFood educationFood sovereignty & justicePolicyUnderstanding Social-Ecological Memory in Urban Agriculture: A Case Study from Istanbul
2023Susana Alves, Bahar Bașer Kalyoncuoğlu · Ecopsychology · Turkey (Istanbul)
This study explored the socio-ecological potential of urban agriculture in 10 family-related projects in Istanbul, where Bostans (historical urban vegetable gardens) are culturally significant. Despite their importance and UNESCO recognition, the planning and management of bostans have been hampered by rapid urbanization and a lack of integrative policies. Data from interviews, observations, and fieldwork highlighted the role of kinship in knowledge transfer and how farmers base activities on past-present affordances and future expectations.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyUrban–rural linkageFood sovereignty & justiceThe urbanisation of controlled environment agriculture: Why does it matter for urban studies?
2023Simon Marvin, Lauren Rickards, Jonathan Rutherford · Urban Studies · Global
This paper critically examines urban controlled environment agriculture (CEA), reconceptualizing it as an emergent urban infrastructure for artificial, highly productive microclimates. It argues that CEA attempts to secure food production through three spatial-temporal fixes: enclosing food production indoors, moving it closer to cities, and integrating it into city buildings, thereby extending existing agricultural logics. The paper identifies future research challenges for urban studies regarding CEA.
Governance failurePolicyFood sovereignty & justiceDigital agriculture