Research & reports

Giordano Ruggeri, Chiara Mazzocchi, Stefano Corsi · Sustainability · Italy (Milan)

This study investigated the motivations of urban gardeners in Milan, Italy, using multiple correspondence analysis and hierarchical clustering analysis. While urban gardening's multifunctionality is well-documented, individual motivations are less explored. The analysis revealed the significant importance of the social component in urban gardening and identified several distinct gardener profiles.

Chiara Certomà · Geografiska Annaler Series B Human Geography · Italy (Rome)

This article investigates the relationship between urban gardening and planning, based on field research on gardening initiatives in Rome, Italy. It suggests that urban gardening exhibits characteristics of "informal planning," intentionally advanced by local dwellers to plan urban space and organize public life in the absence of legal definition, guidance, and funds. Cases in Rome exemplify the emergence of informal planning and show how a new mode of interaction between citizens' agency and formal planning initiatives can lead to creative solutions for issues like decreased public space and its deterioration.

Laura Calvet‐Mir, Hug March, Helena Nordh, Jeanne Pourias, Barbora Čakovská · · Europe

This chapter analyzes individual motivations of gardeners in various types of allotment gardens, noting growing waiting lists for plots. In Barcelona, urban gardens declined due to urban expansion but new economic situations in southern European countries have created new motivations. Societal changes, such as the transition to a market economy in Nitra in the 1990s, have linked access to private property through allotment plots as a major motivation for gardeners.

Darya Hirsch, Christian H. Meyer, Johannes Klement, Martin Hamer, Wiltrud Terlau · International journal on food system dynamics · Germany (Bonn)

This study uses a broad approach to Urban AgriCulture (UAC), encompassing crop production in urban and peri-urban areas, and presents an empirical case study on UAC Initiatives in Germany's Bonn/Rhein-Sieg region. The work aims to fill a gap due to the current lack of comprehensive and comparative studies on urban agriculture, which makes it difficult for researchers to identify its benefits.

Solange 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.

Elke 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.

Leonardo Boganini, Chiara Casazza · · Italy

The ongoing Ur.C.A. research project in Italy's Tuscany region aims to identify the possibilities of integrating agriculture into urban settlements, especially brownfield sites and marginal areas, utilizing hydroponic technologies. The project analyzes the potential for requalification of these urban contexts through urban agriculture, focusing on legislative and technological feasibility. It seeks to develop an innovative hydroponic growth cell system suitable for urban unused areas, integrating renewable energy and rainwater collection.

Xavier Recasens Gracia, María José Prados Velasco, Óscar Alfranca · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Spain

This study comparatively analyzed the relationships between the economic activity of urban farms and agricultural protection systems in the metropolitan areas of Barcelona and Seville. It investigated the business management and commercial aspects of urban agriculture, and how it is conditioned by urban planning and Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) decisions. Based on the CANVAS Business Model and quantification of benefits, the results demonstrated that urban agriculture is multifunctional and can contribute to business profits.

Andrew E. G. Jonas · · United Kingdom

This chapter explores the notion of "the alternative" as relatively unexamined. Empirical work over three years involved six food businesses and initiatives facilitating direct contact between producers and consumers. Earth Share Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in Nairn, North East Scotland, provides vegetables to approximately 200 households weekly. The chapter suggests that diversity within the "alternative" food sector is not necessarily problematic, and consumers' contingent, accidental, and partial commitment has not undermined the success of these schemes.

Darya Hirsch, Christian H. Meyer, Johannes Klement, Martin Hamer, Wiltrud Terlau, Hirsch, Darya, Meyer, Christian, Klement, Johannes, Hamer, Martin, Terlau, Wiltrud · Publication Server of Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences (Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences) · Germany

This paper presents an empirical case study on Urban AgriCulture initiatives in the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg region of Germany. It states that Urban AgriCulture is a niche movement with the potential to contribute significantly to urban development and constitute a pillar of urban quality of life.

Charlotte Prové, Joost Dessein, Michiel De Krom · Ghent University Academic Bibliography (Ghent University) · Belgium; Poland

A study evaluating urban agriculture in Belgium and Poland argues that current governance approaches fail to reflect the importance of local context. The authors found that considering city-specific factors is crucial for urban agriculture to reach its full potential. They recommend a broader policymaking strategy that acknowledges benefits beyond food production.

· · Italy

The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) document from 2004 recognized the strategic value of peri-urban agriculture, describing these areas as complex territories with important economic, environmental, and social roles. The document also noted that peri-urban areas may include less favored areas, entitling local farmers to additional indemnity for natural or environmental limitations.

Elifnaz Durusoy · MEGARON / Yıldız Technical University Faculty of Architecture E-Journal · Turkey (Istanbul)

The Yedikule Urban Gardens in Istanbul were studied as an example where cultural conservation and social inclusion have been challenged by economic development due to the growth of urban development. This study emphasizes both destruction and development within the context of physical, natural, economic, and social change. It demonstrates the hardships faced when attempting to sustain urban gardens during periods of urban growth.

Alexandra Doernberg, Ingo Zasada, Katarzyna Bruszewska, Björn Skoczowski, Annette Piorr · Sustainability · Germany

A 2016 study applies a food systems approach to examine the potential and limits of regional organic food supply in the Berlin Metropolitan Region (BMR), Germany. Using an analytical framework built from the literature and qualitative interviews plus a stakeholder workshop on two alternative food network types — organic community supported agriculture (CSA) and organic retail trade — it finds that demand for regional organic food exceeds regional supply, while identifying obstacles including limited access to land, rising rental prices, insufficient processing capacity, and an unsupportive political environment for organic farming.

Elisabeth Meyer-Renschhausen · ˜L' œHomme · Europe

An essay arguing that, against the recent hype around the term "urban gardening," the term "urban agriculture" (Agrarkultur) better captures its significance for a subsistence economy. It frames community gardening as a women-led social movement that brings previously hidden housework into public view, tracing a history in which the 1806–1813 Stein-Hardenberg reforms suppressed peasants' rights to the commons, causing widows who lost their means of subsistence farming to move into cities; Max Weber's late-19th-century account of farmhands' wives running an autonomous subsistence economy; the 1919 Imperial Allotment Garden Regulation, which established a right to allotments for people in need; and the Second World War, when women were required to supply fresh vegetables from home gardens, allotments and "victory gardens." The essay also notes that today, urban gardening helps voiceless immigrants and refugees settle in unfamiliar surroundings.

Silke Ötsch · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Europe

Working from the premise that the "static-hedonic" economic ideal type — historically cast in a negative light against Joseph Schumpeter's ideal of the entrepreneur — is being positively reframed within the degrowth-critical movement and in writing on urban gardening, an essay examines the conceptions of life and economic activity held by people involved in the degrowth-oriented Transition movement, based on qualitative, problem-centered interviews. It poses the question of whether the figure of the gardener (Gärtner/Gärtnerin) embodies a new guiding model (Leitbild) of economic activity that could replace the entrepreneur.

Efrat Eizenberg, Simone Tappert, Nicola Thomas, Andis Zīlāns, Kristine Abolina, Theodosia Anthopoulou, Jevgenijs Duboks · · Europe

A book chapter examines the changes and challenges facing allotment gardens in European cities from the perspective of urban political economy, reading these new urban configurations within the macro-framework of capitalism and governability. It traces past and current processes of urban change through the economic, political and spatial lens of the "entrepreneurial city," discusses the impact of urban restructuring on allotment gardens' structure, operation and meaning, and states that political and spatial restructuring in the entrepreneurial city has been accompanied by a sharpening of social and economic inequalities within cities.

Carlos Santiago Martín Fernández, Víctor O. Martín Martín · Boletín de la Asociación de Geógrafos Españoles · Spain

This paper examines how the economic crisis and job losses in the construction sector and related services in the Canary Islands, Spain, prompted workers' return to primary-sector activity. This return has taken place largely outside the official regulatory system, becoming an irregular practice that sustains many Canarian households; the administration has responded with measures such as land banks and urban gardens (huertos urbanos), but these are described as only a partial solution to the poor state of family economies.

Ville de Paris · Ville de Paris (Parisculteurs) · France

This official overview page for Paris's Parisculteurs urban-agriculture program states it launched in 2016 with a charter targeting 100 hectares of urban farming; the program has since realized nearly 36 hectares across more than 70 projects (with a similar number in development). A 2013 study by APUR (the Paris urban planning agency) confirmed rooftop agriculture potential, and by 2014 about 11 hectares were already used for urban agriculture, only 0.3 of which were on building structures. Around thirty public and private partners and 14 local authorities currently participate.

Resilient Cities Network · Resilient Cities Network · France

Article from the Resilient Cities Network describing Parisculteurs, the urban-agriculture support programme launched by the City of Paris in 2016. The '100 Hectares' charter has 82 partner organizations, and more than 50 projects have been realized with an equal number under development. Goals cited include shortening food supply chains, strengthening community cohesion, promoting healthy eating, food security, and ecosystem services.

Katie Boswell, Anne Kazimirski · New Philanthropy Capital (NPC) · United Kingdom

A January 2016 briefing from the UK think tank NPC, summarising a seminar for small charities held on 9 July 2015. It starts from the reality that, unlike larger charities with dedicated evaluation staff and budgets, small organisations tend to share measurement duties among staff or leave them on a chief executive's long to-do list. It argues that good impact measurement helps concentrate limited resources on activities that work and helps attract funding, but must be kept in proportion to the scale of the work, and sets out NPC's four-pillar approach beginning with mapping a theory of change.

Sanyé-Mengual E., Oliver-Solà J., Montero J. I., Rieradevall J. · The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 20:350-366 · Spain

Applies life cycle assessment and life cycle costing to rooftop greenhouse implementation in Barcelona, analyzing from greenhouse structure to final product and comparing with conventional industrial greenhouses to evaluate this new form of urban agriculture.

· Sustainability · Germany (Berlin)

Analyzes benefits and challenges of Zero-Acreage Farming (building-integrated agriculture such as rooftop gardens and greenhouses) in Berlin from an aggregated multi-stakeholder perspective, identifying rooftop greenhouses as the most promising model.

Maja Lorbek, Milena Martinsen · Urbani izziv · Europe

This paper examines the evolution of allotments and allotment dwellings in Germany and Austria by comparing gardeners' actual practices with the development and changes in the legal framework. It found that legislation and zoning regulations, often established retrospectively, reveal an ongoing negotiation process between informal practices and planning authorities. Allotment gardens, which emerged in the late 19th century, originally served a subsistence economy, providing food and emergency accommodation.

Amandine Joly · · France

This study characterized and strategically analyzed urban agriculture for the IETI external planning and environment consulting firm in Île-de-France, France. The analysis aimed to help IETI position itself commercially in urban agriculture, identifying both the benefits and the obstacles the firm might encounter. The study also briefly discussed the various scales of urban agriculture's integration into the territory and its advantages for the consulting firm.