Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
493 results(12 / 20)
Urban Farming – The Ecological, Spatial and Social Factors of Urban Landscape Transformation
2018Paweł Szumigała, Karolina Szumigała · Economic and Regional Studies / Studia Ekonomiczne i Regionalne · Europe
This study analyzed the influence of urban farming and urban gardens in selected cities in North America and Europe on urban landscapes through a case study. Urban farming is gaining popularity, with dozens of diverse urban gardens existing in Poland. It was shown that these gardens satisfy the aesthetic, scenic, ecological, social, and economic needs of small communities, enriching the urban landscape with new, seasonally changeable enclaves of utility and aesthetic greenery.
CommunityBiodiversityEconomicsPolicyLes 20 printemps des jardins partagés français. Bilan et perspectives
2018Laurence Baudelet-Stelmacher · In Situ · France
This article traces the emergence and development of the French community garden movement, which began in 1997 with the establishment of the "Jardin dans tous ses états" network. Over 20 years, the movement has expanded significantly in major metropolitan areas and rural settings across France, influenced by North American community garden models. It has addressed environmental respect, participatory democracy, and the need for social connection.
CommunityPolicyWelfareBiodiversityWie weit reicht die transformative Kraft der urbanen Ernährungsbewegung?
2018Cordula Kropp, Sven Stinner · Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Münster · Germany
The urban food movement aims to bring food production back to cities through initiatives like urban gardening and CSA, creating new economic relationships and sustainable food supply locations. This study explored the motives of founders and participants, examining how projects develop and disseminate innovative practices, participatory organization, and sustainability-oriented models. It found that while the movement generates productive internal tensions for socially just development and innovation-promoting external frictions to existing supply understandings, its penetration of the food system remains limited compared to conventional food trade.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justiceEconomicsPolicyRevisiting the Sustainability Concept of Urban Food Production from a Stakeholders’ Perspective
2018Esther Sanyé‐Mengual, Francesco Orsini, Giorgio Gianquinto · Sustainability · Italy (Bologna)
This paper evaluates the concept of Urban Food Production (UFP) sustainability from stakeholders' perspectives in Bologna, Italy, through two workshops using mind-mapping. The bottom-up approach revealed a comprehensive vision of sustainable UFP, identifying relevant elements and key aspects for its development and policy-making. The study also highlighted priorities, synergies, and trade-offs among sustainability dimensions, suggesting UFP can serve as a local tool for democracy and equity.
CommunityPolicyEconomicsClimate changeパリと東京の都市の路上で共通。芸術、音楽、都市ガーデニングを通じて通りを充当 (Commonality on the urban street in Paris and Tokyo. Appropriating the street through arts, music and urban gardening)
2018Monika Salzbrunn · IRIS · France (Paris)
This study analyzed street phenomena in the Belleville district of Paris, demonstrating how artistic engagement and the use and occupation of land through urban gardening create commonality. This movement achieved a political victory by preserving 19th-century workers' homes and transforming private into public space. Similar commonality and resistance against the privatization of public space are observed in Tokyo through arts and urban gardening.
CommunityPolicyFood sovereignty & justiceThe landscapes of professional farms in mid‐sized cities, France
2018Pascale Scheromm, Christophe‐Toussaint Soulard · Geographical Research · France
This paper provides a spatial analysis of agriculture in three mid-sized French cities, focusing on professional farms. It confirms the existence of significant agricultural spaces within cities and the persistence of field-based, market-oriented agriculture. Key determinants in the observed dynamics include the cities' geographies, the impact of land speculation and urbanization on farmers, and the resistance and adaptation processes implemented by some farmers.
Economic viabilityEconomicsUrban–rural linkagePolicyLondon’s Urban Agriculture: Building Community through Social Innovation
2018Les Levidow · AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA) · United Kingdom (London)
This research examines the role of 'community' in London's food initiatives and how it stimulates congenial activities through social innovation. These initiatives involve forms of social innovation such as enhancing socio-political capabilities, fulfilling unsatisfied needs, and redefining societal problems. London's food initiatives face challenges in combining these diverse aims and activities.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justicePolicyWelfareThe 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 & justiceMarcos temáticos y multifuncionalidades de los huertos comunitarios en el área urbana de A Coruña (Galicia): un estudio de caso
2018Juan Soriano-Baeza, Raimundo Otero-Enríquez, Estefanía Calo · Semata: Ciencias sociais e humanidades · Spain
This study conducted a quantitative sociological investigation in three community gardens on the periphery of A Coruña, Galicia, Spain. The research aimed to theoretically define the concept of urban community gardens and to extrapolate data and reflections on their multifunctionality and the motivations supporting their production to the Galician territorial context.
CommunityPolicyEconomicsPlacemaking and urban gardening: Himmelbeet case study in Berlin
2018Toni Karge · Journal of Place Management and Development · Germany (Berlin)
This participatory action research examines the Himmelbeet urban community garden in Berlin from an urban planning perspective, using placemaking principles for ex-post analysis. The study found that the garden functions as a placemaking scheme, despite not being planned with placemaking instruments. Its process demonstrates strategies to address exclusion, disinvestment, and depoliticization of public spaces, showcasing the potential of citizen-controlled placemaking.
CommunityPolicyFood sovereignty & justiceWhen the growth of the town produces gardens
2018Luciana Macaluso · Nova Science Publishers (Nova Science Publishers, Inc.) · Europe
This paper discusses the historical perspectives of architects Leberecht Migge (1919) and Giuseppe Samonà (1976) on urban and rural connections. Both recognized the necessity of gardens within large towns and saw urbanization as a partial solution to agricultural production crises. The authors suggest that integrating gardens into urban design, inspired by these ideas, can contribute to soil conservation, especially as soils are increasingly recognized as cultural heritage.
Urban–rural linkageCommunityPolicyThe creation of a sustainable urban “green oasis” A qualitative study of the discursive making of an ecological social enterprise
2018S. Parsisson · · Netherlands (Rotterdam)
This study investigated how urban farmers at Rotterdamse Munt, an urban herb garden in Rotterdam, Netherlands, discursively negotiate their status as a 'social enterprise' using ethnographic fieldwork and a semiotic approach. The research found that Rotterdamse Munt has not fully transformed into a sustainable ecological social enterprise. Instead, urban farmers constantly negotiated between altruistic and commercial approaches, failing to fully achieve both, which obliged them to combine two contrasting identities through dual visual identity, services, and products to reach two different populations.
CommunityEconomicsPolicyL’agriculture urbaine comme opportunité de construction politique
2018Marie Gisclard, Richard Raymond · Institut français d’études anatoliennes eBooks · Turkey (Diyarbakır)
This article examines the Hevsel Gardens in Diyarbakır, Turkey, which face sustainability challenges due to the city's growth and an asymmetric relationship where the city dominates the gardens. It highlights the unbalanced relationships between the gardens and the city, stemming from a lack of quality and quantity in water resources. The coexistence and competition of three socio-political projects, including centralized political networks and farmer-specific adaptations, call for a re-examination of this relationship and an alternative to the concentration of powers in the metropolis.
Governance failurePolicyCommunityEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceUrban Gardening as a Multifunctional Tool to Increase Social Sustainability in the City
2018Alisa Koroļova, S. Treija · Architecture and Urban Planning · Europe
This article provides evidence of the multi-functionality of urban gardening in addressing various societal issues. Case studies from Malmo, Birmingham, and Riga demonstrate how urban gardening contributes to social integration, inhabitants' well-being, and urban regeneration.
CommunityHealthFood educationPolicyドイツにおける異文化庭園の運営とその社会的背景 (Managing intercultural gardens and its social background in Germany)
2017Watanabe Y., Amemiya M., Shimpo N. · 都市計画報告集 (Reports of the City Planning Institute of Japan), No.16 · Germany
Surveys the management and social background of Germany's 'intercultural gardens' (Interkulturelle Gärten), which aim to integrate immigrants and refugees into local society, and considers their applicability in Japan. Finds that the gardens originated as a grassroots activity by locals and spread across Germany through a supporting organisation.
CommunityPolicyUrban agriculture on the move in Paris: The routes of temporary gardening in the neoliberal city
2017Kaduna-Eve Demailly, Ségolène Darly · ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies · France (Paris)
Shows how Paris's temporary 'licence to occupy' model for urban gardens produces extreme precarity: gardens are placed on vacant lots slated for building and must physically relocate ('nomadic' gardening) when the temporary permit is revoked, revealing interim-use policy as structurally unstable.
PolicyCommunityExploring urban agriculture as a component of multifunctional green infrastructure: Application of figure-ground plans as a spatial analysis tool
2017Attila Tóth, Axel Timpe · Moravian Geographical Reports · Europe
This paper presents and discusses the application of figure-ground plans combined with complex land-use maps as a tool for spatial analysis of urban agriculture in European cities and their multifunctional green infrastructure, using 'Urban Atlas' data. Urban fabric, agriculture, and non-agricultural open spaces were analyzed and compared in selected cities and metropolitan areas, including Dublin, Ruhr Metropolis, Geneva, and Sofia. The results reveal the scale and land-use diversity of metropolitan regions and different spatial patterns of urban agriculture at both regional and central urban levels.
Urban–rural linkagePolicyBiodiversityPeri-urban agriculture in Barcelona: outlining landscape dynamics vis à vis socio-environmental functions
2017Pere Serra, David Saurı́, Luca Salvati · Landscape Research · Spain (Barcelona)
A quantitative approach was proposed to analyze peri-urban agriculture (PUA) dynamics in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, profiling farm types and related landscape structures. Results indicated that PUA is based on five typologies with varying territorial values, reflecting diverse economic relevance, socio-environmental weight, and landscape prominence. A conservation strategy is proposed to preserve the residual PUA landscape by promoting a polycentric functional network of farming with natural vegetation.
Peri-urban agricultureUrban–rural linkagePolicyEconomicsEveryday 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 failureCommunityPolicyEconomicsThe geography of urban agriculture: New trends and challenges
2017Barbora Duží, Bohumil Frantál, Marian Simón Rojo · Moravian Geographical Reports · Europe
This article provides a theoretical and conceptual introduction to urban agriculture in Europe, reviewing its diverging issues from a geographical perspective. It discusses urban agriculture within the context of urban and rural transformations, urban regeneration, agricultural restructuring, and land-use conflicts. The paper summarizes current research and presents main trends and concepts, emphasizing the challenges they pose to geographers.
Urban–rural linkagePolicyCommunityClimate changeCrisis and post-crisis urban gardening initiatives from a Southern European perspective: The case of Barcelona
2017Laura Calvet‐Mir, Hug March · European Urban and Regional Studies · Spain (Barcelona)
In Barcelona, Spain, the characterization and evolution of urban gardening initiatives in the context of the 2007-2008 economic crisis and post-crisis were investigated. Using qualitative methods including participant observation, literature review, and semi-structured interviews, three prominent initiatives (54 gardens by the end of 2016), namely the Network of Municipal Gardens, the Network of Communitarian Gardens, and the Empty Plots Plan, were analyzed. The results show that urban gardens within the city are an expression of different, non-exclusive meanings that explicitly or implicitly mobilize notions of political gardening in a crisis and post-crisis context.
CommunityPolicyEconomicsGoverning 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 & justiceAzioni e progetti per micro interventi sullo spazio pubblico della città
2017Leonardo Zaffi · Florence Research (University of Florence) · Italy
This chapter reconstructs the main themes and implementation methodologies characterizing spontaneous practices and micro-interventions for the transformation of residual urban spaces. It outlines the characteristics of experiences such as public art, placemaking, active design, and urban farming, considering their compatibility and potential effectiveness for systemic "urban acupuncture" actions in the oldest parts of cities. The final part focuses on action methodologies like DIY and user involvement to investigate the potential of "urban acupuncture" in the oldest parts of cities.
DIYCommunityPolicyAgriculture 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 failureCommunityPolicyHealthEconomics