Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
493 results(13 / 20)
Reappropriating urban green spaces and urban food production
2017Judith Schicklinski · · Europe
This chapter discusses the reasons behind the re-appropriation of public space and its relation to urban food production. The commodification and privatization of public spaces are considered a spatial structure that transforms spaces into strategic resources. The urban gardening movement in European cities has drawn attention to using common green spaces for urban food production.
CommunityPolicyUrban–rural linkageFood sovereignty & justiceReflexions on Urban Gardening in Germany
2017Evelyn Gustedt · Challenges in Sustainability · Germany
This article reflects on traditional and contemporary gardening movements in Germany, focusing on gardening in spaces subject to land lease agreements, tenancy, or illegal land take. The author examined various definitions, the historical development of urban gardening, and the values users relate to these activities. Based on a literature review, observations, and discussions, the author concludes with considerations on these gardening movements in relation to urban sustainable developments.
CommunityPolicyUrban–rural linkageClimate changeOrtiAlti as urban regeneration devices: An action-research study on rooftop farming in Turin
2017Emanuela Saporito · Kobra (Universitätsbibliothek Kassel) · Italy (Turin)
This action-research study in Turin, Italy, examines the OrtiAlti project, which revitalizes abandoned urban buildings through rooftop community gardens. The research aims to understand how rooftop farming, framed as a social innovation practice, contributes to urban regeneration, place-making, and urban resilience. It discusses rooftop food gardens as urban regeneration devices that combine environmental and social benefits through food production.
CommunityPolicyBiodiversityA methodological approach for urban green areas: a case study in Madrid
2017Teresa Briz, Isabel de Felipe-Boente · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Spain
This study tested a method for identifying urban green areas and assessing residents' attitudes towards ground and roof greening in Madrid, Spain. Researchers quantified available roofs and interviewed residents about their willingness to install and maintain green roofs, using a techno-socioeconomic evaluation and the Willingness-To-Green Index (WTG). A new Green Evaluation Weighted Index (GEWI) was proposed, showing that districts like Salamanca (Madrid), San Martí (Barcelona), and Nervión (Seville) had a greater presence of urban agriculture.
PolicyCommunityKnitting green spaces with the threads of social innovation in Groningen and London
2017Stephanie Nuria Spijker, Constanza Parra · Journal of Environmental Planning and Management · Europe
This paper discusses the potential of social innovations to transform urban green spaces in Groningen and London, applying the concept of socio-ecological practices to urban and guerrilla gardening. Based on document analysis, interviews, and garden observations, the study examines links between behavioral drivers, social innovation, and green space governance. It finds that underlying motivations like values and self-efficacy contribute to place-keeping transformations, suggesting socio-ecological practices can generate socially innovative physical, social, and policy changes in urban green space governance.
CommunityPolicyUrban–rural linkageCan Urban Agriculture Transform Two Northern Capitals? – The Case of Identity in Stockholm and Helsinki
2017Ida Åberg, Sophia E. Hagolani‐Albov · · Europe
This study states that urban agriculture is a phenomenon occurring in built environments that does not necessarily disrupt the city's form and function. It mentions the close proximity to nature in urban areas but does not elaborate on its details in the abstract.
CommunityPolicyUrban–rural linkageFuture 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 & justiceThe Location Matters: Determinants for “Deepening” and “Broadening” Diversification Strategies in Ruhr Metropolis’ Urban Farming
2017Bernd Pölling, Marcus Mergenthaler · Sustainability · Germany (Ruhr Metropolis)
This empirical study investigates determinants of diversification strategies among 123 urban farmers in Germany's Ruhr Metropolis using binary logit models. "Deepening" strategies (e.g., direct sales) are encouraged by larger farm sizes, high-value production, organic farming, and livestock. "Broadening" strategies (e.g., tourism, care farming) are prevalent on smaller farms with horses and higher grassland shares. Proximity to the city increases the likelihood of both diversification types.
EconomicsUrban–rural linkagePolicyFiguring the features of the Roman Campagna: recent landscape structural transformations of Rome’s countryside
2017Luca Salvati, Lorenza Gasparella, Michele Munafò, Raoul Romano, Anna Barbati · Annals of Silvicultural Research · Italy (Rome)
This paper quantified the impact of urban expansion on the Roman Campagna's landscape characteristics between 1974 and 2008. Using spatial pattern analysis and multi-factor analysis to assess changes in landscape composition and structure, the study found that the distinctive features of the Roman Campagna landscape are now blurred. A generalized landscape mixité was generated by the juxtaposition of different fragmented land uses.
Peri-urban agricultureUrban–rural linkagePolicyAir pollution risk assessment on urban agriculture
2017Marthe Ortolo · Infoscience (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) · Netherlands
This study outlines a plan to assess air pollution risks in urban agriculture in the Netherlands, focusing on heavy metal (Cd, Hg) and PAK accumulation in spinach in Amsterdam urban gardens. It includes a literature review, policy maker interviews, and practical measurements of airborne contamination. The study aims to model different uptake routes by plants, but actual findings on contamination levels are not presented in this abstract.
Contamination & food safetyHealthPolicyClimate changeUrban 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 changeThe potential of urban agriculture for sustainability of cities in Poland
2017Rafał Jasionkowski, Anna Lewandowska-Czarnecka · Ecological Questions · Poland
This paper aims to present the possibilities of food production in cities in Poland, particularly in the context of sustainable development. Urban agriculture can play an important role in the sustainable development of cities, with the idea of crop cultivation and its implementation dating back centuries, and new forms of ecological farms being designed with technological advancements.
CommunityClimate changePolicyGrowing for health: community agriculture in Sandwell
2017Veronica Barry · BCU Open Access Repository (Birmingham City University) · United Kingdom
This paper discusses the recognized link between spatial planning and public health, highlighting urban agriculture (UA), gardening, and food growing as contributors to healthier urban environments. It states that UA can benefit health at community and individual levels through land regeneration, while also supporting broader health policy development.
CommunityHealthPolicyKsiążki z serii „Biblioteka Młodych Miczurinowców” jako przykład łączenia popularyzacji wiedzy i ideologizacji młodego pokolenia w latach 50. XX wieku
2017Bogumiła Staniów · Roczniki Biblioteczne · Poland
This article discusses the "Young Michurinist Library" series, popular science books about nature for children and young people published in post-war Poland from 1953 to 1956. The books in this series provided readers with information on plants, animals, and amateur husbandry, alongside elements of communist ideology. They aimed to disseminate Michurinism and teach pupils how to cultivate crops, maximize the use of available plants, and enrich their diet with easily managed farm animals, often through fictionalized stories.
Food educationCommunityPolicyLos huertos urbanos y el cultivo de sí. La agricultura urbana en España y el País Vasco como experiencia de ocio emergente y fenómeno social en expansión
2017Fernando Richter Iturregui · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Spain (Basque Country)
This study aimed to understand the current significance of urban agriculture in Spain and the Basque Country as an emerging leisure experience and expanding social phenomenon. It employed a dual-pronged investigation, quantitative to assess the magnitude and qualities of urban agriculture in the Basque Country within the Spanish context, and qualitative to understand how users interpret the practice. The research sought to identify the characteristics describing urban agriculture as a leisure experience.
CommunityHealthPolicyUrban 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 failureCommunityPolicyPeri-urban farming, Grugliasco
2017Zohreh Hamrang · · Italy
This study indicates that peri-urban territory provides a wide range of functions and services for surrounding urban areas, contributing to the quality of life in urban regions. These include food production, recreational services, and other services related to cultural landscape management, which in turn contribute to the ecological capacity of the landscape. Peri-urban agriculture (PUA) is characterized by two elements: intensified production with high productive value, and an extensive lifestyle with environmentally guided land use.
Peri-urban agriculturePolicyUrban–rural linkageACPNS Legal Case Notes Series: 2017-23 Densham v The Charity Commission For England And Wales
2017Myles McGregor‐Lowndes, Frances Hannah · QUT ePrints (Queensland University of Technology) · United Kingdom
On August 14, 2017, the First Tier Tribunal, General Regulatory Chamber (Charity) in the United Kingdom, ruled on the case of Densham v The Charity Commission For England And Wales. An allotment holder in a community garden failed in their claim that the allotments were not a charity, and the existing Scheme was allowed to stand.
CommunityPolicyThe redefinition of the role of agricultural areas in the city of Catania
2017Alessandro Scuderi, Luisa Sturiale, Claudio Bellia, Vera Teresa Foti, Giuseppe Timpanaro · RIVISTA DI STUDI SULLA SOSTENIBILITA · Italy (Catania)
This study addresses the proposal by the Municipality of Catania to create one of Europe's largest urban gardens in a marginalized, socio-economically degraded area of the city. Starting from an analysis of urban agriculture at the European level, the work aims to highlight the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of this new form of urban green space through a participatory SWOT analysis.
CommunityEconomicsPolicyWelfareZwischen 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 failurePolicyCommunityEconomicsProductive Landscape as a Tool for Urban Regeneration - The Case of Groot-IJsselmonde, the Netherlands -
2017Byoungwook Min, Yoonchun Jung · · Europe
This research is an urban design project focusing on Groot-IJsselmonde, a post-war housing area in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. It explores how a landscape approach can contribute to regenerating a decrepit residential district, proposing to add productive functions to unused green areas and meaningless landscapes to enhance the community's economic and social elements.
CommunityPolicyClimate changeHuertos 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 linkageEconomicsFrom Leisure to Necessity: Urban Allotments in Alicante Province, Spain, in Times of Crisis
2017Ana Espinosa Seguí, Barbara Maćkiewicz, Marit Rosol · ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies · Spain
This article, based on a study of allotment gardens in Alicante province, Spain, explains their specific histories which differ from North American and Northern European contexts. It shows how urban allotments provide insight into economic, land-use, and urban-rural changes during crises. Initially for leisure and greening, these projects shifted after the 2009 economic recession to target people at risk of poverty, focusing on productive, therapeutic, and educational functions, though land speculation remains a concern.
CommunityWelfareEconomicsPolicy