Research & reports

Daniel Keech, Marc Redepenning · Food Culture & Society · United Kingdom (Bath), Germany (Bamberg)

This study compared the cultural dimensions of urban horticulture in two UNESCO World Heritage cities, Bath (UK) and Bamberg (Germany), drawing on Luhmann's social systems theory and Nassehi's concept of cultural contingency. It identified four types of culturalization, or empirically observable practices, that explain how urban horticulture is governed and executed. The findings indicate the local historical embeddedness of rivalry and cooperation among urban gardeners, and the relevance of culture as a potential for innovation in urban horticulture.

Naomi Shimpo, Naotaka Ota · Toshi keikaku hokokushu/Toshi keikaku houkokushuu · Germany (Berlin)

This report details the changes to Berlin's Allotment Garden Development Plan (KEP), revised in 2019 in response to urban development pressure. The original KEP focused on existing zoning systems for preservation guidelines, while the revised KEP uses statistical and spatial analysis to objectively demonstrate the importance of allotment gardens. The updated preservation category system more clearly indicates which facilities are preserved or designated for development, making the plan more data-driven.

Sara Giovansana, Giacomo Zanolin · Geography Notebooks · Germany (Berlin)

This study examines urban creativity in Berlin, focusing on urban gardens at Tempelhofer Feld and Prinzessinnengärten. Based on field research, it reflects on the potential of creative class initiatives in relation to gentrification. The work aims to outline the Berlin green experience as a sign of urban change.

Ulrich Häpke · sub\urban zeitschrift für kritische stadtforschung · Germany (Ruhrgebiet)

While statistical data demonstrates the significance of urban agriculture in German cities and metropolitan areas, urban agriculture faces the problem of constant land loss despite its proximity to consumers. The example of the Ruhrgebiet highlights challenges such as land loss and high proportions of leased land, indicating governance issues faced by urban agriculture.

Pierre Donadieu · Territoire en mouvement · France

This paper presents an opinion from the French Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE), positioning urban agriculture as a decisive tool for sustainable cities. During the 2010s, six major publications on urban agriculture sought to identify this economic and social phenomenon, which has been emerging or returning in France and globally for at least 20 years. There is abundant literature in this field, with three collective works in French initiating these publications.

Carrie Ann Benjamin · Sociální studia / Social Studies · France (Paris)

This study examines community gardening and participatory urbanism in Paris, focusing on the Goutte Verte, a temporary nomadic community garden. The continued existence of the Goutte Verte is in opposition to the city's much-needed housing, with gardeners caught between a desire for green space and a demand for comfortable housing. Community gardens are shown to act as a material alternative to urban planning and governance that often fail to account for a "place to breathe" in the city.

Naomi Shimpo, Naotaka Ota · Journal of the City Planning Institute of Japan · Germany (Berlin)

This study clarified how community gardens in Berlin, Germany, are supported under the Social City Programme for improving local living environments. Interview surveys with relevant stakeholders revealed that the program secured coordinating companies or organizations and subsidized initial costs for new community gardens. For existing community gardens, it subsidized funds usable for developmental activities.

Phoebe Lickwar, Roxi Thoren · · United Kingdom

Welwyn Garden City was conceived by Ebenezer Howard as a utopian hybrid community combining the best aspects of city and rural life. Agriculture was integrated into the urban fabric in two forms: a buffering greenbelt surrounding the city and allotment gardens providing opportunities for domestic self-sufficiency. The garden city was designed as a closed-loop development connecting farms to local markets and reinvesting urban waste into soil regeneration.

Vincenzo Rusciano, Gennaro Civero, Debora Scarpato · Sustainability · Italy (Naples)

An empirical analysis based on structured interviews was conducted in the Naples area of Italy with a sample of 150 gardeners to investigate the link between community gardens and social ecological innovation. Variance and correlation analysis explored the extent to which social and environmental dimensions are linked to community gardens. Two attributes of community gardens, namely urbanization effects mitigation and wellness and community, were identified as having the ability to influence other community garden attributes.

J.E. Jansma, Sidrig Wertheim-Heck · · Netherlands

This paper explores how urban planning practices can integrate urban agriculture in peri-urban zones, despite its current marginalization in such areas. It analyzes the planning practices of Almere, a Dutch city that has fully integrated urban agriculture into its new urban area, Oosterwold. The study reflects on how cities can sustainably feed urban populations.

Andrea Baier, Christa Müller · · Germany

This chapter discusses the results of semi-structured face-to-face interviews conducted in 2016 with activists in three urban community gardens in Bremen, Cologne, and Kassel, Germany. The study focused on the relationship between urban projects and municipal administrations. It showed that initiatives taken by grassroots activists to form collaborations with administrative actors are limited, though the traditional role of citizens can be extended in new local partnerships.

Jeroen Schütt, Bas Amelung · · Europe

This research, conducted by the Science Shop of Wageningen University and Research, estimated the monetary value of ecosystem services in the Lutkemeerpolder, Amsterdam, which is slated for conversion into a business park. The study identified food production, air purification, recreation, and the effect of greenery on housing prices as key services, valuing them at 1.5 to 8.6 million euros per year. These ecosystem service values were not considered in the original decision-making twenty years ago, leading to a recommendation to reconsider the development plan.

Luca Sára Bródy, Mandy de Wilde · Local Environment · Netherlands (Amsterdam)

Based on a qualitative study of 19 community gardening projects in Amsterdam, this research argues that community gardens function as “controlled space.” Various institutional governance actors, including local government, welfare organizations, green NGOs, and housing associations, exert varied levels of influence and control over the gardens. These relations both impair and enable the civic participation of gardeners, the inclusive potential of gardens, and an alternative, local food provision and distribution.

Maria Vasile, Cristina Grasseni · Anthrovision · Italy

This study investigated urban gardening in Turin, Italy, using ethnography, historical analysis, and photography. In post-industrial, multicultural Turin, the hegemonic power of aesthetic assumptions about the urban green illuminated the dialectic of gentrification vis-à-vis socioeconomic and cultural diversity. It highlighted that the homogeneity of an aesthetic regime contrasts with the diverse 'skilled visions' of social actors, leading to restraining effects on participatory governance.

Esther Sanyé‐Mengual, Kathrin Specht, Jan Vávra, Martina Artmann, Francesco Orsini, Giorgio Gianquinto · Sustainability · Italy (Bologna)

This study compared perceptions of urban agriculture (UA) ecosystem services (ESs) among different societal groups in Bologna, Italy, namely UA project leaders, stakeholders, and the general public, with 406 individuals evaluating 25 ESs via a standardized Likert-scale survey. Statistical analysis indicated that the general public and UA stakeholders agreed on the high relevance of socio-cultural ESs, while provisioning ESs were considered less significant. This study reveals a lower perception of provisioning ESs from urban agriculture.

Ewa Kacprzak, Barbara Maćkiewicz, Magdalena Szczepańska · Ruch Prawniczy Ekonomiczny i Socjologiczny · Germany, Poland

This study compared legal regulations for allotment gardening in Germany and Poland. Through analysis of legal acts, field research, and structured interviews, it was found that some provisions of legal acts in both countries are not strictly adhered to by users. In Poland, unclear provisions regarding crop cultivation have led to the replacement of the farming function by recreational and residential uses.

Rosalia Filippini, Sylvie Lardon, Stefano Corsi · · Italy

This chapter designs an inter- and transdisciplinary, multiscale, and mixed-method framework for analyzing Smart Agriculture (SA) in urban-rural relationships across Italian case studies. It proposes SA as an experimental field for cooperation among decision-makers, civil society, and academia to improve urban-rural links in metropolitan regions. The promotion of peri-urban agriculture and rural-urban links is central to this approach.

Udo Weilacher · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Europe

This chapter discusses the historical perception of gardens and gardening in urban contexts, noting that from the mid-19th century, ornamental gardens were often questioned by architects and urban planners. Leading 20th-century European landscape architects criticized gardening as neither artistic nor scientific. However, in the 21st century, gardens, particularly urban gardening, have seen a renaissance as a living component of the 'network metropolis', suggesting that the fundamental principles of garden thinking remain relevant.

Justyna Mokras-Grabowska · Miscellanea Geographica · Poland

Allotment gardening (AGs) in Europe, including Poland, is a tradition stemming from rapid urban industrialization, now emphasizing community, social, ecological, creative, and entertainment functions beyond economic and recreational roles. The Polish Allotment Association undertakes numerous initiatives, such as the "Open Social Programme of Allotment Gardens Development," to protect AGs from liquidation and promote their use for public and non-public purposes. This program redefines the perception of AGs in Poland and contributes to their infrastructural development.

J.E. Jansma, Sigrid Wertheim‐Heck · Landscape and Urban Planning · Netherlands

A study of the Dutch city of Almere examining, through a social practice perspective, how planning practices came to fully integrate urban agriculture into a new urban area called Oosterwold. Analysing meanings, materials, and competences across four periods over 55 years of planning history, the study finds that agriculture has been part of Almere's planning since the city's inception, yet it took 55 years for hybrid urban-rural planning practices that fully integrate agriculture to emerge. The case also shows that this integration required interdisciplinary, unconventional operation and leadership, stretching the professional domain of urban planning.

Cordula Kropp, Clara Da Ros · · Europe

Ethnographic case studies examined urban farming movements in Leipzig, Germany and Nantes, France. The Leipzig movement is strongly oriented toward building an environmentally friendly, sustainable post-growth economy, while the Nantes movement is aimed above all at overcoming social inequality and exclusion; in both cities, participants respond to forces in urban development they perceive as opposed to their own needs and interests, encouraging fellow citizens to reclaim local spaces and cultivate them for community subsistence.

Pierre Donadieu · Territoire en mouvement · France

This is a review-style article introducing a June 2019 opinion document from France's Conseil economique, social et environnemental (CESE), L'agriculture urbaine: un outil determinant pour les villes durables (98 pages). It notes that during the 2010s, six major publications sought to characterize urban agriculture as an economic and social phenomenon that has been emerging or resurging in France and worldwide for at least 20 years, and traces this literature back to three earlier French-language collective works, including one titled Agriculture urbaine: amenager.

Andrea Colantoni, Gianluca Egidi, Giovanni Quaranta, R. D’Alessandro, Sabato Vinci, Rosario Turco, Luca Salvati · Land · Europe

Using statistical data analysis and a literature review covering 1961-2017, a regional study in Greece examined the relationship between wildfire frequency/extent and the decline of nomadic livestock (mainly sheep and goats), comparing Attica — the peri-urban region that includes the capital Athens — with the rest of the country. Attica showed a markedly faster decline in nomadic livestock than the rest of Greece, a decline associated with higher wildfire risk in that region. The findings indicate that nomadic livestock grazing helps prevent fuel (biomass) accumulation in forests and unmanaged natural land, contributing to sustainable management of peri-urban land.

Graciela Arosemena Díaz · · Spain

Focused on Spain, this text situates the current urban food supply system — reliant on agrochemicals, crop and animal production, processing, storage, and complex global transport networks with serious environmental impacts from fossil fuel use — as context for arguing that urban and peri-urban agriculture can reduce the food system's environmental impact and fossil fuel dependence while improving food security against economic and climatic vulnerability (2020). It notes that environmental justice is socially and politically complex, with groups of lower socio-economic status typically bearing a greater burden of environmental impacts, and cites as an example a city Council for the Protection of Nature that preserves the agricultural area along the Llobregat River and its agro-economic activity through an agricultural park.

Małgorzata Burchard‐Dziubińska · Economics and Environment · Europe

An analysis of urban gardening's role in building city resilience to economic and social change and global warming examines whether Polish cities use it to strengthen resilience to climate change. It finds that using urban gardening for climate resilience is becoming more common worldwide, but that Polish cities have not yet joined this trend.