Research & reports

Ana Poças Ribeiro, Robert Harmsen, Giuseppe Feola, Jesús Rosales Carreón, Ernst Worrell · Sociologia Ruralis · Europe

A study of 17 alternative food networks (AFNs) across Poland, Portugal, and the Netherlands, drawn from interviews with AFN organizers, examined the factors that constrain and facilitate the emergence and consolidation of different AFN types. Using a multi-actor perspective framework, the researchers categorized six AFN types: consumer-led, producer-led, third-sector led, community supported agriculture, public-led, and business platforms. Key challenges and facilitating conditions varied by AFN type and country; unlike in the Netherlands, low social capital was commonly cited as a challenge in Portugal and Poland. AFN organizers exercised innovative power in creating new forms of food provision, but the study concludes that a wide scope of actions by both governmental and non-governmental actors is needed to support the emergence of more AFNs.

Giampiero Mazzocchi, Davide Marino · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · Italy (Rome)

A 2020 study of the process by which a local group of stakeholders drew up a proposal for a metropolitan-scale food policy for Rome, Italy, combining a network analysis of the bottom-up process — who took part, what was negotiated — with an analysis of the Roman food system and an overview of urban food policies in Italy. The authors' starting point is that although numerous food-related initiatives have appeared in Rome in recent years, they are unrelated to one another and lack coordination and political coherence. The analysis maps the actors and topics involved and identifies what a more comprehensive participatory process for a systemic metropolitan food strategy would require. As the title 'a policy without politics' indicates, the paper records a situation where participatory policy drafting advanced without the political backing needed to institutionalise it — evidence that a participatory process does not by itself deliver a policy.

Baldock K.C.R., Goddard M.A., Hicks D.M., Kunin W.E., Mitschunas N., Morse H., Osgathorpe L.M., Potts S.G., Robertson K.M., Scott A.V., Staniczenko P.P.A., Stone G.N., Vaughan I.P., Memmott J. · Nature Ecology & Evolution, 3(3):363-373 · United Kingdom

A large, well-replicated study of floral resources and pollinators across 360 sites in four British cities, comparing pollinator abundance among urban land uses. It shows that residential gardens, allotments and community gardens are urban pollinator hotspots, demonstrating that citizen-tended plots are central to urban biodiversity conservation, and models the benefit of interventions such as adding flowerbeds.

· NJAS: Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences · Germany (Ruhr)

Empirical study of urban and peri-urban farms in Germany's Ruhr metropolis, finding that farms' adjustments to urban conditions—diversification and multifunctional business models—are the main factor in their economic success.

· International Journal of the Commons · Germany (German-speaking countries)

A comparative institutional analysis of 51 urban community gardens across Anglophone and German-speaking countries, examining the rules and arrangements that sustain collective gardening.

· Sustainability · Germany

Surveyed urban gardening projects across Germany, finding that community spirit, neighbourhood and solidarity are central values in the majority of projects contributing to a sustainable lifestyle.

· Sustainability · Germany (Berlin)

Examines urban commons for the edible city, offering first insights for future sustainable urban food systems based on Berlin.

Doernberg A., Horn P., Zasada I., Piorr A. · Food Policy · Germany

Analyzes key actors and policy instruments in urban food policy across German city regions, finding integrated food strategies still rare and informational/procurement instruments most common.

Sieveking A. · Politics and Governance · Germany (Oldenburg)

Studies the Oldenburg food policy council (2016–2018) to assess whether food policy councils can serve as loci for practising food democracy.

Johannes Langemeyer, Diego Wedgwood, Timon McPhearson, Francesc Baró, Anders L. Madsen, David N. Barton · The Science of The Total Environment · Spain (Barcelona)

This study developed a spatial multi-criteria screening tool in Barcelona, Spain, to prioritize green roof locations and designs for optimal ecosystem service provision. Fifteen spatial indicators and five green roof designs were analyzed and weighted by local experts. The assessment found high demand for green roof ecosystem services across Barcelona, especially in dense residential and industrial areas, with habitat, pollination, and thermal regulation being most needed, while runoff control and food production were least demanded. Naturalized roofs offered the highest potential for 87.5% of rooftop area.

Roberto Henke, Francesco Vanni · · Italy

This paper examines the multifunctional role of peri-urban agriculture in Italy through a comparative analysis of farms located within the main Italian urban poles. The analysis identifies both internal and external drivers influencing farmers' decisions to diversify income towards multifunctional activities. It shows that, within the post-productivist paradigm, peri-urban farms can play a pivotal role in sustainable land use and in enhancing entrepreneurs' provision of diverse social and economic services to the urban population.

Christine Aubry, Nastaran Manouchehri · OpenEdition (OpenEdition) · France (Paris)

Urban and peri-urban agriculture is exposed to various forms of pollution related to cultivation methods and urban air and soil quality, with different crop types exhibiting varied reactions to pollutants. The T4P and REFUGE programs on urban farms in the Paris region, and the ADURAA and QUALISANN programs studying vegetable-growing in Antananarivo, Madagascar, aim to assess health risks and oversee practices using methodological frameworks.

Miguel A. Simón, Aída de · · Spain (Madrid)

The "Green Line" project in Chamartín, Madrid, Spain, aims to solve urban problems of a lack of transversal connections and green spaces. This project is configured as a network of architectural pieces that respond to existing urban situations in Chamartín, traversing the Castilla neighborhood from east to west and connecting it with adjacent neighborhoods. The main element of the network is a central urban agriculture production, research, and development center, carried out in two towers that form part of Madrid's urban garden network.

Claire Bustin · · United Kingdom (Sandwell)

A Sandwell church was awarded a £751 town grant by the council to provide equipment for young and elderly people to work in a community garden on their grounds.

Chiara Certomà, Martin Sondermann, Susan Noori · Manchester University Press eBooks · Europe

This chapter critically analyzes the relationship between urban gardening and socio-spatial justice, exploring whether and how urban gardening practices can tackle social and spatial injustices. Urban gardening points out less visible sides of urban governance and planning, unveiling different forms of power, dominance, and resistance to the unequal distribution of benefits and burdens in space. The analysis questions the contradictions in the constitution of urban spaces and their capability to mitigate material, political, and social exclusions, unfairness, and inequalities.

Michael Peterek, Susana Restrepo Rico, Yaman Hebbo, Ulrike Reichhardt · Technical Transactions · Germany (Frankfurt am Main)

This paper showcases sectoral and trans-sectoral projects in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, focusing on sustainable urban infrastructure across energy, water, wastewater, solid waste, and urban agriculture. The city has developed a collaborative approach to infrastructure planning, increasing possibilities for trans-sectoral projects and reducing natural resource consumption. The showcased projects were selected from a study of 36 operational, programmatic, and educational initiatives implemented by the city.

Aila‐Leena Matthies, Ingo Stamm, Tuuli Hirvilammi, Kati Närhi · Sustainability · Europe

This article analyzed 50 examples of ecosocial innovations in Finland, Italy, Germany, Belgium, and the UK to investigate how they integrate ecological, economic, and social sustainability goals. Ecosocial innovations were shown to combine these goals through five integrative practices: diversity of activities, successful networking, addressing new livelihood, focus on food, and explicit conceptual work on sustainability. These practices often emerge as pragmatic solutions to local needs and are valuable as forerunners for sustainability transition.

Sonia Delgado Berrocal · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Spain (Madrid)

This research focuses on the experience of new green systems co-created through urban horticulture and ecological agriculture in Madrid, Spain, as factors for urban resilience. It examines projects on abandoned urban plots, such as Esta es una plaza de Lavapies (2008) and Huerto de la Tabacalera (2010), and educational community gardens like Huerto del Retiro (2011). The study also considers initiatives that educate urban horticulturists and local organic matter cycle actions within Madrid's urban garden network.

Chiara Certomà, Lorenzo Chelleri, Bruno Notteboom · Urban Studies · Italy (Rome)

This paper investigates informal planning practices and "fluid governance" in urban public spaces, using the case of Parco delle Energie in Rome, Italy, and a comparative analysis of international cases. It found that politically progressive urban gardening challenges traditional governance networks and redefines public space functioning by transforming green spaces into food production and collaboratively managed areas through informal planning. This demonstrates that urban gardening worldwide challenges traditional planning perspectives and governance, turning citizens' dissensus into a productive force.

Rebecca St. Clair, Michael Hardman, Richard Armitage, Graeme Sherriff · Urban Studies · United Kingdom (Manchester)

This study, conducted in Wythenshawe, Manchester, UK, highlights the difficulties of collaboration among organizations in a lottery-funded urban agriculture project. Due to local authority cutbacks and a lack of funding, community groups and charitable organizations compete for space and resources, leading to a "siege mentality" where organizational self-preservation takes precedence over cooperation. This paradoxically results in groups with similar goals working against each other instead of collaborating.

Perrine Hamel, François Mancebo, Clément Feger, Stéphanie Hamel · HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) · France

This chapter presented three case studies illustrating how nature's benefits have been incorporated into urban planning decisions, specifically urban agriculture policy in Nantes and Bordeaux, France, and an integrated urban water management strategy in Melbourne, Australia. The cases demonstrated that urban green space provides multiple benefits, including efficient water management, food production, recreation opportunities, and biodiversity protection. Key opportunities and barriers for incorporating urban nature into planning were identified.

Alma Clavin · Manchester University Press eBooks · United Kingdom

A study using qualitative, visual methods and Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach in five community garden sites in the UK and Ireland examined their potential for human agency and ecological sustainability. While positive agency and wellbeing benefits were observed, the gardens were found to be limited in their ability to truly enhance political freedoms and overcome asymmetric power relations. The research indicates that these initiatives may perpetuate neoliberal forms of unsustainable and uneven development, alongside ongoing issues of tenure insecurity.

gökçe öcal · Journal of Planning · Turkey (Istanbul)

This study focuses on the Roma Garden, one of Istanbul's last remaining urban gardens, within the context of "DIY urbanism." In Istanbul, historical gardens are threatened by municipal policies favoring urban development, leading to the formation of "DIY" urban gardens on public land since 2013. These gardens operate without legal ties to the local state, and the destruction of urban public space over the last decade is noted as having paved the way for DIY public gardens as spaces of solidarity and shared knowledge.

Esther Sanyé‐Mengual, Kathrin Specht, Erofili Grapsa, Francesco Orsini, Giorgio Gianquinto · Sustainability · Europe

This study evaluated 11 urban agriculture case studies across Italy, Germany, France, and Spain to identify innovation triggers, characterize novelties, assess their innovativeness, and link them to sustainability. Researchers found 147 novelties, with more in environmental and social dimensions than economic, often originating from specific problems. The analysis suggests that innovativeness enhances overall sustainability in urban agriculture projects.

Robert Bartłomiejski, Maciej Kowalewski · Sustainability · Poland

This article discusses Polish urban allotment gardens (UAGs) as an alternative urban development framework, "Slow City." It notes that increasing problems of soil pollution, abandoned gardens, informal housing, and limitation of access to UAG green areas for other inhabitants reinforce the pressure to reduce the number of UAGs.