Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
5823 results(167 / 233)
A Study on Urban Gardening in Everyday Life toward Sustainable Urban Regeneration - Case of Sujin 2-dong, Seongnam-si in South Korea -
2016Jae-Min Park, Jung-Kwon Choi, Eun-Yeong Park · Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture · South Korea (Seongnam-si)
This study examined urban gardening in Sujin 2-dong, Seongnam-si, South Korea, through on-site inspections and interviews, to find solutions for sustainable urban regeneration. It found that vertical gardens are prevalent due to limited space, with rooftop gardens primarily for production and stair gardens for aesthetic purposes. The study identified six garden locations and noted differences between detached and multi-household houses.
CommunityPolicyDIYEvaluation of a Nutrition Intervention through a School-Based Food Garden to Improve Dietary Consumption, Habits and Practices in Children from the Third to Fifth Grade in Chile
2016Diego Vinueza, Lydia Lera, Judith Salinas, Carmen Gloria González, Lorena Barrios, Fernando Vío · Food and Nutrition Sciences · Chile (Santiago de Chile)
This study conducted a six-month quasi-experimental intervention in two public schools in Santiago de Chile (intervention and control schools) to evaluate the improvement of healthy dietary consumption, habits, and practices among third to fifth-grade children using a school-based food garden. The intervention school showed significant improvements in dietary habits, such as peeling and slicing fruit, and increased use of the school garden, but no significant changes were observed in food consumption or nutritional status.
Food educationHealthCommunityImplementação de horta urbana em alojamento universitário: sustentabilidade e formação para a cidadania
2016Gabriel Rezende Marques, Maria Regina de Miranda Souza, Leo Rinaldo de Arantes Lazzerini, Cláudia Lúcia de Oliveira Pinto · Cadernos de Agroecologia · Brazil (Viçosa)
This study described and evaluated the implementation and adoption of an urban garden by socioeconomically vulnerable students residing in the Federal University of Viçosa dormitory in Viçosa, Brazil, and how the experience influenced their quality of life, civic education, perception, and interest in agroecology. It was found that the use of urban agriculture from an agroecological perspective is an alternative for improving the quality of life in residences and for expanding agroecological knowledge.
CommunityFood educationOrganic cycleWelfareThe Black Bear Food Guild: Student-Run Community Supported Agriculture From Roots to Fruition
2016Sara L. Lyons · DigitalCommons (California Polytechnic State University) · United States
The University of Maine Black Bear Food Guild is an entirely student-run Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) operation that offers student learning and work opportunities. Despite providing various benefits, the Black Bear Food Guild requires financial support to expand its program and ensure its sustained success, indicating a critical need for funding to maintain its future viability.
Economic viabilityCSA & TeikeiCommunityFood educationEconomicsMedia Frames and Shifting Places of Environmental (In)Justice: A Qualitative Historical Geographic Information System Method
2016Bethany B. Cutts, Danqi Fang, Kaitlyn Hornik, Jonathan London, Kirsten Schwarz, Mary L. Cadenasso · Environmental Justice · United States (California)
This study introduced a Qualitative Historical Geographic Information System (QHGIS) method to investigate how newspapers reflect changing meanings of place in relation to environmental burden and benefit. Applying QHGIS to urban gardening and soil lead issues reported in Sacramento, California, the method revealed the distribution of public narratives of environmental concern across the city, the politics embedded in location names, place name-changes, and how locations serve as framing devices for environmental concerns.
Contamination & food safetyCommunityHealthPolicyEfforts of watershed sustainability and usage among peri-urban agricultural farmers of Kwadon, NE Nigeria
2016Muhammad Bello Ibrahim, Nobaya Ahmad, Asnarul Khadi Abu Samah, M.S.M. Redzuan · Universiti Putra Malaysia Institutional Repository (Universiti Putra Malaysia) · Nigeria
A quantitative study surveyed 217 peri-urban agricultural farmers in Kwadon, Gombe, NE Nigeria, from a population of 500, to assess their efforts in watershed sustainability and usage. Descriptive statistics indicated that the majority of these farmers are moderately sustaining the Kwadon watershed through their farming practices. The study focused on water sources, water sharing, and watershed management.
Peri-urban agricultureClimate changeCommunity‘Alternative’ This, ‘Alternative’ That ... : Interrogating Alterity and Diversity
2016Andrew 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.
CSA & TeikeiCommunityEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceAllotment gardens as a challenge for an urban designer
2016Antoine Zammit, Ina Šuklje Erjavec, Gabriela Maksymiuk, Dimitra Theochari, Runrid Fox-Kämper, Russell Good, Emanuele Sommariva · · Global
This chapter explores allotment gardens as a challenge for urban designers, identifying specific urban design quality considerations for these green spaces. It also examines the evolving role of urban designers in top-down and bottom-up processes to achieve suitable spatial quality. The chapter suggests that allotment gardens can enhance diversity, robustness, and amenity in urban areas, particularly when accessible from residential developments, and should be designed as safe and secure places.
CommunityPolicyBiodiversityUrban farming in the North American metropolis: Rethinking work and distance in alternative food networks
2016Diana Mincytė, Karin Dobernig · Environment and Planning A Economy and Space · North America
This article examines manual work in urban farming within alternative food networks in the Northeastern United States, based on ethnographic fieldwork and 40 interviews. The analysis reveals that while manual work counters alienation, it also reproduces consumer society institutions and reinforces neoliberal values like productivity and self-improvement. Urban farms function as "experiential production" sites, where the farming experience is continuously commodified despite re-embedding in community and environment.
Economic viabilityCommunityEconomicsUrban–rural linkageFood sovereignty & justiceAgricultura urbana como crítica e alternativa: Práticas comunicativas em torno da alimentação no contexto de crises socioambientais || Urban Agriculture as Criticism and Alternative: Communication Practices around Food in the Context of Social and Environmental Crises
2016Thaís Cristina Schneider, Paulo André Niederle, Myrian Regina Del Vecchio-de Lima · Razón y Palabra · Brazil
This article analyzes urban agriculture from a communication perspective, focusing on how practitioners and non-practitioners understand its critical and alternative role regarding the modern food system. The study of Quinta da Videira in southern Brazil found that while urban agriculture is used to counter conventional food production and associated lifestyles, there are also resistances to integrating agricultural practices into the urban environment.
Governance failureFood sovereignty & justiceCommunityClimate changeUrban–rural linkageHorta comunitária como lócus propagador do conhecimento agroecológico
2016Glorinha Correa Neta, Francisneide de Sousa Lourenço, Naiana Marinho de Souza, J. N. de P. Lourenço, Rainielly Barbosa Soares · · Brazil
This work reports on an experience in the Nova Esperanca community in Brasileirinho, Brazil, with a project focused on a community garden as a propagator of agroecological knowledge. The project aimed to develop activities for vegetable cultivation using agroecological practices. Through tools like Venn diagrams and seasonal calendars, the study observed the difficulties the community faced in planting the Erapakatupa garden.
CommunityFood educationOrganic cycleTips for young professionals
2016Annalisa Metta · Iris (Roma Tre University) · Global
This publication compiles visions from 50 architects, landscape architects, designers, and environmental leaders from 15 countries on sustainability, sustainable design, urbanism, and architecture. Through articles, interviews, and project presentations, they share insights from their work, including community gardens and environmental education. Annalisa Metta contributes 10 tips for young designers on responsibility and sustainability in open space design.
CommunityFood educationBiodiversityExamining a New “Pay-as-You-Go” Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) Model: A Case Study
2016Marjorie Freedman, Juliana K. King · Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition · Global
This research surveyed 536 current and former J&P Organics farm CSA subscribers, categorizing them into four groups based on ordering frequency. Findings strongly indicate that a flexible pay-as-you-go CSA subscription model could increase subscriber membership and possibly ordering frequency, especially for those likely to order less frequently than weekly but who are otherwise similar to traditional pay-up-front subscribers in demographics, motivations, satisfaction, and subscription length.
CSA & TeikeiEconomicsCommunityGender, resilience and resistance: South Africa’s Hleketani Community Garden
2016Elizabeth Vibert · Journal of Contemporary African Studies · South Africa
This article examines the Hleketani Community Garden in Limpopo Province, South Africa, highlighting the successes of women farmers in reducing poverty and improving health outcomes. Despite these benefits, the research identifies significant structural barriers, including lack of access to resources, unfavorable policy frameworks for small-scale agriculture, and worsening climate change, that hinder small-scale farmers, particularly women.
Equity & displacementCommunityWelfareHealthPolicyClimate changeFood sovereignty & justiceHORTAS URBANAS DE MARINGÁ (PR): ESTUDO SOCIOECONÔMICO DOS PRODUTORES E PERCEPTIVO DOS TRANSEUNTES
2016Ricardo Massulo Albertín, Daniel Augusto, Boaventura Almeida Mubai, Bruno Luiz Domingos De Angelis, Márcia da Silva, Frederico Fonseca da Silva, Fábio Angeoletto · Boletim de Geografia · Brazil (Maringá)
This study aimed to diagnose the socioeconomic aspects of vegetable producers and identify the perception of passersby around urban gardens (community gardens) in Maringá (PR), as a means to mitigate negative social impacts like food insecurity caused by urbanization. A case study was conducted in five community gardens in the northern zone of Maringá, Paraná State. Results showed that the activities within these gardens and public sector involvement characterized them as public policies for promoting quality of life, rather than mere government policies. Questionnaire responses from passersby evidenced that the public policy for creating and consolidating urban gardens in Maringá promoted quality of life. The community garden project was found to have significant socioeconomic, landscape, and sentimental value for both producers and passersby, with producers opting for diverse production, self-consumption, and vegetable sales.
CommunityEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceAppropriating a People’s Movement: The Relationship Between Community Gardens and Gentrification in New York City | Appropriating a People’s Movement: The Relationship Between Community Gardens and Gentrification in New York City
2016Lal, Prita · Academic Commons (Stony Brook University) · United States (New York City)
This dissertation studies the relationship between community gardens and gentrification in New York City. It argues that low-income people's efforts in revitalizing their blighted neighborhoods by building community gardens in the 1970s and 1980s contributed to gentrification in the 1990s and beyond. The research points out that real estate developers preyed on people's efforts, and the people subsidized the city's revitalization. It concludes that while gardeners did not cause gentrification, their efforts played a significant role in the process, and stronger policy protections for gardens are needed as city policies permitted gentrification.
Equity & displacementCommunityPolicyEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceTyne Esk LEADER Helps Community Garden Bloom
2016Andrew Sleight · · United Kingdom
The Midlothian Community Hospital Garden achieved significant success, thanks to funding provided by the Tyne Esk LEADER.
CommunityPolicyAn Interpretive Framework for Assessing and Monitoring the Sustainability of School Gardens
2016Francesco Sottile, Fiorito Daniela, Nadia Tecco, Vincenzo Girgenti, Cristiana Peano · Sustainability · Kenya
This study aimed to propose an interpretive framework, the "Sustainable Agri-Food Evaluation Methodology-Garden" (SAEMETH-G), to quantitatively guide the sustainability evaluation of school gardens. As a case study, the methodology was applied to 15 school gardens located in three regions of Kenya. The application of SAEMETH-G as an assessment tool demonstrated that sustainability evaluations of school gardens can be carried out through a participatory and interdisciplinary approach.
Food educationCommunityClimate changeUrban Agriculture and the Neoliberalization of What?
2016Marion Ernwein · Open Collections · Switzerland (Geneva)
This paper critically examined municipal involvement in community garden and urban agriculture development in the canton of Geneva, Switzerland, focusing on a case study in Vernier. It found that the municipality's urban agriculture program serves contradictory functions, being simultaneously progressive in reversing space privatization and nature commodification, yet also reinforcing the neoliberal production of individualized, self-responsible, and self-entrepreneur subjectivities. The highly-regulated nature of these municipal community gardens complicates their categorization as either grassroots or purely institutional projects.
Governance failurePolicyCommunityA Complete History of the Social, Health, and Political Context of the School Gardening Movement in the United States: 1840–2014
2016Kate Gardner Burt · Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition · United States
This article explores the social, health, and political contexts influencing the school gardening movement in the United States from 1840 to 2014. It demonstrates that school gardens have remained a mainstay due to their adaptability and ability to connect with important social, health, and political issues over 150 years.
Food educationHealthPolicyCommunityCommunity Supported Agriculture and Green Experimental Restaurants: A Social Capital Perspective
2016Chieh-Fu Cheng, Simon Chen-Tsang Tsai, Bin-Min Sung · · Taiwan
This study in Hualien, Taiwan, applied social capital theory to investigate how social capital dimensions facilitate the development of community-based organic agriculture, focusing on an experimental green restaurant. Participant observations and in-depth interviews with 7 local organic farmers were conducted. Results revealed that the experimental green restaurant must continually fulfill various social functions (e.g., educator, information platform, resource distributor) and accumulate social capital to extend its internal ties with local farmers into relationships based on mutual trust and reciprocity.
CSA & TeikeiCommunityFood educationOrganic cycleOrti urbani come dispositivi di innovazione sociale
2016Chiara Zonda · · Italy (Milan)
This abstract is a personal reflection on the author's childhood experiences with a family garden in Milan's hinterland, Italy. It describes the author's fascination with gardens and the sense of peace and community they provided. The author then notes realizing that urban gardens could serve as a strong tool for social aggregation within a neighborhood or community, leading to further research on existing successful urban garden initiatives worldwide.
CommunityPeri-urban agricultureDIYThe Food Justice Portrait Project
2016Ruth Cary · Reflections A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric · United States (Chester)
The Food Justice Portrait Project at Widener University involves first-year writing students creating portraits of community leaders engaged in food access and urban farming in Chester, PA. This collaborative community writing project aims for reciprocity, archiving biographies and institutional histories, and challenging the charity model of addressing community needs by supporting community agency.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justiceWelfareStalk It Up To Integrated Learning: Using Foods We Eat And Informational Texts To Learn About Plant Parts And Their Functions
2016Rachel Wilson, Leslie Bradbury · Figshare · United States
This article presents a mini-unit taught in a third-grade classroom as part of a school garden project, aiming to connect students' understanding of plant parts with the plants they consume. The lessons integrated informational texts into an inquiry-based science unit to align with both Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Next Generation Science Standards.
Food educationCommunityLocal food security initiatives: systemic limitations in Vancouver, Canada
2016Alfred Wong, Alan Hallsworth · Kobra (Universitätsbibliothek Kassel) · Canada (Vancouver)
This paper examines urban/community gardening in Vancouver, Canada, from the perspective of basic farming realities such as growing season and land availability. It was found that securing low-cost land within dense urban limits, insufficient ambient temperature and water supply during the growing season, and contemporary societal structures pose significant obstacles to community gardening producing affordable food. Overcoming these fundamental hurdles carries significant negative environmental and economic consequences.
Economic viabilityCommunityEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceClimate change