Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
3274 results(18 / 131)
Peri-urbanization and smallholder farmers’ socio-economic marginality in peri-urban Addis Ababa
2025Girma Mulu Alemu, Sophie Schramm, Wilbard Kombe · Cogent Social Sciences · Ethiopia (Addis Ababa)
This qualitative study in peri-urban Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, explored the impacts of peri-urbanization on smallholder farmers' socio-economic conditions. The research found that peri-urbanization leads to the erosion of capital assets, with dwindling agricultural land causing tenure insecurity and disrupting livelihoods. This process exacerbates smallholder farmers' marginality by weakening social ties and mutual support systems.
Equity & displacementPeri-urban agriculturePolicyEconomicsCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceEconomic Viability of Community Gardens in Semarang City
2025Rahoyo Rahoyo, Teti Susilowati, Sri Purwantini · Economics Development Analysis Journal · Indonesia (Semarang)
This research explored the economic viability of community gardens in Semarang City, Indonesia, using a qualitative approach with 24 participants. Findings indicate that most community gardens operate at a financial loss, showing weak economic viability. However, these gardens continue to function sustainably, driven not by profit but by government programs, social cohesion, and environmental concern.
Economic viabilityEconomicsCommunityPolicyFood sovereignty & justiceEnvironmental ethics under commercialization of urban agriculture
2025K I Safitri, Oekan S. Abdoellah, Budhi Gunawan, P Parikesit · Ethics in Science and Environmental Politics · Global
This qualitative study investigated the commercialization of urban agriculture and its influence on agricultural practices and environmental ethics, engaging 43 participants through observation, interviews, and documentation. Findings showed that global commercialization promotes policies for environmental sustainability, leading to aligned production methods. However, in local contexts, farmers cultivating sloped land without perennial crops often use artificial inputs and contaminated irrigation water, facing constraints from intermediaries.
Contamination & food safetyEconomicsPolicyClimate changeFood sovereignty & justiceGaps, Overlaps, and the Political Ecology of Food Systems
2025Paul Β. Thompson · · Global
This chapter explores the potential for alliance around issues such as sustainability and the political interests of rural areas within food systems. While archetypes set different priorities, they generally do not involve irresolvable incompatibility, allowing for opportunities for alignment in support or opposition to policy initiatives or technological innovations. Sustainable intensification, rural resilience, and urban agriculture challenge the presumption that there is nothing morally unique in the production and distribution of food and fiber goods.
PolicyFood sovereignty & justiceUrban–rural linkageCoproduction as a Causal Process
2025Gregg G. Van Ryzin · Policy Studies Journal · Global
This article argues that viewing the coproduction of public goods and services by government agencies and citizens as a causal process, using causal diagrams, can help describe and diagnose coproduction processes more precisely across various services and settings. The approach is demonstrated with examples such as roads, community gardens, traffic safety, education, and policing, and helps clarify the definition of coproduction and its relation to concepts like volunteering, participation, co-creation, and collaborative governance.
PolicyCommunityCommunity Gardens in the Gold Coast, Australia - Lessons for Urban Sustainability in Korea -
2025Hue Younsun · Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture · Australia (Gold Coast)
A study analyzed six community gardens in the Gold Coast, Australia, using literature review, field observations, and interviews with managers and participants. It found that these gardens function as multifunctional platforms integrating environmental, social, and economic values, rather than solely urban agriculture sites. The findings suggest the need for integrated operational strategies for Korean community gardens.
CommunityBiodiversityEconomicsHealthPolicyThe New American Farmer – Extension Engagement with Urban Agriculture and Food Systems
2025Margaux Robinson, Karen Cunningham, Jeffery Young, Nicole Breazeale, Kenneth R. Jones · Journal of Extension · United States
This paper discusses the evolving role of Extension in urban food production, noting progress made by educators in engaging with both social and horticultural aspects of urban agriculture. It suggests that appropriately designed urban food systems can offer healthy food access, community and environmental resilience, and economic prosperity. The authors provide recommendations for Extension staff, urging them to prioritize mediating the rural/urban dichotomy, tackling structural power dynamics, and intensifying community resilience strategies.
CommunityUrban–rural linkagePolicyEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceHealthClaiming space
2025Kirsty Lohman, Ruth Pearce · Community Development Journal · United Kingdom (Durham)
This article describes a community garden in Durham, United Kingdom, maintained by volunteers working to retain common access to green space. The garden is located on a disused bowling green, against a backdrop of a struggle over land, ownership, and community use. The council had reportedly failed to maintain the land for many years, and much of the surrounding area is owned by Durham University. The community association aims to obtain control of the land through an adverse possession claim to prevent it from being sold off by the council.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyQuiet right to the city: contributing to urban sustainability by converging allotment and community gardens
2025Michaela Pixová, Christina Plank · Environmental Sociology · Czechia (Prague, Brno)
This paper compared the roles of allotment and community gardens in urban sustainability, using Prague and Brno, Czechia, as case studies. It analyzed perceptions of both by municipal actors, gardeners, and activists across four dimensions: public access to urban greenery, community building, food cultivation, and environment/climate protection. The paper argues that governments' preference for gardens aligned with the status quo undermines citizens' right to the city, urban sustainability, and resilience against future threats.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyFood sovereignty & justiceClimate changeCidade-Campo no Brasil: dinâmicas e contradições
2025Paulo Ricardo Santos Miranda · Revista Mutirõ Folhetim de Geografias Agrárias do Sul · Brazil
A collection of 13 chapters explores the interactions between city and countryside in Brazil, critically examining how capital traverses urban and rural territories, promoting expropriation and spatial reconfigurations. Studies on Uberlândia, Montes Claros, São Paulo, and the North and Northeast regions highlight land conflicts, peripheral industrialization, urban agriculture, and peasant resistance. The work emphasizes the ambiguous role of the State.
Equity & displacementUrban–rural linkageCommunityFood sovereignty & justicePolicyAs produções agropecuárias na região metropolitana de Buenos Aires: contribuições para a sustentabilidade nas cidades
2025Gabriela Civeira, Florencia Rositano · Conicet · Argentina (Buenos Aires)
This study analyzed the environmental, social, and economic factors of agricultural production in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Region (RMBA) across 28 municipalities, using National Agricultural Census data and an adapted ecosystem services (SE) estimation model. Findings indicated that 97.4% of small and medium-sized horticultural producers use conventional management, with only 2.6% employing non-conventional practices. Structural problems identified include informal labor, limited technical access, and urban pressure, highlighting the need for public policies to strengthen more sustainable production systems.
Governance failurePeri-urban agricultureFood sovereignty & justiceEconomicsPolicyTHE WILD IN THE CITY: DIFFERENT CONCEPTS AND THEIR ROLE IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF URBAN COMMUNITY GARDENS OF GOUTTE D'OR DISTRICT OF PARIS.
2025Marina Abrão Ballak Dias · Revista Andaluza de Antropología · France (Paris)
This article explored how different conceptions of human-nature relationships shaped practices in two community gardens in Paris's Goutte d’Or neighborhood. Conceptions grounded in a human–nature divide prevailed, leading to a conservationist approach. Practices stemming from this perspective were found to be in constant tension with garden goals like increasing urban biodiversity and human socialization.
Governance failureCommunityBiodiversityPolicyUrban Farming and Food Security Nexus for Food Sovereignty and Food System Planning: The Case of a Highly Urbanized City in Metro Manila, Philippines
2025Sheila Uside Alumasa, Dina Cartagena Magnaye · International Journal of Research and Innovation in Applied Science · Philippines (Metro Manila)
A case study evaluated a nearly decade-old urban farming program in a highly urbanized city in Metro Manila, Philippines. The study revealed that vulnerable families depend on urban farming for daily food and alternative employment opportunities. However, a lack of land ownership or tenure rights for urban farming exacerbates food insecurity, hinders access to affordable food, and impedes innovation within the urban farming system.
Food sovereignty & justiceWelfareCommunityEconomicsPolicyURBAN AGRICULTURE AS A PLATFORM OF EVERYDAY GOVERNANCE : Case Studies of Policy and Practice in Three South Korean Community Gardens
2025Ilana Herold, Buhm Soon Park · International Journal of Urban and Regional Research · South Korea (Daejeon)
Ethnographic case studies of three urban community gardens in Daejeon, South Korea, illustrated how urban agriculture (UA) serves as a platform for civil society groups, national government, and local governments to advance their political and sociocultural goals. The study argued that while national UA legislation was passed to advance top-down sustainable development goals, local actors challenge the functions of UA and ideas of expertise through their practice.
Governance failurePolicyCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceEffect of Forced Eviction and Land Grabs on Household Economic Capital Security of Displaced Pre-Urban Farmers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
2025Kejela Gnamura, Michael Akwasi Antwi, A Belete · Land · Ethiopia (Addis Ababa)
This mixed-methods study investigated the effects of urbanization-induced displacement on economic capital security by comparing 223 evicted and 223 non-evicted peri-urban farming households in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Logistic regression and thematic content analysis revealed that evicted households are approximately 72.7% less likely to achieve economic security compared to non-evicted households. The study concluded significant differences in household economic capital security between the two groups.
Equity & displacementPeri-urban agricultureEconomicsPolicyCommunityWelfareEnhancing Public Health and SDG 3 Through Sustainable Agriculture and Tourism
2025Elena Petelos, Danai Antonaki, Erasmia Angelaki, Christos Lemonakis, Alexandros Garefalakis · Sustainability · Global
This study explored how private sector initiatives in tourism can contribute to public health and SDG 3 through sustainable agricultural practices. Using a mixed-methods approach combining a systematic literature review and a case study, it examined how integrated strategies like pesticide-free farming reduce environmental health risks and improve nutritional quality. Findings indicate that business-led sustainability models can support systemic change when based on clear metrics and cross-sector collaboration. However, the absence of pre-2019 baseline data and direct health outcome measurements limits causal inference.
HealthBiodiversityPollinatorsCommunityPolicyPatios Productivos y Seguridad Alimentaria en la Comunidad Afrodescendiente del Barrio Olaya Herrera, en Cartagena, Colombia
2025Carlos Eduardo Torres Acosta, Enrique Manuel Acuña Hernández, Elizabeth Ramírez-Llerena · BUIYYA TIERRA · Colombia (Cartagena)
In Cartagena, Colombia, the Granitos de Paz Foundation implements an urban agriculture program called "productive patios." This initiative allows vulnerable communities, such as those in the Olaya Herrera neighborhood, to access production systems and improve their quality of life by producing organic products. These organic products are in demand by hotels and restaurants in the city, potentially generating additional income for families in extremely poor areas. The program introduces an economic model to combat extreme poverty in vulnerable communities and contributes to environmental conservation.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justiceEconomicsPolicyTransformando desde los intersticios: huertos urbanos comunitarios ante la crisis ecosocial
2025Sara Sama Acedo, David Berná Serna, Patricia Homs Ramírez de la Piscina · Etnografica · Spain (Madrid)
This paper analyzes the case of community urban gardens in Madrid integrated into the Municipal Program of Community Urban Gardens. These initiatives are situated in the interstices between community management and public institutional management, generating new demands on the management of urban green commons and enabling forms of shared governance. The study reveals that these gardens face the challenge of maintaining themselves as transformative spaces without being absorbed by commercial logics or marginalized into welfare-oriented or community volunteer spaces.
Governance failureCommunityFood sovereignty & justicePolicyCommunity Garden Politics
2025Sartor, Iriana, Paccillo, Giovanna, Banham, Rebecca, Ezzy, Douglas · Conicet · Global
This chapter explores the politics of nonreligion, with gardens and gardening functioning as practices illustrating how lifestances can be structural, collectivist, relational, and radical. Data from Brazil and Argentina are used to frame political, educational, and activist elements of gardening worldwide. The chapter demonstrates how the politics of community gardening can constructively contribute to positive political engagement and community building.
CommunityPolicyFood educationCriminal Liability for the Use of Electrified Cables: Legal Implications in Death Cases in Aceh
2025Rahmalisa Rahmalisa, Wiratmadinata Wiratmadinata, Anhar Nasution · Jurnal MEDIASAS Media Ilmu Syari ah dan Ahwal Al-Syakhsiyyah · Indonesia (Aceh)
This study analyzes criminal liability in cases where electrified cables, installed to protect crops from wild animals in community gardens, resulted in fatalities in the Aceh region of Indonesia. Using a normative legal research approach, the study of death cases in Bireuen and Aceh Timur showed that the installation of electrical cables leading to loss of life was caused by the perpetrator's negligence in adhering to safety standards, fulfilling elements of criminal negligence under Indonesian criminal law. The resolution pattern for these cases follows the litigation route.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyAnalysis of Pressure Drivers within an Urban River Riparian Reserve: A Case of Nairobi River in Kenya
2025Mahacla Odongo, Caleb Mireri, Peter Mwangi · Environmental Technology and Science Journal · Kenya (Nairobi)
The Nairobi River riparian reserve in Kenya has undergone immense land use and land cover changes over the past 20 years due to urban development. A survey of 650 respondents revealed that urban agricultural activities dominated the upper segment at 69%, commercial ventures constituted 79% of the middle segment, and residential usage comprised 89% in the lower segment. These activities caused significant degradation from crop cultivation of river slopes, pollution infiltration, and loss of biodiversity, indicating a severe depletion of the riparian space's functions.
Environmental trade-offsBiodiversityPolicySustainable cities: enhancing food systems with urban agriculture
2025Zafar Tabrez · Discover Food · Global
Urban agriculture contributes to urban sustainability by supporting food production, income generation, waste recycling, preventing urban sprawl, preserving biodiversity, and enhancing resilience and local economies. Achieving sustainable implementation requires integrating urban farming into urban planning processes and developing specific policies. Incorporating urban gardening into urban planning and strengthening it with policies enhances its sustainability, improves food security, raises awareness, reduces poverty, and improves food systems. Additionally, urban gardens mitigate urban heat islands, waste, and air pollution, improve health, and foster social connections, with organic agriculture boosting biodiversity and urban food production reducing CO2 emissions.
CommunityPolicyHealthClimate change“Greening the Cities of Tomorrow: A case study on Rooftop Organic Farming - an Innovative Policy and Strategic Framework for Sustainable and Inclusive Organic Supply Chains”
2025Jyotsana Agarwala · · India
This case study examines the potential of rooftop organic farming and novel supply chain tactics in Badlapur, Maharashtra, India. It evaluates a rooftop organic farming initiative, assessing elements like input procurement, farming methods, logistics, and technological innovations. Research indicates that decentralized food production, such as rooftop gardening, diminishes reliance on rural agriculture, lowers carbon emissions, and improves urban food sovereignty. The study also identifies obstacles including scalability, standardization, legal impediments, and insufficient customer awareness.
DIYPolicyEconomicsClimate changeSlippery pathways to socio-ecological utopias of community gardening: examples from Poland
2025Dorota Rancew-Sikora, Anna Horolets, Joanna Krukowska · Environmental Sociology · Poland
This article investigates how community gardening ideals are materialized and abandoned, applying Hannah Arendt’s distinction between types of work. Based on empirical analysis of narratives and observations in 12 gardens across Poland, the research demonstrates obstacles to democratic sustainability transitions. It proposes a processual concept of "slippage" to understand mechanisms by which departures from ideals occur in community gardens.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyUrban Agriculture as a Catalyst for Food Security and Sustainability in Ghana's Rapidly Urbanizing Cities
2025Christian Kofi Sarpong, Romanus Dogkubong Dinye, Alex Donbeinaa, Vera Nyarko Amoako · Asian Journal of Agricultural and Horticultural Research · Ghana
This study assessed the role of urban agriculture in Ghanaian cities through a systematic literature review of publications from 2000 to 2024. Urban agriculture was found to significantly contribute to food security, nutrition, and income, and to bolster environmental sustainability. However, challenges such as land tenure insecurity, unsafe irrigation practices, weak institutional support, and limited policy integration persist.
Governance failureFood sovereignty & justiceClimate changeEconomicsHealthOrganic cyclePolicyCommunity