Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
735 results(19 / 30)
Wie weit reicht die transformative Kraft der urbanen Ernährungsbewegung?
2018Cordula Kropp, Sven Stinner · Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Münster · Germany
The urban food movement aims to bring food production back to cities through initiatives like urban gardening and CSA, creating new economic relationships and sustainable food supply locations. This study explored the motives of founders and participants, examining how projects develop and disseminate innovative practices, participatory organization, and sustainability-oriented models. It found that while the movement generates productive internal tensions for socially just development and innovation-promoting external frictions to existing supply understandings, its penetration of the food system remains limited compared to conventional food trade.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justiceEconomicsPolicyNATURE-BASED DEMENTIA CARE: INNOVATIVE ADULT DAY SERVICES FOR PEOPLE WITH DEMENTIA IN THE NETHERLANDS
2018Simone R. de Bruin, Yvette Buist, Lenneke Vaandrager, Jan Hassink · Innovation in Aging · Netherlands
This study in the Netherlands aimed to understand the value of nature-based adult day services (ADS) for people with dementia (PwD) in urban areas. Researchers interviewed 40 PwD and their carers, who indicated that these services positively affect PwD's health and wellbeing by stimulating physical activity, social interaction, a sense of dignity, relaxation, and a sense of meaning in life.
CommunityHealthElderlyRevisiting the Sustainability Concept of Urban Food Production from a Stakeholders’ Perspective
2018Esther Sanyé‐Mengual, Francesco Orsini, Giorgio Gianquinto · Sustainability · Italy (Bologna)
This paper evaluates the concept of Urban Food Production (UFP) sustainability from stakeholders' perspectives in Bologna, Italy, through two workshops using mind-mapping. The bottom-up approach revealed a comprehensive vision of sustainable UFP, identifying relevant elements and key aspects for its development and policy-making. The study also highlighted priorities, synergies, and trade-offs among sustainability dimensions, suggesting UFP can serve as a local tool for democracy and equity.
CommunityPolicyEconomicsClimate changeThe Aroma-Home Community Garden Project'sDemocratic Narratives: Embodied Memory-Stories of Planting and Cooking
2018Susan C. Haedicke · Public Art Dialogue · France
The Aroma-Home project, originating from aromatics, flavors, conversations, and guerrilla gardening, began in Villetaneuse, France, in early spring 2013. Inhabitants discovered a small, brightly painted caravan, marking the start of this community garden initiative.
CommunityDIYパリと東京の都市の路上で共通。芸術、音楽、都市ガーデニングを通じて通りを充当 (Commonality on the urban street in Paris and Tokyo. Appropriating the street through arts, music and urban gardening)
2018Monika Salzbrunn · IRIS · France (Paris)
This study analyzed street phenomena in the Belleville district of Paris, demonstrating how artistic engagement and the use and occupation of land through urban gardening create commonality. This movement achieved a political victory by preserving 19th-century workers' homes and transforming private into public space. Similar commonality and resistance against the privatization of public space are observed in Tokyo through arts and urban gardening.
CommunityPolicyFood sovereignty & justiceLondon’s Urban Agriculture: Building Community through Social Innovation
2018Les Levidow · AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA) · United Kingdom (London)
This research examines the role of 'community' in London's food initiatives and how it stimulates congenial activities through social innovation. These initiatives involve forms of social innovation such as enhancing socio-political capabilities, fulfilling unsatisfied needs, and redefining societal problems. London's food initiatives face challenges in combining these diverse aims and activities.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justicePolicyWelfareThe Challenges of Governing Urban Food Production across Four European City‐Regions: Identity, Sustainability and Governance
2018Matthew Reed, Evy Mettepenningen, Paul Swagemakers, M.D. Domínguez García, Ingrid Jahrl, Marlinde Koopmans · Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems · Europe
This paper examined urban food governance in four European city-regions: Bristol (UK), Ghent (Belgium), Vigo (Spain), and Zurich (Switzerland). The case studies demonstrated the role of citizens in urban food and the challenges this presents to city-region governance. Urban food activists, through horizontal networking and clear communication of demands, have raised significant questions about how cities are governed.
Governance failurePolicyCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceMarcos temáticos y multifuncionalidades de los huertos comunitarios en el área urbana de A Coruña (Galicia): un estudio de caso
2018Juan Soriano-Baeza, Raimundo Otero-Enríquez, Estefanía Calo · Semata: Ciencias sociais e humanidades · Spain
This study conducted a quantitative sociological investigation in three community gardens on the periphery of A Coruña, Galicia, Spain. The research aimed to theoretically define the concept of urban community gardens and to extrapolate data and reflections on their multifunctionality and the motivations supporting their production to the Galician territorial context.
CommunityPolicyEconomicsPlacemaking and urban gardening: Himmelbeet case study in Berlin
2018Toni Karge · Journal of Place Management and Development · Germany (Berlin)
This participatory action research examines the Himmelbeet urban community garden in Berlin from an urban planning perspective, using placemaking principles for ex-post analysis. The study found that the garden functions as a placemaking scheme, despite not being planned with placemaking instruments. Its process demonstrates strategies to address exclusion, disinvestment, and depoliticization of public spaces, showcasing the potential of citizen-controlled placemaking.
CommunityPolicyFood sovereignty & justiceWhen the growth of the town produces gardens
2018Luciana Macaluso · Nova Science Publishers (Nova Science Publishers, Inc.) · Europe
This paper discusses the historical perspectives of architects Leberecht Migge (1919) and Giuseppe Samonà (1976) on urban and rural connections. Both recognized the necessity of gardens within large towns and saw urbanization as a partial solution to agricultural production crises. The authors suggest that integrating gardens into urban design, inspired by these ideas, can contribute to soil conservation, especially as soils are increasingly recognized as cultural heritage.
Urban–rural linkageCommunityPolicyMotivation and background of participants and providers of self-harvest gardens in Germany
2018Martin Gauder, Heinrich Hagel, Nadine Gollmann, Joachim Stängle, Reiner Doluschitz, Wilhelm Claupein · Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems · Germany
A 2015 survey of 173 participants and 34 providers of self-harvest gardens in Germany aimed to characterize individuals engaged in this form of urban agriculture. Participants generally exhibited middle to high incomes, sustainable lifestyles, high education levels, and strong nutritional awareness, with a disproportionate engagement of females. Providers were primarily farmers with an affinity for organic agriculture, often benefiting from synergistic effects with farm shops. Challenges identified for some gardens included bad harvests, theft, and vandalism.
CommunityEconomicsHealthProtection of a place?
2018Birgit Peuker · · Germany
This chapter discusses whether community supported agriculture (CSA) constitutes a real alternative to the conventional food system. From the perspective of social movement research, CSA is viewed not as a niche that will replace the agri-food system in the future, but rather as a space for learning and expressing sustainability. The analysis is based on experiences with CSA in Germany and includes comparisons with developments in other European countries.
CSA & TeikeiFood sovereignty & justiceCommunityEconomicsThe creation of a sustainable urban “green oasis” A qualitative study of the discursive making of an ecological social enterprise
2018S. Parsisson · · Netherlands (Rotterdam)
This study investigated how urban farmers at Rotterdamse Munt, an urban herb garden in Rotterdam, Netherlands, discursively negotiate their status as a 'social enterprise' using ethnographic fieldwork and a semiotic approach. The research found that Rotterdamse Munt has not fully transformed into a sustainable ecological social enterprise. Instead, urban farmers constantly negotiated between altruistic and commercial approaches, failing to fully achieve both, which obliged them to combine two contrasting identities through dual visual identity, services, and products to reach two different populations.
CommunityEconomicsPolicyL’agriculture urbaine comme opportunité de construction politique
2018Marie Gisclard, Richard Raymond · Institut français d’études anatoliennes eBooks · Turkey (Diyarbakır)
This article examines the Hevsel Gardens in Diyarbakır, Turkey, which face sustainability challenges due to the city's growth and an asymmetric relationship where the city dominates the gardens. It highlights the unbalanced relationships between the gardens and the city, stemming from a lack of quality and quantity in water resources. The coexistence and competition of three socio-political projects, including centralized political networks and farmer-specific adaptations, call for a re-examination of this relationship and an alternative to the concentration of powers in the metropolis.
Governance failurePolicyCommunityEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceUrban Gardening as a Multifunctional Tool to Increase Social Sustainability in the City
2018Alisa Koroļova, S. Treija · Architecture and Urban Planning · Europe
This article provides evidence of the multi-functionality of urban gardening in addressing various societal issues. Case studies from Malmo, Birmingham, and Riga demonstrate how urban gardening contributes to social integration, inhabitants' well-being, and urban regeneration.
CommunityHealthFood educationPolicyEconomie solidali creatrici di comunità ecologiche
2018P Cacciari · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Italy
This article argues that diverse economic forms exist beyond the market economy, including natural, gift, domestic, informal, and solidarity economies. Solidarity economy, based on ethical principles like sustainability, mutuality, cooperation, and democracy, is presented as a transformative, post-capitalist alternative applicable to all sectors of production, distribution, and exchange. Case studies include buildings as common goods in Naples and Arvaia, a community-supported agriculture initiative in Bologna.
EconomicsCommunityCSA & TeikeiFood sovereignty & justiceドイツにおける異文化庭園の運営とその社会的背景 (Managing intercultural gardens and its social background in Germany)
2017Watanabe Y., Amemiya M., Shimpo N. · 都市計画報告集 (Reports of the City Planning Institute of Japan), No.16 · Germany
Surveys the management and social background of Germany's 'intercultural gardens' (Interkulturelle Gärten), which aim to integrate immigrants and refugees into local society, and considers their applicability in Japan. Finds that the gardens originated as a grassroots activity by locals and spread across Germany through a supporting organisation.
CommunityPolicyBusiness models in urban farming: A comparative analysis of case studies from Spain, Italy and Germany
2017Pölling B., Prados M.-J., Torquati B. M., Giacchè G., Recasens X., Paffarini C., Alfranca O., Lorleberg W. · Moravian Geographical Reports 25(3):166-180 · Europe
Comparative analysis of urban farming enterprises in Spain, Italy and Germany, concluding that differentiation, diversification, and low-cost specialization are essential business strategies for long-term profitability in cities.
EconomicsCommunityCommunity gardening in poor neighborhoods in France: A way to re-think food practices?
2017Martin P., Consalès J.-N., Scheromm P., Marchand P., Ghestem F., Darmon N. · Appetite · France (Marseille)
Study in a deprived Marseille neighborhood found that socioeconomically disadvantaged women with access to a community garden were more likely to adopt a healthy diet than matched controls without such access.
CommunityHealthWelfareFood educationEcosystem services of allotment and community gardens: A Leipzig, Germany case study
2017Cabral I., Keim J., Engelmann R., Kraemer R., Siebert J., Bonn A. · Urban Forestry & Urban Greening · Germany (Leipzig)
Assessed ecosystem services such as climate and water regulation and habitat provision across 30 allotment plots and adjacent community gardens in Leipzig, finding highest plant species richness in medium-intensity managed plots.
BiodiversityCommunityExploring Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting Potential for Food Production in Urban Areas
2017· Agriculture · Rome, Italy
Models rooftop rainwater harvesting to irrigate 2,631 fruit and vegetable gardens in Rome, estimating 19-33% of gardens could be water self-sufficient depending on irrigation efficiency.
DIYCommunityThe motivations and experiences of community garden participants in Edinburgh, Scotland
2017· Regional Studies, Regional Science · United Kingdom (Edinburgh, Scotland)
Investigates the motivations and lived experiences of community garden participants in Edinburgh, Scotland.
CommunityHealthWelfareUrban agriculture on the move in Paris: The routes of temporary gardening in the neoliberal city
2017Kaduna-Eve Demailly, Ségolène Darly · ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies · France (Paris)
Shows how Paris's temporary 'licence to occupy' model for urban gardens produces extreme precarity: gardens are placed on vacant lots slated for building and must physically relocate ('nomadic' gardening) when the temporary permit is revoked, revealing interim-use policy as structurally unstable.
PolicyCommunityWhen Allotment Gardens Become Urban Green Spaces like Others, Providing Cultural Ecosystem Services
2017Amélie Robert, Jean Louis Yengué · Environment and Ecology Research · France
This case study investigated the Bergeonnerie allotments in Tours, France, through in situ observations, user surveys, and interviews with municipal stakeholders. It found that these allotments provide not only provisioning services like food but also cultural ecosystem services, serving as a source of well-being for gardeners and a place for walking, sociability, and education for other people. Municipal stakeholders confirmed these broader benefits, indicating allotments offer more than just vegetable cultivation.
CommunityFood educationHealthBiodiversityEveryday urbanism and the everyday state: Negotiating habitat in allotment gardens in Berlin
2017Hanna Hilbrandt · Urban Studies · Germany (Berlin)
This paper investigates the powers at play in informal housing practices and their regulation within Berlin's allotment gardens, where residency is prohibited. It argues that gardeners' ability to remain in these sites depends on their mediation of regulatory practices through relationships with state actors or institutional frameworks. This process highlights the co-construction of order and the establishment of boundaries for inclusion and exclusion.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyEconomics