Research & reports

Paul de Graaf · Eetbaar Rotterdam · Netherlands

This Eetbaar Rotterdam retrospective (author Paul de Graaf, published 30 April 2019) on Rotterdam urban farming project Uit Je Eigen Stad (UJES) states that UJES was declared bankrupt on 13 November 2018, bringing a definitive end after 6 years to one of the most notable urban agriculture experiments in Rotterdam. It opened with a festive celebration in September 2012, but the idea's seed dates to 2006, when Bas de Groot's graduation plan at the Warmonderhof school (for a care garden) went unrealized and later grew within the urban-agriculture expertise group Eetbaar Rotterdam. The site was the Marconistrip, designated a 'freezone' by the municipality; financing came from housing corporation Havensteder (investing in buildings, expecting return via rent), high-interest loans from Stichting DOEN and Rabobank, small crowdfunded contributions, and municipal officials' time (under alderwoman Van Huffelen) securing permits. The plan was to build a farm and recoup investments over 10 years, but the article describes this as a difficult effort in which urban-farming ideals clashed with profit-driven activity.

Luc Menapace · Gallica (Bibliothèque nationale de France, blog) · France

Blog article from the BnF's Gallica platform recounting how Abbé Lemire founded the Ligue du Coin de Terre et du Foyer in 1896 to promote workers' gardens. The league was recognized as a public-interest body in 1909, renamed the Fédération nationale des jardins ouvriers in 1921, and renamed again to the Fédération nationale des jardins familiaux in 1992. Gardens were framed as remedies for insalubrity and alcoholism and as sources of food and leisure.

Will Thompson · Plinth · United Kingdom

Published 12 June 2019, this piece estimates that UK charities spend around 15.8 million hours a year on grant monitoring reports, roughly £204 million in staff time. It assumes an average of 40 hours per grant, about 391,280 grants distributed per year and an average grant of around £50,000. Charities with at least one full-time-equivalent member of staff typically juggle five to ten different funders, each asking for similar information in different formats at different times, so the administrative load accumulates without producing learning. The estimate draws on interviews with ten people at small and medium charities reporting to six local authorities and more than fifty funders.

Rory James Ridley-Duff, Michael Frederick Bull · Social Enterprise Journal, Vol.15 No.2, pp.243-263 (Emerald) · United Kingdom

A paper using the FairShares Association's model rules to recover the communitarian philosophical roots of 1970s social enterprise. The authors trace links between developments in UK social enterprise and solidarity cooperatives across continental Europe, Asia and the Americas, arguing that the communitarian origins of social enterprise are 'disturbingly obscured and hidden'. They propose the FairShares Model as a way to distribute wealth and power among social entrepreneurs, workers, service users and community investors, and contend that this pluralist turn — 'new cooperativism' — could transform labour and consumer rights. Abstract only was consulted.

Glavan M., Schmutz U., Williams S., Corsi S., Monaco F., Kneafsey M., Guzman Rodriguez P.A., Čenič-Istenič M., Pintar M. · Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 36:100-122 · Europe

A study collecting rare economic data (yields, inputs, outputs, gross margins, contribution to household economy) from 180 urban gardeners across Ljubljana, Milan and London. It is one of the few quantitative assessments of the economic performance of urban gardening in Europe.

Klepacki P., Kujawska M. · Journal of Ethnobiology 38(1):123-137 · Poland

Surveys 46 allotment gardeners in three Polish cities, recording 257 botanical taxa (ornamental, food, medicinal), demonstrating urban allotment gardens as significant reservoirs of botanical and landscape diversity in cities.

Barykina N. · Urban History (Cambridge University Press) · Germany

Analyzes Berlin's Horseshoe Estate (Hufeisensiedlung) by Taut and Wagner, examining how Weimar public-housing policy, new technologies, bureaucracy, and garden-city ideals shaped this modernist Siedlung as both aesthetic vision and social environment.

Arredondo-Garrido D. · VLC arquitectura. Research Journal, 5(2), 29-58 · Germany

Contextualizes Migge's collaborations with architects such as Taut, Wagner and May, arguing for his key role in the success of 'productive Siedlungen' in which agriculture was fully integrated into modern housing estates.

Cumbers A., Shaw D., Crossan J., McMaster R. · Work, Employment and Society · United Kingdom

Using Glasgow community gardens as a case study, argues that gardening provides space for important forms of work that address social needs and advance community empowerment in deprived urban areas.

Boštjančič E., Antolović S., Erčulj V. · Frontiers in Psychology · Poland

Investigates how corporate volunteering programs relate to job resources and work engagement, showing employees with volunteering opportunities report higher autonomy, co-worker support, and engagement, linking CSR practices to employee wellbeing.

Collé M., Daniel A.C., Aubry C. · Acta Horticulturae (International Symposium on Greener Cities for More Efficient Ecosystem Services in a Climate Changing World) · France (Paris)

Analysis of Paris's 'Parisculteurs' call-for-projects program based on 11-month participatory research, showing how the initiative catalyzed rooftop urban agriculture with over 48 projects on public and private buildings by 2018.

· International Journal of the Commons · Germany (Rhine-Ruhr)

A quantitative study of community gardens in the Rhine-Ruhr agglomeration, one of Germany's most urbanized areas, showing high diversity of collective use and the importance of shared immaterial and social values in sustaining the gardens.

· Sustainability · Germany

An online survey of 123 community gardens across Germany assessing social sustainability, finding that social benefits—collective activities, socializing and belonging—rather than harvests are the main motivation to participate.

· Agronomy for Sustainable Development · London, UK

Modeling 10 London urban microfarms, the study finds economic viability is achievable only by focusing on high-value leaf crops sold at high prices to restaurants while relying on volunteer labor and cheap council land, forcing trade-offs against their social-ecological aims.

Anna Trembecka, Anita Kwartnik-Pruc · Sustainability · Poland

This study analyzed data on the number and area of allotment gardens, their distribution across Poland, and the process of regulating the legal status of land occupied by allotment gardens. The research identified the number and area of family allotment gardens in Poland, along with the range and types of claims against them. The study found that land occupied by family allotment gardens requires protection and legal status regulation, which is difficult due to various entities submitting claims to these areas because of their attractive urban locations.

Laura M. Van Oers, Wouter Boon, Ellen H.M. Moors · Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions · Netherlands

This study investigated how grassroots organizations, specifically Dutch Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA), construct legitimacy for their survival. It found that CSAs predominantly work to garner legitimacy from their members, and that survival seems associated with social capital building. A moralization of food provision was observed, which explains why new and possibly inconvenient terms of exchange still amass legitimacy. As external audiences remain at a distance, they often misunderstand CSA, its deliverables, and impacts on social welfare.

Petra Hauke, Jens A. Geißler, Tim Schümann, Andrea Kaufmann · · Germany

This "Hands-on-Lab" aimed to share practical experiences on how libraries can contribute to sustainable development, referencing the UN Agenda 2030 and German sustainability strategies. It included impulse presentations on ecological and social sustainability good practices, such as urban gardening in libraries, followed by a World-Cafe discussion. The event focused on discussing practical implementation methods.

Martin Dawson, Mike Hutchins, Nuria Bachiller‐Jareno, Steven Loiselle · Freshwater Science · United Kingdom (London)

A citizen-science study from 2014 to 2016 assessed water quality in a 5.6-ha urban community garden in southwestern London, using borehole water. Measurements of specific conductance and tryptophan-like fluorescence were taken over 28 months. The study found no evidence of external contamination sources or temporal changes in water quality. However, significant variations in water quality between boreholes were directly linked to on-site manure storage and use, and local geological conditions.

Lidia Oktaba, Diana Odrobińska, Łukasz Uzarowicz · Journal of Soils and Sediments · Poland

This study assessed the impact of different land use types on soil organic matter (SOM) properties across 35 sites, including lawns, allotment gardens, fallows, and arable lands, in Pruszków Town, Poland. Humus horizons (0–20 cm) were analyzed for soluble SOM (PY), humins (HM), low molecular weight humus, and humic acids (HA) using extraction and UV-Vis spectroscopy. Results showed that humins were the dominant humus component, with central town soils containing twice as much HM and PY as peripheral zones.

María José Flores Tena · Creatividad y sociedad: revista de la Asociación para la Creatividad · Spain

This article presents survey data from 600 natural science students across six academic courses at "Ciudad de Jaen" school in the Community of Madrid in 2017. The study aimed to assess student satisfaction with the school garden. Results indicate that students were satisfied with learning a new way to obtain food and that the garden stimulated their environmental sensitivity towards ecology.

Villarino Hernandez, Diana Carolina · · United Kingdom (Glasgow)

This thesis proposes a redevelopment project for the Govan Graving Docks in Glasgow, Scotland. The project aims to make the port complex, abandoned since 1988, safer, more sustainable, and integrated with the existing urban environment by incorporating vertical farming and sustainable organic agriculture technologies. Vertical farming is positioned as a key element for developing new markets, shops, galleries, and a residential building.

Jens A. Geißler, Tim Schümann · · Germany (Bad Oldesloe)

The "Ernte deine Stadt" project series in Bad Oldesloe, Germany, combines civic engagement platforms with makerspace and community building ideas, focusing on local sustainability, particularly urban gardening and green libraries. Due to the project's success, the Bad Oldesloe City Library won the IFLA Green Library Award in 2017.

Giuseppe Carmelo Pillera · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Italy (Sicily)

This article analyzes the school culture of school gardens in Sicily, examining how they are conceived, the value assigned by the teaching community, and expected outcomes. Data from 49 surveyed schools, part of a regional mapping of educational projects on soil cultivation, were analyzed using quantitative textual analysis. The study interprets meanings of key concepts and their relationships based on recurrent morphemes and their contexts.

Giulia Allegrini · Archivio istituzionale della ricerca (Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna) · Italy (Bologna)

This paper sheds light on the connection between urban agriculture and social innovation, presenting the “Salus W space” project in Bologna. Financed by the European program “Urban innovation action,” the project aims to regenerate a former private hospital into an innovative space welcoming refugees and people with housing needs.

Calvin Siméon · · France

This report describes the creation of a didactic booklet for beginners and curious individuals interested in urban agriculture around Toulouse, France. The booklet provides tools to diagnose a plot of land using pedology and bio-indicator plants. Based on observed data, agronomic advice is offered to select the most suitable plant production for the soil.