Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
1180 results(29 / 48)
From Urban Agriculture to Urban Food
2018Heidrun Moschitz, Jan Landert, Christian Schader, Rebekka Frick · Nature and Culture · Switzerland (Basel)
A study in Basel, Switzerland, comprehensively analyzed the city's food system to understand the full potential of urban agriculture within it. The analysis involved diverse actors from civil society, policy, and the market, encompassing policy and actor analysis, perceptions on urban agriculture, food flow analysis, and a sustainability assessment. The research project contributed to developing new ideas and activities and created a space for future debates within the city's food system.
PolicyEconomicsCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceVegetables and Social Relations in Norway and the Netherlands
2018E.J. Veen, Sebastian Eiter · Nature and Culture · Norway
Results from questionnaire surveys and semi-structured interviews in two Norwegian and one Dutch garden show that growing vegetables and consuming the harvest is a fundamental part of gardening. The social element of meeting other gardeners and feeling part of a community is also true. While gardeners with different socioeconomic backgrounds experience gardening similarly, access to an allotment appears more important for gardeners with disadvantaged personal backgrounds.
CommunityWelfareHealthPolicyHuertas domésticas y políticas de agricultura urbana: ¿desde el autoconsumo hasta el mercado?
2018Daniel Velandia Díaz · Jangwa Pana · Colombia (Bogotá)
In Bogotá, Colombia, institutional policies were introduced in the early 21st century to strengthen social aspects such as urban agriculture, healthy eating, and community integration. These policies, driven by city administrations, were associated with social inclusion concerns. Government plans from 2004 to 2015 implemented interventions to form urban agriculture networks in several city localities, promoting recognition of prior community experiences and supporting new initiatives.
PolicyCommunityHealthEconomicsResearch Methodology
2018Kwaku Obosu-Mensah · · Ghana (Accra)
This research was planned to study urban agriculture in Accra, Ghana, due to a lack of published work and personal interest. The study is interested in social inequality influencing farm location choice, how new migrants adjust to urban cultivation, and factors compelling government officials to change their attitude towards urban agriculture.
WelfarePolicyCommunityUrban–rural linkage‘It’s not therapy, it’s gardening’: community gardens as sites of comprehensive primary healthcare
2018Pauline Marsh, Sebrina Brennan, Miriam Vandenberg · Australian Journal of Primary Health · Australia
Researchers at the Centre for Rural Health, University of Tasmania, used a participatory research framework to explore the potential of Community Gardens to function as comprehensive primary healthcare (CPHC) environments. Therapeutic features of Community Gardens and their correlations with CPHC were identified, concluding strong synergies between the aims and activities of Community Gardens and CPHC. Augmenting the therapeutic capacity of these sites requires adequate resourcing, skill development, suitable design, funding, policy support, and innovative partnerships with health professionals.
CommunityHealthPolicyGlobal urban agriculture; convergence of theory and practice between north and south de Antoinette Winklerprins
2018Martha G. Bell · Espacio y Desarrollo · Global
This abstract introduces urban agriculture (AU) as an ancient practice that has gained significant attention recently from the general public, academics, and municipal authorities. It notes that various sources contribute to this increased focus. The abstract is incomplete, ending abruptly.
CommunityPolicyProhibitive property practices: The impact of restrictive covenants on the built food environment
2018Sugandhi del Canto, Rachel Engler‐Stringer · Policy Press eBooks · Global
Restrictive covenants, a corporate real estate practice, are identified as a significant barrier to establishing new food stores in older neighborhoods globally. These covenants place conditions on land use, such as prohibiting food sales or grocery store development, making it harder to address existing nutrition deserts. Government support is needed to limit these covenants and develop alternative food channels, including urban agriculture.
Governance failurePolicyEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceHealthUrban agriculture: an opportunity for sustainable development
2018Ada Górna · · Global
This volume presents various issues related to sustainable development within the context of globalization. It collects selected texts discussing theories of development, sustainability, and spatial, industrial, and social policies.
Climate changePolicyAgricultura urbana: seu atual uso
2018Ana Cristina Manjabosco · · Global
This work explores urban agriculture, its concepts, and importance in achieving urban sustainability and responding to environmental imbalances. It provides examples of current urban agriculture uses, including the Dragonfly project in New York, Paris's incentives, and a vertical farm design contest in Sao Paulo. The study also offers guidelines for successful urban agriculture project implementation, covering location choice, cultivation systems, consumption incentives, and secondary benefits, framed as political and social guidelines.
PolicyCommunityEconomicsFood sovereignty & justicePossibilidades de relacoes socioambientalmente mais justas no contexto urbano de uma metropole
2018Luísa Melgaço, Marina R. Ribeiro, Heloísa Soares de Moura Costa · Cadernos de Agroecologia · Global
This essay reflects on the complex reality of urban agriculture, discussing the different paradigms of the Green Revolution and Agroecology within the urbanization process. It aims to evidence the permanent and conflicting dispute between the industrial capitalist model and the non-hegemonic rationality of Agroecology. The essay is intended to advance the construction of bridges between the agroecological field and urbanization processes.
Food sovereignty & justiceOrganic cycleCommunityPolicyOpportunities and Challenges of Urban Agriculture for Sustainable City Development
2018Erwin van Tuijl, Gert-Jan Hospers, Leo van den Berg · European Spatial Research and Policy · Global
This paper explores the concept of Urban Agriculture (UA) and discusses its locational and strategic dimensions. Using case examples from cities worldwide, it shows that UA can contribute to the social, environmental, and economic pillars of sustainable city development; however, there are limitations that cities investing in urban agriculture should consider.
Limited or null effectPolicyEconomicsClimate changeCommunityAppraising the viability of quail (Chikuta) farming. Prospects and challenges. A case of Bindura urban farmers in Zimbabwe
2018Cuthbert Majoni, Deliwe Tembachako, Anyway Katanha · RePEc: Research Papers in Economics · Zimbabwe
This study was conducted in Bindura urban area, Zimbabwe, to evaluate the viability of urban quail farming, interviewing 40 urban quail farmers selected via snowball sampling and 10 key informants using semi-structured guides. Key challenges highlighted included inadequate housing facilities, insufficient space, theft, predation, inadequate knowledge, market price fluctuations, inability to access credit, and misconceptions in urban agriculture policies. Despite these challenges, urban quail farming showed potential to boost family income and reduce poverty to some extent.
Economic viabilityEconomicsWelfarePolicyPolitics of urban gardening
2018Marit Rosol · · Global
This chapter discusses the politics of urban community gardening, positioning it ambiguously between neoliberal/austerity urbanism and progressive urban politics. It argues that urban community gardening can reinforce neoliberal urbanism through land use struggles and gentrification, the role of volunteering in neoliberal urban governance, and governing through community and technologies of the self. The continuous emphasis on self-help in urban green spaces is problematic when civic engagement focuses exclusively on certain groups and values.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyEconomicsClimate changeEstablishing Inner City Urban Agriculture in Stockholm: Exploring social and political logics at work in the public park Bellevue
2018Ida Åberg · · Sweden (Stockholm)
This study explores the social and political logics at work in establishing inner-city urban agriculture in Stockholm, focusing on the public park Bellevue. It notes that access to public space embodies highly valued normative democratic values, where anyone can participate and communicate politically.
PolicyCommunityCharacteristics of Urban Farmers
2018Kwaku Obosu-Mensah · · Ghana (Accra)
This study examined the general characteristics of urban farmers in Accra, Ghana. It showed that people of all socio-economic statuses are involved in urban agriculture. Farmers were found to be reluctant to approach government officials, and the most important reason for urban farmers to quit farming was sickness or death.
CommunityEconomicsPolicyGovernance in urban agriculture: challenges and opportunities
2018Isabel de Felipe · LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) · Global
This paper describes urban agriculture as an activity gaining new support but facing difficulties due to inadequate governance. The research identified eight instruments for sustainable urban agriculture, including food security and economic development. It concludes that each city requires specific governance to achieve synergies.
Governance failurePolicyEconomicsHealthCommunityCarving out space for community gardens in Australia
2018Alec Thornton, Kristen Lyons, Scott Sharpe · · Australia
This chapter examines how urban spaces in Australia are being transformed for community gardens through social movements and community interventions for the expansion of urban agriculture. It focuses on community gardeners as part of active social movements, exploring the urban context driven by the challenges of urbanization. The study applies Lefebvre's framework on the social production of space and discusses findings from qualitative interview data collected from two city case studies.
CommunityPolicyFood sovereignty & justiceTipologia de Ação Pública para a Agricultura Urbana
2018Lya Porto, Emmanuel Raufflet, Mário Aquino Alves · · Global
This paper constructs a typology of Urban Agriculture Public Action by analyzing literature from various cities in the Global North and South. The typology is based on a cross-analysis of institutional structures and service delivery to urban agriculture, identifying four main types: "Marginal," "Emerging," "Societal," and "State."
PolicyIn the Shadow of a Willow Tree: A Community Garden Experiment in Decolonising, Multispecies Research
2018Kate Wright · Cultural Studies Review · Australia (New South Wales)
A postdoctoral project involving collaboratively planting and maintaining a community garden on land that was once part of the East Armidale Aboriginal Reserve in New South Wales, Australia, began in 2014. This research offers a personal narrative of involvement in an anti-colonial multispecies research project within the confines of a neoliberal university, interrogating the potential and limitations of anti-colonial projects undertaken from colonial subject positions predicated on social and environmental privilege.
Governance failureCommunityFood educationPolicyUrban landscapes and public health
2018Timothy Beatley, Cecil Konijnendijk van den Bosch · Oxford University Press eBooks · Global
This chapter examines the role of urban landscapes in public health, addressing environmental health concerns arising from urbanization, such as physical inactivity. It promotes a socioecological approach, providing examples of how urban landscapes, including urban agriculture and community gardening, contribute to improved public health. The chapter introduces concepts like green urbanism and biophilic urbanism, offering suggestions for planning health-promoting urban landscapes.
HealthCommunityPolicyRaising the standard: Developing a benchmark for green infrastructure
2018Danielle Sinnett, Gemma Jerome, Nick Smith, Sarah Burgess, Roger Mortlock · International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning · Global
This paper presents an emerging benchmark for green infrastructure (GI) developed through literature review and stakeholder engagement, addressing uncertainty in GI design, delivery, and maintenance. The benchmark offers flexible standards for assessing GI policy, planning, design, delivery, and long-term management across various spatial scales. Preliminary testing on two mixed-use developments found the benchmark performed well, rewarding high-quality GI without demanding exemplary levels.
PolicyCommunityBiodiversityClimate changeUrban Agriculture in the Food-Disabling City: (Re)defining Urban Food Justice, Reimagining a Politics of Empowerment
2017Tornaghi C. · Antipode 49(3):781-801 · Global
Critically theorizes the neoliberal 'food-disabling city' that deprives citizens of food agency, redefining urban food justice and arguing for an urban agriculture politics grounded in empowerment and food sovereignty.
PolicyWelfareCommunityThe Intersection of Planning, Urban Agriculture, and Food Justice: A Review of the Literature
2017Horst M., McClintock N., Hoey L. · Journal of the American Planning Association 83(3):277-295 · Global
Multidisciplinary literature review questioning who benefits and who does not from urban agriculture, suggesting ways urban planners can structure urban agriculture in support of food justice.
PolicyWelfareCommunityUrban Allotment Gardens During Precarious Times: From Motives to Lived Experiences
2017Partalidou M., Anthopoulou T. · Sociologia Ruralis, 57(2), 211–228 · Greece (Thermi, Northern Greece)
Using Maslow's hierarchy of needs and fieldwork in a municipal allotment garden in northern Greece, the study constructs a typology of gardeners and finds that participation evolves from satisfying basic subsistence needs during economic crisis toward self-actualization and placemaking.
CommunityWelfareEconomicsPolicyThe Emergence of Municipal Allotment Gardens in Greece in Times of Crisis: Governance Challenges for New Urban Gardening Practices
2017Anthopoulou T., Nikolaidou S., Partalidou M., Petrou M. · In: Soulard CT., Perrin C., Valette E. (eds) Toward Sustainable Relations Between Agriculture and the City. Springer, Cham, pp. 181–199 · Greece
Drawing on fieldwork at three municipal allotment gardens in Greece, the chapter examines the institutional and political context of their rapid proliferation during the economic crisis and identifies governance challenges facing local authorities and urban gardening communities.
CommunityWelfarePolicyEconomics