Research & reports

Beatriz Pineda Revilla, A.J.J. van der Valk · Urban Agriculture Magazine · Netherlands

This article examines the role of a participatory agent, a civil servant in Amsterdam East, Netherlands, whose primary task is to bridge the interests of citizens and local government within a community garden. The study focuses on citizen-led initiatives in Dutch cities.

Darya Hirsch, Christian H. Meyer, Johannes Klement, Martin Hamer, Wiltrud Terlau, Hirsch, Darya, Meyer, Christian, Klement, Johannes, Hamer, Martin, Terlau, Wiltrud · Publication Server of Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences (Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences) · Germany

This paper presents an empirical case study on Urban AgriCulture initiatives in the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg region of Germany. It states that Urban AgriCulture is a niche movement with the potential to contribute significantly to urban development and constitute a pillar of urban quality of life.

Charlotte Prové, Joost Dessein, Michiel De Krom · Ghent University Academic Bibliography (Ghent University) · Belgium; Poland

A study evaluating urban agriculture in Belgium and Poland argues that current governance approaches fail to reflect the importance of local context. The authors found that considering city-specific factors is crucial for urban agriculture to reach its full potential. They recommend a broader policymaking strategy that acknowledges benefits beyond food production.

Elifnaz Durusoy · MEGARON / Yıldız Technical University Faculty of Architecture E-Journal · Turkey (Istanbul)

The Yedikule Urban Gardens in Istanbul were studied as an example where cultural conservation and social inclusion have been challenged by economic development due to the growth of urban development. This study emphasizes both destruction and development within the context of physical, natural, economic, and social change. It demonstrates the hardships faced when attempting to sustain urban gardens during periods of urban growth.

Andrew Hursthouse, T. E. Leitão, Annette Voigt, Avigail Heller, Béatrice Bechet, Paulo Brito da Luz · HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) · Europe

This chapter overviews factors influencing the chemical, physical, and biological status of soils, water, and the biosphere in urban allotment gardens. It highlights that urban garden soils, water, and biosphere are affected by pollution due to their location in city centers or suburbs, with traffic infrastructure and industrial zones widely identified as impacting soil and water quality. Concerns over long-term risks from pollutant transfer (mainly metals) from soil to plants in these uncontrolled environments have been widely publicized.

Richard Almenius · · United Kingdom

A 2016 urban planning thesis on London, United Kingdom. It states that London imports 80 percent of its food, much of it from abroad over long distances ("food miles"), raising sustainability concerns and contributing to road freight congestion and pollution in the inner city. The thesis proposes redeveloping the brownfield land of Greenwich Peninsula in south-east London — near the Millennium Dome, the Thames, and underground access — by combining rooftop and courtyard urban farming with large-scale food production in a converted former industrial building, presented as a pilot project for a sustainable way of living in London beyond meeting housing needs alone.

Wanda Kononowicz, Katarzyna Gryniewicz-Balińska · Civil And Environmental Engineering Reports · Poland

This paper traces the history of allotment gardens in Wrocław, Poland, alongside changing socio-economic conditions from the mid-nineteenth century onward. They began as rented plots for the poor and factory workers, then in the early twentieth century expanded to include school gardens and Schreber gardens with shared common areas as part of Dr. Schreber's educational health program; "war" vegetable gardens were widely cultivated from 1914 to 1918; allotments were systematically integrated into the city plan as permanent urban greenery elements in the 1920s; and during the 1930s economic crisis, allotments with garden houses were adapted as housing for the unemployed and homeless. The paper describes Wrocław's allotment gardens as cultural heritage with historical, social, recreational, economic and compositional value, noting that while Western Europe is seeing a renaissance of the allotment idea, Poland shows a tendency to eliminate them from urban landscapes.

Susan Noori, Mary Benson, B J Gawryszewska, Michael Hardman, Kadri Kasemets, Maria Partalidou, Tarmo Pikner, Krista Willman · · Europe

A sociological essay addresses the sparse sociological literature on allotment gardens as 'lived places,' exploring how social relations, experiences, meanings, and a sense of place develop and become visible within gardens. It argues that allotment gardens offer people the opportunity to engage creatively in place-making and that this active engagement drives the social process of place-making, taking the Pispala allotment garden in Tampere, Finland, as an example of an urban nature area experienced as an extremely socially meaningful place, and discusses urban livability and place-making in relation to people's connections to rurality and nature, along with the permeable, transient boundaries and sense of community that develop within shared spaces where individual plots are leased.

Özge Yalçıner Ercoşkun · · Turkey

Building on the observation that rapid urban transformation in Turkish cities has neglected and damaged local values in recent years, this paper examines traditional Turkish cities across different bio-regions under sustainable planning and design principles within an eco-cultural logic framework. Key themes are land use, accessibility, open and green space, production, water management, social cohesion, and traditional architecture, and the paper lists compact urban layout, mixed land use, pedestrian-prioritized street patterns, climate-friendly design, water and stormwater management, open-green space systems, and urban agriculture as sustainable urban planning and design principles.

Elisabeth Meyer-Renschhausen · ˜L' œHomme · Europe

An essay arguing that, against the recent hype around the term "urban gardening," the term "urban agriculture" (Agrarkultur) better captures its significance for a subsistence economy. It frames community gardening as a women-led social movement that brings previously hidden housework into public view, tracing a history in which the 1806–1813 Stein-Hardenberg reforms suppressed peasants' rights to the commons, causing widows who lost their means of subsistence farming to move into cities; Max Weber's late-19th-century account of farmhands' wives running an autonomous subsistence economy; the 1919 Imperial Allotment Garden Regulation, which established a right to allotments for people in need; and the Second World War, when women were required to supply fresh vegetables from home gardens, allotments and "victory gardens." The essay also notes that today, urban gardening helps voiceless immigrants and refugees settle in unfamiliar surroundings.

Silke Ötsch · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Europe

Working from the premise that the "static-hedonic" economic ideal type — historically cast in a negative light against Joseph Schumpeter's ideal of the entrepreneur — is being positively reframed within the degrowth-critical movement and in writing on urban gardening, an essay examines the conceptions of life and economic activity held by people involved in the degrowth-oriented Transition movement, based on qualitative, problem-centered interviews. It poses the question of whether the figure of the gardener (Gärtner/Gärtnerin) embodies a new guiding model (Leitbild) of economic activity that could replace the entrepreneur.

Efrat Eizenberg, Simone Tappert, Nicola Thomas, Andis Zīlāns, Kristine Abolina, Theodosia Anthopoulou, Jevgenijs Duboks · · Europe

A book chapter examines the changes and challenges facing allotment gardens in European cities from the perspective of urban political economy, reading these new urban configurations within the macro-framework of capitalism and governability. It traces past and current processes of urban change through the economic, political and spatial lens of the "entrepreneurial city," discusses the impact of urban restructuring on allotment gardens' structure, operation and meaning, and states that political and spatial restructuring in the entrepreneurial city has been accompanied by a sharpening of social and economic inequalities within cities.

Alice Pozzati · PORTO Publications Open Repository TOrino (Politecnico di Torino) · Italy

A case study of Turin, Italy's agricultural history examines the now-vanished farmstead "La Grangia" as a way to recover the city's largely forgotten agricultural past, distinct from its better-known industrial image. More than six centuries after its construction, the site's agricultural past has been revived through the activity of the "Movimento per la Decrescita Felice" (Happy Degrowth Movement), which obtained management of part of the Giardino Morbillo — built on the former farmstead's grounds — from the Turin municipality, for a shared urban garden project. The piece notes that such remaining traces of the past are often not recognized as historic-architectural heritage worth preserving.

Irma Stopka, Heike Molitor · 0028-0615 · Europe

The abstract, which cuts off mid-sentence, states that as society changes, demands on urban open spaces also change, and that new open-space formats such as urban gardening reflect a need for participation and appropriation of space. The available text ends there, with no further content provided.

Duncan Stephen · · United Kingdom

A short report describes students studying Garden Design at Scotland's Rural College (SRUC) visiting a North Edinburgh Community Garden, as part of preparation for Gardening Scotland, to better understand how green spaces can positively influence health and wellbeing.

Krista Harper, Ana Isabel Afonso · Anthropology in Action · Europe

This study used a Photovoice methodology with an association of urban gardeners in Lisbon, Portugal, to examine their attempt to transform informal or clandestine garden spaces into an "urban agricultural park." Presenting initial findings, it describes how a coalition of gardeners from diverse socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds used a participatory design process to reclaim land and create a shared space, and how residents conceptualized their use of urban space, built civic identities through gardening, and made political claims to access and control vacant land.

Carlos Santiago Martín Fernández, Víctor O. Martín Martín · Boletín de la Asociación de Geógrafos Españoles · Spain

This paper examines how the economic crisis and job losses in the construction sector and related services in the Canary Islands, Spain, prompted workers' return to primary-sector activity. This return has taken place largely outside the official regulatory system, becoming an irregular practice that sustains many Canarian households; the administration has responded with measures such as land banks and urban gardens (huertos urbanos), but these are described as only a partial solution to the poor state of family economies.

Javier Pérez-Lara, Antonio J. Matas, Miguel Angel Quesada-Felice · LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) · Spain

Set within the growth of urban horticulture across Andalusia, Spain, over the past decade, this study characterizes the current state of urban gardens in Málaga and describes their strengths and weaknesses. In Málaga, especially over the last five years, the initiative grew from a convergence of factors—an opportunity for urban land reuse following the real estate bubble collapse, municipal need to maintain vacant lots combined with available economic resources through institutional support (the PROTEJA plan), and pressure from citizen groups linked to the 15M movement (such as the "Huerto del Caminito")—producing a diversity of garden types and management modes ranging from more institutional to more communal and self-managed, which led to the establishment of the Málaga Urban Gardens Network (RHUMA).

· Wikipédia (français) · France

This French Wikipedia article on urban agriculture (agriculture urbaine) describes the Parisculteurs program, launched by the City of Paris in 2016, which inventories greenable spaces (walls, basements, rooftops, flat land) and runs annual project calls (appels à projets) to accelerate urban farming installations. The article does not give detailed statistics such as budget figures or the number of selected projects.

Resilient Cities Network · Resilient Cities Network · France

Article from the Resilient Cities Network describing Parisculteurs, the urban-agriculture support programme launched by the City of Paris in 2016. The '100 Hectares' charter has 82 partner organizations, and more than 50 projects have been realized with an equal number under development. Goals cited include shortening food supply chains, strengthening community cohesion, promoting healthy eating, food security, and ecosystem services.

Katie Boswell, Anne Kazimirski · New Philanthropy Capital (NPC) · United Kingdom

A January 2016 briefing from the UK think tank NPC, summarising a seminar for small charities held on 9 July 2015. It starts from the reality that, unlike larger charities with dedicated evaluation staff and budgets, small organisations tend to share measurement duties among staff or leave them on a chief executive's long to-do list. It argues that good impact measurement helps concentrate limited resources on activities that work and helps attract funding, but must be kept in proportion to the scale of the work, and sets out NPC's four-pillar approach beginning with mapping a theory of change.

Scheromm P. · Développement durable et territoires · France (Montpellier)

Based on 40 semi-structured interviews, this study examines the agricultural motivations and practices of urban dwellers participating in collective gardens in Montpellier, revealing how city residents reconstruct an agricultural identity through gardening.

Clausen M. · Cities and the Environment (CATE) · Germany (Berlin)

Case study of Berlin's Prinzessinnengarten, examining how a volunteer-run garden on a vacant Kreuzberg lot became a multifunctional semi-public space and how its community mobilized against privatization of the land.

· Sustainability · Germany (Berlin)

Analyzes benefits and challenges of Zero-Acreage Farming (building-integrated agriculture such as rooftop gardens and greenhouses) in Berlin from an aggregated multi-stakeholder perspective, identifying rooftop greenhouses as the most promising model.

· Agriculture and Human Values · Germany (Berlin)

A qualitative study from Berlin examining public perception and acceptance of agricultural production in and on urban buildings (ZFarming).