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.

VIPARIS · VIPARIS · France

Official news article from venue operator VIPARIS describing Nature Urbaine, a 14,000 m² urban rooftop farm atop Paris Expo Porte de Versailles. It produces about 200 kg of fruit and vegetables per day, promotes short-circuit local distribution, and reuses urban resources such as unused space, organic waste, and waste heat. Open to visitors on Monday and Saturday mornings.

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.

Celmeli T., Sari H., Canci H., Sari D., Adak A., Eker T., Toker C. · Agronomy 8(9):166 · Turkey

Compared protein, fat, fatty acids, selenium, iron, and zinc in 10 bean landraces and 5 modern varieties from Turkey. Landrace LR05 surpassed modern varieties in selenium, zinc, and protein, highlighting landraces as nutritional breeding resources.

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.

Casals J., Rivera A., Figàs M. R., Casañas C., Camí B., Soler S., Simó J. · Frontiers in Plant Science 9:1491 · Mediterranean

Compares lettuce landraces and modern varieties under Mediterranean winter organic farming, evaluating their agronomic and use value from the combined viewpoints of breeders, consumers and farmers.

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.

European Parliament Research Service · European Parliament — In-Depth Analysis IPOL_STU(2018)617468 · Europe

A comparative analysis of urban and peri-urban agriculture policy across EU member states, systematizing the impacts and challenges of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) on urban farming and offering policy implications for EU-wide support.

Gullino P., Battisti L., Larcher F. · Sustainability (MDPI) 10(5), 1625 · Italy

Evaluates the multifunctionality of peri-urban farming in the Turin metropolitan area from a sustainability perspective, presenting a method to quantify multifunctional values across food production, landscape, ecosystems and socio-culture.

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.

· Journal of Land Use Science · Germany (Ruhr)

A case study of diversification strategies among peri-urban farms in Germany's Ruhr metropolitan region, documenting how urban proximity shapes multifunctional adaptation.

· Land · Germany (Halle)

A spatially explicit assessment of urban ecosystem services in Halle (Saale), Germany, combining biotope and land-use data with hemeroby and accessibility to map local provisioning capacity.

Burghardt W., Schneider T. · Journal of Soils and Sediments · Germany (Ruhr)

Analysed pH, bulk density, and contents/stocks of organic carbon, nitrogen and heavy metals (Pb, Cd, Zn, Cu, Ni) in vegetable patches, lawns and compost heaps across fourteen gardens in four allotments of the northwestern Ruhr area.

Burghardt W., Heintz D., Hocke N. · Eurasian Soil Science · Germany (Ruhr)

Compared vegetable-garden soils with surrounding arable land in the central Ruhr area, analysing horizons, texture, pH, bulk density, C/N ratio, and stocks of organic carbon, nitrogen and available nutrients.

Leuven J.R.F.W., Rutenfrans A.H.M., Dolfing A.G., Leuven R.S.E.W. · Food Science & Nutrition · Netherlands (Nijmegen)

A 7-month (17-lesson) school gardening program for 150 primary students aged 10-12 in Nijmegen, Netherlands; pre/post surveys showed significant increases in knowledge of edible plants and preference for vegetables.

· 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.

Isabelle Anguelovski, James J. T. Connolly, Laia Masip, Hamil Pearsall · Urban Geography · Spain (Barcelona)

Longitudinal spatial analysis linking Barcelona's municipal greening interventions (parks/green corridors) to gentrification in disenfranchised neighborhoods, providing quantitative evidence that public greening policy is associated with exclusionary neighborhood change.