Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
701 results(4 / 29)
EVALUATION OF THE FEASIBILITY OF URBAN AGRICULTURE IN EDIRNE CITY CENTER
2025Beyza Aleyna Bayram, Selin ARABULAN · Pamukkale University Journal of Social Sciences Institute · Turkey (Edirne)
This study aimed to identify and evaluate the urban agriculture potential in Edirne, Turkey, based on the hypothesis of transforming passive areas into urban agricultural areas. It conducted a literature review, reported on climate, topography, vegetation cover, and land use conditions, and used SWOT analysis to evaluate potential in technological, economic, demographic, sociological, and ecological contexts. The study determined that urban agriculture practices in Edirne, where the existing structure is quite favorable, can be evaluated as a strategic development tool with proper planning and management.
Food sovereignty & justiceClimate changeBiodiversityCommunityPflanzMit! - Das Urban Gardening Network
2025Storey, Benjamin · TIB Repositorium · Germany
The PflanzMit! project is an innovative initiative aiming to involve urban populations in the care and design of their green environment. The app enables users to organize and collaboratively work on planting and maintaining urban green spaces, strengthening social fabric and fostering a sense of community. The app offers organizational tools for group formation and task distribution, as well as practical aids like care tips, plant identification by photos, and AI-supported plant recommendations based on local conditions.
CommunityDIYDigital agricultureUnderstanding community supported agriculture through the intersection of practices and socio-technical Regimes
2025Mattia Andreola · Discover Sustainability · Italy (Trento)
This study conducted three years of ethnographic research, including participant observation, in-depth interviews, and quantitative data analysis, on "NaturalMente in Trentino," a CSA initiative in Trento, Italy. The research revealed multiple lock-in points, indicating that CSA constraints stem from organizational inefficiencies, deeply rooted cultural and behavioral habits such as the use of private gardens or a preference for supermarket convenience, and rigid institutional frameworks like cooperative dominance in the local agri-food regime.
Governance failureCSA & TeikeiCommunityEconomics“Planting flowers into potholes”: urban community gardens as symptoms of institutional shortfall?
2025Ágnes Gagyi · Local Environment · Europe
This paper investigated urban gardening in an East European capital, focusing on institutional resources. The study found a clear relationship between a shortfall of institutional resources and the limited, conflictual promotion of urban gardens as sustainability tools. It argues that gardens' contradictions stem from the privatization of public functions, which has depleted institutions capable of implementing gardens as sustainability tools, instead outsourcing costs to garden communities.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyClimate changeUrbanFarm 2025
2025Orsini, Francesco, D'Aprile, Andrea, Pennisi, Giuseppina, Prandi, Riccardo, Morelli, Agata, d'Ostuni, Michele, Martin, Michael, de Brun Skantz, Natalie · AMS Acta (University of Bologna) · Europe
The UrbanFarm Student Challenge, established in 2019, promotes innovation and sustainability in urban agriculture by engaging European university students in co-designing urban agricultural systems. The 2025 edition focused on transforming an underutilized lot at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, which presented challenges like isolation and low ecological value. Student teams developed design proposals integrating productive landscapes with multifunctional public uses, aiming to activate the space for food production, education, and community interaction.
CommunityPolicyEconomicsClimate changeCan school gardens contribute to resilient communities from a scientific and eco-social perspective in early childhood education?
2025Lourdes Aragón Núñez, Beatriz Erdozain Manzano · Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education · Spain
Diagnostic research using a questionnaire with 45 closed-ended and 9 open-ended questions was conducted in 21 urban schools in Spain that use gardens in early childhood education. The study assessed the resilience level of school gardens across environmental, economic, social, and curriculum dimensions. Results indicate school gardens are valuable for transforming urban environments and creating resilient communities, generally showing a medium level of resilience, with weaknesses identified in environmental and social dimensions.
Food educationCommunityClimate changeBiodiversityCommunity farming in Northern Ireland: Definitions and impacts
2025Jonathan H. Hanson, C Lynn Collins, Tiziana O'Hara, Matthew Williams · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · United Kingdom
This study explored community farming in Northern Ireland, defining it as a collaborative transformation process at the intersection of land, community, and enterprise. Using Social Return on Investment (SROI) methodology over two years, it quantified the cumulative impacts of nine diverse community farming projects. The overall SROI ratio was 3.52:1, with 90% of the value being social, 8% environmental, and 2% economic.
CommunityCSA & TeikeiFood sovereignty & justiceEconomicsTransformar a partir dos interstícios: hortas urbanas comunitárias face à crise ecossocial
2025Sara Sama Acedo, David Berná Serna, Patricia Homs Ramírez de la Piscina · Scientific Repository of Open Access of Portugal (RCAAP) · Spain (Madrid)
A study analyzed the challenge faced by community urban gardens in Madrid, Spain, in remaining transformative spaces amidst an ecossocial crisis. These gardens are initiatives situated between community and public institutional management, with their expansion and institutionalization involving practices and relationships among diverse agents. The study points out the difficulty for these gardens to maintain their transformative role—updating community ties, reciprocity, and mutual care, and reformulating relationships with "nature" in the city and food supply—without being absorbed by market logics or marginalized into welfare or community volunteering spaces.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyFood sovereignty & justiceSchulgärten als BNE-Lernorte für Studierende
2025Leena Bröll, Aline Haustein · Perspektiven auf Lehre Journal for Higher Education and Academic Development · Germany
An evaluation of a school gardening seminar for student teachers in Saxony, Germany, revealed that practical gardening imparts specialist knowledge, reflection ability, and motivation. These skills are considered crucial for prospective teachers to transmit sustainable values to future generations. School garden lessons, historically introduced in the GDR in 1963/64, are now integrated into primary school science lessons in Saxony.
Food educationCommunityCultivating Bonds: On Urban Allotment Gardens and Their Relationship with Social Capital
2025Noelia Fernández-Salido, Alfonso Gallego‐Valadés, Carlos Serra-Castells, Jorge Garcés Ferrer · Agriculture · Spain (Valencia)
This qualitative study in Valencia, Spain, explored the role of urban allotment gardens in producing social capital. Fifteen in-depth interviews were conducted with key informants involved in urban garden projects. Findings indicate that urban gardens act as relational infrastructures, fostering intergenerational learning and inclusive participation. However, exclusionary attitudes and fragmented governance were found to limit their potential.
CommunityPolicyFood educationThe EArTh System: A Community Food Sovereignty Blueprint
2025F. A. Abd El Hamid · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · United Kingdom (Glasgow)
This paper presents the complete operational blueprint for the EArTh System, a community-led model designed to establish food sovereignty in post-industrial areas. The system integrates a decaying digital currency, democratic assemblies, and urban agriculture to create a parallel 'commons' for essential goods. Detailed as a pilot implementation for Glasgow East, UK, the document outlines its currency mechanics, legal structure, governance, and launch strategy.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justicePolicyClaiming space
2025Kirsty Lohman, Ruth Pearce · Community Development Journal · United Kingdom (Durham)
This article describes a community garden in Durham, United Kingdom, maintained by volunteers working to retain common access to green space. The garden is located on a disused bowling green, against a backdrop of a struggle over land, ownership, and community use. The council had reportedly failed to maintain the land for many years, and much of the surrounding area is owned by Durham University. The community association aims to obtain control of the land through an adverse possession claim to prevent it from being sold off by the council.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyThe Impact of Lifestyle on Individual’s Perception of Urban Agriculture
2025Simona Gavrilaş, Oana Brînzan, Radu Lucian Blaga, Maria Sinaci, Eugenia Țigan, Nicoleta Mateoc-Sîrb · Agriculture · Europe
This study investigated the correlations between perceived benefits of urban agriculture (socialization, recreation, and food waste avoidance) and education levels and financial situations among 648 inhabitants of western Romanian towns, using data collected via an online questionnaire. Analysis showed that a high level of education leads to increased belief in urban farming's contributions to improving residents' socialization and recreation. Income level also significantly shaped opinions regarding urban agriculture's contribution to increased recycling.
HealthEconomicsFood lossCommunityPlanting futures: School-based food forests and their contribution to holistic education for sustainable development
2025Julia Gobs · GAIA - Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society · Germany
This study investigated the school-based food forest project at Chestnut School in Northern Germany, using interviews and participatory methods framed by the Whole School Approach. School-based food forests contribute to holistic education for sustainable development by offering interdisciplinary, hands-on learning environments. They promote systemic thinking, agency, and self-efficacy, fostering human-nature connections, critical thinking, and sustainable food practices.
Food educationBiodiversityCommunityClimate changeGasteizko eskola-baratzeen ezarpenaren eta erabilera didaktikoaren analisia
2025Iratz Pou de Los Mozos, Igone Palacios-Agúndez, Daniel Zuazagoitia, Unai Coronel Gastiain · IKASTORRATZA e-journal on Didactics · Spain
This field research analyzed the presence and didactic use of school gardens in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, using a two-phase questionnaire approach. The study found a large presence and high didactic use of school gardens, with many interesting experiences, but noted room for improvement. Teacher training and networking among schools were recommended.
Food educationCommunityTHE WILD IN THE CITY: DIFFERENT CONCEPTS AND THEIR ROLE IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF URBAN COMMUNITY GARDENS OF GOUTTE D'OR DISTRICT OF PARIS.
2025Marina Abrão Ballak Dias · Revista Andaluza de Antropología · France (Paris)
This article explored how different conceptions of human-nature relationships shaped practices in two community gardens in Paris's Goutte d’Or neighborhood. Conceptions grounded in a human–nature divide prevailed, leading to a conservationist approach. Practices stemming from this perspective were found to be in constant tension with garden goals like increasing urban biodiversity and human socialization.
Governance failureCommunityBiodiversityPolicyTransformando desde los intersticios: huertos urbanos comunitarios ante la crisis ecosocial
2025Sara Sama Acedo, David Berná Serna, Patricia Homs Ramírez de la Piscina · Etnografica · Spain (Madrid)
This paper analyzes the case of community urban gardens in Madrid integrated into the Municipal Program of Community Urban Gardens. These initiatives are situated in the interstices between community management and public institutional management, generating new demands on the management of urban green commons and enabling forms of shared governance. The study reveals that these gardens face the challenge of maintaining themselves as transformative spaces without being absorbed by commercial logics or marginalized into welfare-oriented or community volunteer spaces.
Governance failureCommunityFood sovereignty & justicePolicyCommunity Readiness for Agro Living Lab (ALL) Projects: Factors Influencing Engagement of Young Urban Residents
2025Wojciech Sroka, Karol Król, Jakub Kulesza, Marcin Stanuch, Sławomir Lisek · Agriculture · Poland (Kraków)
This study analyzed factors influencing young urban residents' readiness to participate in agro living lab (ALL) projects in Kraków, Poland. Based on a literature review and a survey among university students, it found that readiness to engage in ALL projects is strongly associated with respondents’ field of study, interests, individual experiences, positive attitudes toward urban agriculture, and personal relationships with farmers.
CommunityFood educationFood sovereignty & justiceSlippery pathways to socio-ecological utopias of community gardening: examples from Poland
2025Dorota Rancew-Sikora, Anna Horolets, Joanna Krukowska · Environmental Sociology · Poland
This article investigates how community gardening ideals are materialized and abandoned, applying Hannah Arendt’s distinction between types of work. Based on empirical analysis of narratives and observations in 12 gardens across Poland, the research demonstrates obstacles to democratic sustainability transitions. It proposes a processual concept of "slippage" to understand mechanisms by which departures from ideals occur in community gardens.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyMotivations and barriers in Huddersfield’s community gardens: exploring experiential social capital and community resilience
2025Sara Mahdizadeh, Yun Gao · Local Environment · United Kingdom
This qualitative study, based on 16 semi-structured interviews, examined motivations and barriers to participation in community gardens in Huddersfield, UK. Key motivations included social interaction, mental well-being, and skill development. Reported barriers were declining volunteer numbers, physical workload, limited institutional support, and accessibility challenges.
Governance failureCommunityHealthPolicyWelfareGrowing Social Spaces: Farming and Food Growing as Part of the Urban Landscape
2025Chris Blythe, Veronica Barry · · United Kingdom
This chapter examines urban farming and growing in the United Kingdom, advocating for a broader definition beyond purely productive practices to include social, political, and environmental interpretations. It explores how physical spaces in four Birmingham examples foster social interaction, drawing on practitioner experience, literature, and user perspectives. The aim is to provide insights into the value of these spaces as social landscapes for urban policy.
CommunityUrban–rural linkagePolicyBeyond urban farm and community garden, a new typology of urban and peri-urban agriculture in Europe
2024Jansma · Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems · Europe
Proposes a new typology of the diverse forms of urban and peri-urban agriculture in Europe, moving beyond the conventional 'urban farm vs community garden' divide and offering a framework for situating citizen-driven initiatives.
CommunityPolicyLandrace in situ (on-farm) conservation: European Union achievements
2024Raggi L., Spataro G., Tiranti D., Negri V. · Biodiversity and Conservation 33:2709-2738 · Europe
Reviews the status of on-farm landrace conservation in the EU, including the materials conserved, who maintains them and why, and EU policies governing the commercialization of landrace seeds.
Heirloom & landraceBiodiversityPolicyCommunityResource Orchestration in Cross-Sector Partnerships for Systemic Change: A Longitudinal Study of Urban Food Assistance
2024Bartezzaghi G., Garrone P., Rizzuni A., Melacini M., Perego A. · Business & Society · Italy
A longitudinal action-research study of a cross-sector partnership delivering urban food assistance, showing how resource orchestration by public, corporate, and nonprofit actors spurs phases of systemic change in the urban food system.
CommunityEconomicsPolicyCitizen participation and acceptance in the context of urban events. An investigation on regional garden shows in Germany
2024· Planning Practice & Research · Germany
Investigates citizen participation and acceptance around regional garden shows (Landesgartenschauen) in Germany as recurring urban greening and event-driven planning instruments.
CommunityPolicy