Research & reports

Daniel Löschenbrand, Vanessa Giolai, Angelika Psenner · · Austria (Vienna)

The "Food Atlas Vienna" project was realized in the context of the Vienna Biennale 2021. This project aims to question the discipline of urban planning regarding the existing urban food system and regional cycles, combining spatial mapping with innovative design possibilities for a sustainable metropolitan region. Working with inhabitants at four different locations in Vienna, the project developed a new mindset and methods to make connections between food and urban morphology visible.

Mitchell McLarnon · Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education · Canada

This paper described and analyzed the social relations emerging from an adult education internship and community-based garden project in Montreal, Canada. Using institutional ethnography, it uncovered how adult education internships in community gardens and gardening programming can produce disproportionate outcomes for adult learners, community workers, and community members. It elucidated that specific institutional contrivances, such as funding, policy, work processes, and discourse, structure and define who experiences access to gardens, gardening, its ostensible health and well-being benefits, and adult education.

Kelvin Haule, Bupe Kabigi · Ghana Journal of Geography · Tanzania

This study analyzed land markets and their influence on peri-urban agriculture and livelihood strategies in Tanzania. It found that widespread monetary land markets, including formal, informal, speculative, entrepreneurial, and land grabbing forms, are transforming peri-urban agriculture into non-farm activities. These informal changes are causing a “sendoff” of peri-urban agriculture, and if unmanaged, land markets are suggested to become a blight for indigenous people selling land.

Zeina ElZein · Chinese Journal of Urban and Environmental Studies · Global

This paper reviews articles on the water, energy, and food nexus and urban resilience from the past 10 years, exploring the need for interdisciplinary approaches. It identifies key research foci, gaps, and future research needs. Recommendations for future studies include allocating funds to ensure vulnerable communities' access to resources, sustainable operation of urban agriculture practices, circular economy and reuse, and engaging experts, local authorities, and communities in decision-making and training. The study also recommends using quantitative assessment to identify the impact of urban agriculture and urban water management practices on the environment and including socio-economic aspects in assessment models.

Martin Bailkey, Rosalind Greenstein · Urban agriculture · United States

This paper reviews “Farming Inside Cities: Entrepreneurial Urban Agriculture in the United States” (2000) by Jerry Kaufman and Martin Bailkey. This report was one of three concurrent research studies on for-market urban agriculture as a viable reuse of vacant land in major US cities. While its practical nature and description of urban agriculture's opportunities and challenges remain relevant today, it does not explicitly state the value of farming as a vehicle for social equity and food justice in urban communities of color.

Emmanuel Olatunbosun Benjamin, Abiola Adegoke, Gertrud Buchenrieder · Land · Nigeria (Lagos)

This exploratory qualitative research, conducted in Lagos, Nigeria, used focus group discussions to compare the perspectives of private urban farmers and public sector representatives on innovative urban farming. Urban farmers identified a lack of public sector support for circular agri-food technologies, while public sector representatives attributed issues to farmers' behavioral and educational shortcomings, including poor coordination. These differing views highlight complex dynamics and a need for structural changes and stakeholder dialogues to develop effective urban farming policies in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Mohammed Elyaagoubi · African J of Economic and Sustainable Development · Morocco

This study investigates the decline of agricultural land in Guersif City, Morocco, due to rapid urbanization. Sociological surveys and technical data from 1954 and 2021 were used to identify and quantify the rate of agricultural land loss. The preservation of urban agriculture in Guersif faces a real challenge from other, more profitable activities.

Domenic Vitiello · Urban agriculture · United States

US cities have developed urban agriculture support systems reflecting competing values, with some prioritizing public good and others economic gains. A chapter reflecting on urban agriculture planning in Chicago and Philadelphia notes that institutional structures significantly impact equity and justice. The study indicates that the existing urban agriculture support systems in these cities may not adequately promote equity and justice.

Farhang FaghihLarijani, Elaheh Amani Vamarzani · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Iran

This study investigated whether an independent legal system exists in urban areas of Iran to recognize, maintain, and develop urban agriculture. It found that despite urban laws recognizing agricultural activities, legislators have not enacted a comprehensive law specifically for urban agriculture, nor explicitly included it in urban land definitions. The study hypothesized that a primary challenge is the lack of a compatible legal framework.

Wenli Dong, Gangjian Lin · Buildings · Global

This study established a hierarchically structured decision model for Urban Agriculture within Greyfield Regeneration Environments (UAGR) to improve project implementation. It identified 25 influencing factors, prioritized 11 using the Fuzzy Delphi method, and analyzed their interrelationships with an interpretative structural model based on expert questionnaires. The model was then applied to case studies in Shanghai and Hangzhou, providing practical guidance for urban agriculture development.

Luke Beesley, Michael Hardman · Cities · Global

This opinion piece discusses the potential risks of urban agriculture (UA) practices within Green Social Prescribing (GSP), particularly in post-industrial regions. It highlights barriers related to heavy metal-enriched urban soils, emphasizing the need for greater awareness and management of these risks. The piece provides recommendations for improving knowledge exchange on urban soils and risk in GSP contexts.

Efadul Huq · International Journal of Urban and Regional Research · Bangladesh (Dhaka)

This article argues that in the global South, ecological infrastructure often displaces marginalized urban dwellers by erasing existing informal agricultural practices, or "green informalities." Based on research with urban farmers facing eviction in Dhaka, Bangladesh, it highlights that these green informalities are crucial for understanding grassroots practices and collective power-building. The study advocates for recognizing the political and affective dimensions of informal urban agriculture as a socially just ecological infrastructure that prioritizes justice and dweller agency.

Sri Tuntung Pandangwati, Benjamin Cooke, Melissa Neave · Australian Geographer · Indonesia (Yogyakarta)

This paper examined the relevance of an Agroecological Transition for the Special Region of Yogyakarta (SRY), Indonesia, emphasizing farmers’ perspectives and experiences. Data were gathered from policy documents, field observations, and 34 semi-structured interviews with farmers. Findings indicated that although there is limited discourse about agroecology in current policies, some farmers and NGOs have developed agroecological niche innovations.

Muhammad Taufiq, Nasfryzal Carlo, Dwifitra Y Jumas, Eva Rita, Lusi Utama · Structure (Jurnal Sipil) · Indonesia

This research focused on the Setting and Infrastructure indicator of the UI GreenMetric World University Ranking program at Medan State Polytechnic (Polmed) in Indonesia. The study found that Polmed's current score is 440 out of an expected 1500. To improve the score, the abstract suggests implementing vertical or rooftop gardens, creating biopore infiltration holes, replacing paving blocks with grass blocks, and installing guiding blocks and ramps for disabled facilities.

Merlijn van Hulst, Catherine Durose, Annika Agger · International Journal of Urban and Regional Research · Global

This article theorizes sociopolitical innovations as practices that reshape urban spaces for local social and political ends, identifying three activities: assembling, extending, and institutionalizing innovations. An international qualitative study of neighborhoods in Amsterdam, Birmingham, Copenhagen, and Glasgow underpins this theorization. The study notes that while the ongoing development of everyday systems may have limited immediate transformative impact, it prefigures an alternative embedded in urban life.

Muhammad Waseem Khan, WU Qun, Siqi Yan, Komal Bilal, Muhammad Bilawal Junaid, Wesam Atef Hatamleh · Journal of Urban Planning and Development · Global

This global study investigated the multifunctional role of land-use planning in peri-urban and urban agricultural drylands, using a survey of 680 participants and a structural equation model. Findings indicated that amenity, landscape and recreational value, and proximity significantly affect these areas. Conversely, large rural lots in China's Tianjin region negatively affected both the level of urbanization and urban agricultural drylands.

Debra Solomon, Maria Kaïka · Environment and Planning E Nature and Space · Europe

This article explores the extent to which applying embodied, ‘skin in the game’ methods used in infrastructure activism (a contemporary art practice) can expand the toolkit of methods in action research on urban green infrastructure planning. It focuses on two cases of infrastructure activism: the Amsterdam Zuidoost Food Forest (VBAZO) in Amsterdam's South East, and the KRATER project in Ljubljana's city centre. Through discussing these projects, the article explores embodied research practices developed by infrastructure activists to change urban green infrastructures and researcher-actors’ perspectives.

Faiza Darkhani · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · Germany (Berlin)

A qualitative content analysis of interviews with active female respondents in community-supported agriculture, food cooperatives, and self-harvest gardens in Berlin Brandenburg revealed challenges faced by women in alternative food networks. Interviewees expressed optimism but emphasized the need for increased governmental support and community engagement, and the data highlighted demands for gender equality improvements and support mechanisms.

Anna M. Roodhof · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · Netherlands

To map and analyze food forestry (FF) in the Netherlands, a survey of 109 participants and interviews with five experts were conducted, identifying 231 food forests established since 2017. The survey data indicates that while FF initiatives are diverse in goals, few focus on profitability. Practitioners are largely homogeneous, consisting of university-educated individuals aged 40 to 60.

Paula Mota Santos · Social Inclusion · Portugal (Porto)

Grassroots urban horticultural plots (hortas) in the Porto Metropolitan Area, Northern Portugal, are informal communities that have existed for decades, often involving over 20-30 people. However, these low-income urbanite horticultural communities are not cherished by city governance, which does not prevent their destruction. This incompatibility between urban governance and grassroots communities hinders the right to the city for the low-income urbanites who created them.

Isabel Cristina Carvalho, Raquel Luz Sousa · Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology (RCAAP Project by FCT) · Global

This chapter advocates for teaching contexts that integrate community art practices, using an informal urban agriculture laboratory as a basis. It proposes pedagogical approaches for Architecture and Urbanism education that leverage action and experimental research to structure living spaces, focusing on proximity, solidarity, intergenerationality, multifunctionality, and sustainability. The aim is to foster social, biophysical, and ecological integration, promote diversity and gender equality, and raise awareness of active citizenship through collaborative co-planning and co-management of plural green urban spaces.

Maria Neocleous Maliotou, Γεωργία Λιαράκου · Education 3-13 · Global

This research employed the Whole School Approach framework to address obstacles in setting up and operating a school-integrated, long-sustained school garden. A school case study involving in-depth interviews with school stakeholders was utilized. Findings suggest that a long-sustained school garden requires collective vision and strategic planning, a holistic curriculum connection, continuous staff capacity building, and school community involvement.

Silvia Gullino, Heidi Seetzen · · United Kingdom (London)

This ethnographic research in a former Victorian square in South London examined how residents transformed derelict spaces, including creating two community gardens, over three decades. The study found that while informal, bottom-up practices shaped a vibrant urban culture, the neighborhood is now undergoing progressive gentrification. This gentrification reflects trends in other London neighborhoods, posing challenges to community initiatives.

Belinda Li, Tammara Soma, Raghava Payment, Srishti Kumar, Nicole Anderson, Flora Xu, Phonpoom Piensatienkul · Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l alimentation · Canada

This study reviewed and categorized 73 food asset maps in Canada based on their included food assets and design characteristics. Most maps included built environment assets like grocery stores and food banks, as well as agriculture-based natural food assets such as farms, community gardens, and orchards. However, representations of Indigenous-focused food assets and non-agriculture-based natural food assets like forests, water bodies, and foraging areas were generally lacking. This lack of Indigenous perspectives reinforces the values of a settler-colonial food system within food asset maps.

Huq, Efadul · Smith ScholarWorks (Smith College) · Bangladesh (Dhaka)

Research in Dhaka, Bangladesh, indicates that ecological infrastructure often erases existing informal agricultural practices, leading to the displacement of marginalized urban dwellers. Based on engaged research with a collective of urban farmers facing eviction, this paper argues that green informalities are crucial for understanding grassroots practices and can be appreciated as socially just ecological infrastructure.