Research & reports

Nayla Naoufal · VertigO · Global

This article examines global citizen movements related to socio-ecological issues, including urban agriculture development, by analyzing the evolution of their demands. It explores environmental justice, popular ecology, and their theoretical foundations, identifying a relevant framework for contemporary mobilizations. The study also analyzes the concept of ecocitizenship, finding that a participatory and critical form of ecocitizenship particularly contributes to environmental justice.

C. Paizinho, M. de F. Ferreiro · Repositório do ISCTE-IUL · Portugal (Lisbon)

This study identified solidarity economy practices in three urban gardens in Lisbon, Portugal: Vale de Chelas, Alta de Lisboa, and Horta do Baldio. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, including surveys of 42 users and interviews with 3 stakeholders, 31 out of 35 evaluated practices were identified, with 7 being "very relevant" and 4 "relevant." Key practices included organic production, contributions to social cohesion and health, knowledge sharing, reciprocity, and democratic decision-making, while 20 practices were considered "less relevant."

Valentina Gulin Zrnić, Tihana Rubić · Etnološka tribina · Global

This issue of Etnološka tribina features a thematic section on public spaces, comprising articles that explore various aspects of urban public spaces globally. Topics include the reappropriation of public space during protests in Istanbul, conflicting visions of modernity in Jagodina, evaluation processes in Lisbon, and the revival of public spaces through urban gardening and cycling projects. The section aims to foster discussion on the potential of urban policies and contemporary urban life for developing participatory, socially, and environmentally sustainable cities.

François Mancebo · Challenges in Sustainability · Global

This article explores whether urban agriculture can be a cornerstone for reconfiguring more sustainable cities, and under what conditions and types. It proposes counteracting urban sprawl by fostering "rural sprawl" through introducing nature and rural characteristics like farming into interstitial urban areas and wastelands. From this perspective, urban agriculture becomes a common good that brings people together and reshapes the urban fabric, making it particularly suitable for long-lasting urban policies that transform environmental "bads" into "goods" and urban amenities.

Katherine Alexandra Herrera Hernández, Yohanna Marcela Pinzón, Ruth Zamira Herrera Rincón · · Colombia (Bogotá)

This project aimed to contribute to the study of Urban Peri-urban Agriculture (UPA) in Bogotá by describing projects led by the José Celestino Mutis Botanical Garden from 2004 to 2016, analyzed from an environmental education perspective. Using a qualitative methodology, the study investigated fundamental elements in education-management development, such as participation, the construction of the concept of environment, and the strengths and weaknesses in achieving these projects within the framework of successive city governments during that period.

LE Wynne, Dana Cordell, Joanne Chong, Becky L. Jacobs · UTS ePRESS (University of Technology Sydney) · Australia (Sydney)

This report, using Sydney as a case study, examines land-use planning on the urban fringe for peri-urban food production. It finds that for many cities, including Sydney, a large proportion of peri-urban food production has already been lost due to conversion to residential and infrastructure uses. The report reviews various planning responses to address threats to peri-urban agriculture.

Salamanca Córdoba, Néstor Leonardo · · Colombia (Bogotá)

This internship report evaluates the urban agriculture program led by the Bogotá Botanical Garden (JBB) in Colombia. It describes 25 urban gardens that received technical advice, social support, adaptation, and equipment from the JBB. Using a case study methodology, technical diagnostic and harvest forms, along with perceptions from project leaders and participants, were used to describe the gardens. The JBB continuously monitors these gardens to improve urban agriculture practices and gather data for evaluating the effectiveness, impact, strengths, and weaknesses of urban agriculture among the study population.

Pierre Donadieu · Challenges in Sustainability · Global

This paper distinguishes categories of urban agriculture to efficiently feed urban inhabitants and leverage ecological and social functions. It explores methods to regulate unbuilt urban land and discusses possibilities for creating urban agricultural commons, defined as tangible and intangible resources produced by farmers and gardeners for local consumption and environmental quality. The concept of commons is applied to urban agriculture and landscape, drawing on works by E. Ostrom, P. Dardot, and C. Laval.

Emily Brownell · Global Environment · Tanzania (Dar es Salaam)

This case study in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, examines the politics of food distribution and shifting urban-rural boundaries during the socialist era. The Tanzanian government pursued an anti-urban policy, viewing urbanites as slothful and discouraging migration to cities. However, by the early 1980s, as state food distribution channels failed, the government shifted to transforming as much of Dar es Salaam into agricultural space as possible, with urban agriculture and family networks becoming key bulwarks against hunger in the city.

Gundula Proksch · · Global

"Creating Urban Agricultural Systems: An Integrated Approach to Design" is a resource that documents environmental, systemic, technical, and operational considerations in urban agriculture. It compiles emerging strategies, current practices, and working case studies. This research synthesizes information on inputs and outputs, resource efficiencies, environmental benefits, and operational achievements, based on numerous site visits, examinations of outstanding case studies, and interviews with stakeholders behind innovative farm operations.

Antoine Zammit, Ina Šuklje Erjavec, Gabriela Maksymiuk, Dimitra Theochari, Runrid Fox-Kämper, Russell Good, Emanuele Sommariva · · Global

This chapter explores allotment gardens as a challenge for urban designers, identifying specific urban design quality considerations for these green spaces. It also examines the evolving role of urban designers in top-down and bottom-up processes to achieve suitable spatial quality. The chapter suggests that allotment gardens can enhance diversity, robustness, and amenity in urban areas, particularly when accessible from residential developments, and should be designed as safe and secure places.

Michael Buxton, Rachel Carey, Kath Phelan · Water science and technology library · Australia (Melbourne)

This case study examines the relationship between urban and peri-urban systems in Melbourne, Australia, where peri-urban agricultural production faces pressure from rapid urban development. It explores three scenarios relating rural and urban land supply and demand, and land use planning techniques to limit rural land development. The study argues that stronger statutory planning measures are needed to prevent the loss of peri-urban agricultural land and enhance the resilience of city food systems.

Marion Ernwein · Open Collections · Switzerland (Geneva)

This paper critically examined municipal involvement in community garden and urban agriculture development in the canton of Geneva, Switzerland, focusing on a case study in Vernier. It found that the municipality's urban agriculture program serves contradictory functions, being simultaneously progressive in reversing space privatization and nature commodification, yet also reinforcing the neoliberal production of individualized, self-responsible, and self-entrepreneur subjectivities. The highly-regulated nature of these municipal community gardens complicates their categorization as either grassroots or purely institutional projects.

Joshua Zeunert · UNSWorks (University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia) · Australia

Urban public green spaces typically require external budgets for maintenance, with most projects costing municipal authorities more money than they generate, making them economically unproductive. For instance, the Adelaide Parklands annually costs AU$9 million for maintenance while generating less than AU$1 million in income. Maintenance spending on public green spaces in the USA, UK, and Australia has been declining, a trend accelerated since the 2008 global financial crisis.

Rada Betancourt, Bibian Andrea · · Colombia (Bogotá)

This document, based on an action research methodology, aims to provide informative, conceptual, and methodological bases for formulating an agroecological urban and peri-urban agriculture (AUPA) program in Bogotá. It describes the context of urban and peri-urban agriculture in the capital district, projects its future in Bogotá, and formulates foundational principles based on previously obtained results.

Prince Antwi-Agyei, Adam Biran, Anne Peasey, Jane Bruce, Jeroen H. J. Ensink · BMC Public Health · Ghana (Accra)

This cross-sectional study in Accra, Ghana, assessed faecal exposure among 80 farm workers during dry and wet seasons, analyzing water and soil samples for E. coli. The results showed that while irrigation water was highly contaminated (5.6 Log E. coli/100 ml), exposure to farm soil (2.3 Log E. coli/g) was the key risk pathway due to soil-to-mouth events, with 53% of farmers experiencing such events daily. The estimated norovirus infection risk to farmers was found to be higher than guidelines set by the WHO, indicating that exposure to soil is a critical pathway of pathogen risk in wastewater farmers, exceeding recommended health targets.

Joe Nasr, June Komisar · · Global

This chapter reflects on the re-emergence of food and agriculture as an urban concern for planners and designers, examining public discourse through exhibitions. It analyzes recent exhibits highlighting the relationship between food and cities, using the "Carrot City: Designing for Urban Agriculture" exhibition as a case study. The authors, as co-curators, reflect on lessons learned from staging this exhibition, which traveled across three continents.

Ida Åberg · · Global

This abstract introduces urban agriculture (UA) as a potential solution to the challenges of feeding rapidly growing cities sustainably and addressing unsustainability and poverty.

Erika Augustinsson · Stat & Styring · Global

This abstract suggests that microcredits, crowdfunding, and urban farming may be significant social innovations of our time, comparable to 20th-century kindergartens, maternal care, and fire departments. It posits that the state's role is changing, focusing more on creating opportunities and relinquishing control.

Laure‐Elise Ruoso, R. Plant, Brent Jacobs, Pierre Maurel · · Australia (Western Sydney)

This study, based on in-depth interviews with farmers in peri-urban Sydney, Australia, examines how changes in these areas impact farmers' place identity and decision-making. It analyzes how increasing urban development, land subdivision, rising land values, and environmental regulations threaten farming activities. The findings indicate that these factors influence farmers' practices, business management, and decisions to continue or relocate peri-urban farming.

Afsana Akther, Tofael Ahamed, Tomohiro Takigawa, Ryozo Noguchi · Journal of the Japan Institute of Energy · Global

This study proposes a GIS-based multi-criteria analysis model for solid waste management in Dhaka, Bangladesh, incorporating factors such as waste-generating site locations, road networks, environmentally sensitive locations, causes of illegal dumping, and waste segregation to select suitable sites for waste disposal and composting that would support urban agriculture. Using exclusionary criteria, decision factors, and weighted standardization, the analysis produced a suitability map identifying potential composting site locations.

Patrizia Ghisellini, Marco Casazza · Journal of Environmental Accounting and Management · Global

Given cities' near-total dependence on imported resources, this paper offers a short review of research on urban agriculture, energy and urban resilience, alongside a historical overview of the evolving concept of the city-countryside relationship. It concludes that urban agriculture in its various forms partially addresses food security in both developed and developing countries and provides environmental, economic and social benefits, but states that its energetic and environmental impacts have not been adequately investigated on-site in specific locations, leaving it unclear whether urban agriculture is a sustainable option.

Sarah Jurkiewicz · Social Science Open Access Repository (GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences) · Global

This study analyses two cultural initiatives in Kuwait City -- one organizing walking tours, another creating an urban garden in a public park -- as new forms of reclaiming urban space. It examines the entrepreneurial frameworks, from "social entrepreneurship" to "commons," through which these initiatives are articulated, but finds that despite their aim of constructing participatory spaces, the initiatives have nevertheless been targeted toward a particular stratum of Kuwaiti society -- chiefly middle-class Kuwaitis with a cosmopolitan outlook.

Mohsen Kalantari, Somaye Ghezelbash, Bamshad Yaghmaei · Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences · Global

A survey of citizens' expectations and attitudes toward participating in rooftop garden (green roof) development, examined in relation to behavioral, social and demographic variables, was conducted across districts of Zanjan city, Iran, in 2016. A questionnaire was administered to 313 randomly selected residents, with data analyzed using chi-square tests and the Pearson correlation coefficient. Respondents identified the main perceived benefits and barriers of green roofs; while people expressed interest in installing rooftop gardens, no volunteers came forward to do so. Financial and technical support from municipalities and urban managers was the main expectation residents held.

Insa Theesfeld, Nicole Rogge, Theesfeld, Insa, Rogge, Nicole · · Global

This paper applies collective-action theory to urban gardens, arguing that in developed countries in particular they emerge less from economic competitiveness or a desire for regional food than from a lack of participation in city development and limited opportunities for democratic use of public space and socializing. It presents criteria for describing this development and for distinguishing degrees of collectively used resources across gardens, and demonstrates the criteria's applicability using three pilot case studies, showing that urban garden movements can offer participants the chance to build new regional identities through sharing time, knowledge and participation in public decisions.