Research & reports

Maria Gerster‐Bentaya, Crozet Natacha, M. Gerster-Bentaya, N. Crozet · AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA) · Global

The BMBF project "Urban Agriculture as integrative element of a climate-optimized urban development" was designed as a transdisciplinary research project on multifunctional open space systems in emerging megacities. This article links challenges of a transdisciplinary research approach, such as problem framing and actor engagement, to the nearly six-year research process. It describes the methods used during the two main phases of action research and the types of knowledge generated, also reflecting on limitations experienced by the project team.

Isidor Wallimann · · Switzerland (Basel)

In 2010, the SEA founded the Urban Agriculture Network Basel Association (UAB) to enhance food production for the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) and the urban space. The UAB aims to strengthen the SSE's focus on local and environmental sustainability and shift Basel's food policy towards "food sovereignty." The network fosters social integration by issuing its own hour-based currency and has contributed to building a pilot Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) producer-consumer coop for solar-powered cheese.

Меглена Златкова · Colloquia Humanistica · Bulgaria (Plovdiv)

This anthropological research in a Plovdiv neighborhood, Bulgaria, discusses public-private space division in a post-socialist city. It examines everyday practices of urban gardening in common spaces, such as around apartment blocks and on balconies, to understand changing boundaries and social dynamics.

Benno Gammerl, Rainer Herrn · sub\urban zeitschrift für kritische stadtforschung · Global

This article outlines the theoretical, empirical, and political potential of the tension between affective disruptions of ordered structures and the emotional processing of power-infused spatial relations. It uses urban gardening practices and gentrification debates as examples to demonstrate how analyzing dynamic interactions between spaces and feelings can foster a critical perspective on urbanity, particularly regarding issues of equity. The study focuses on the ambivalent dynamics and effects of emotional-spatial processes.

Božidar Manić, Tanja Bajić, Ana Niković · Arhitektura i urbanizam · Serbia (Bela Crkva)

This paper discusses the adaptive reuse of an abandoned military complex in Bela Crkva, Serbia, considering climate change and sustainability. A 2012 conceptual solution proposed repurposing the barracks for a university campus, experimental social housing, cultural facilities, and urban agriculture, incorporating alternative energy and energy efficiency. The study highlights issues of abandonment and provides recommendations for adaptation based on past experiences and current environmental challenges.

Eliška Novotná · ACC Journal · Czech Republic

This research investigated the management of community gardens in the Czech Republic, focusing on their economic self-sufficiency and long-term sustainability. The study examined the equipment and operation of gardens, funding sources for investments and operations, and the disclosure of information about their management.

Alessandra Manganelli · Lirias · Global

This early-stage PhD research (Month 12) investigates the governance of Alternative Food Networks (AFNs), focusing on their internal dynamics and relations with external institutions. While civil society actors catalyze AFNs, the institutional environment they face is not always favorable or accountable, with examples including changes in political priorities and constraining regulations. The Brussels-Capital Region serves as the main empirical case study, analyzing movements like GASAP and "Le Debut des Haricots."

Subramanian Senthilkannan Muthu · · Global

This abstract discusses how urban expansion and the separation of urban and agricultural areas increase energy demand for transporting food and goods. It notes that despite technological advances, a gap exists between energy demand and supply, even in advanced countries. The abstract concludes that reducing energy demand is a more realistic approach for sustainable development than solely relying on technological progress.

Anne Gravsholt Busck, Christian Fertner, Lone Søderkvist Kristensen, Søren Bech Pilgaard Kristensen, Mike Brian Johannsen Kyndesen, Susanne Ogstrup, Jørgen Primdahl, Søren Præstholm, Ann-Sofie Richardt, Jens Peter Vesterager, Lars Winther · Research at the University of Copenhagen (University of Copenhagen) · Denmark

This longitudinal study investigated urbanization processes in peri-urban agricultural areas of the Greater Copenhagen region, Denmark, surveying 160-200 farm properties across eight study areas in 1984, 1994, 2004, and 2014 using face-to-face interviews. It found that while some agricultural land became urban, the overall agricultural land use remained largely stable, though concentrated on fewer, larger farms. Economic activities diversified, with more property owners engaging in other gainful activities, and farming in these areas faces constant challenges from increasing external activities.

Reinoud Vermoesen · Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis · Belgium (Antwerp)

This study examined urban farming in early modern Antwerp, focusing on individual households and the gardeners’ guild. While 18th-century records mentioned few farmers within the city walls, this research suggests a more widespread phenomenon. Gardeners’ guild members primarily had a retail function rather than food production, and a variety of households not belonging to the guild were also active in agriculture.

Kin Wing Chan · Open Research Exeter (University of Exeter) · Hong Kong

This study examines the politics of meat production in Hong Kong's 2006-2007 License-Buy-Back Scheme (LBBS), focusing on pig farming. It investigates how the LBBS served as a tactic to reduce and control the pig farming industry, contrasting it with urban vegetable farming which holds a more positive aesthetic image. The research highlights a scarcity of studies on why certain forms of urban agriculture are valued more than others.

Christine Aubry, Jeanne Pourias, Anne Cécile Daniel · HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) · Global

Urban agriculture is gaining popularity, often for its contribution to urban greening, re-establishing connections between urban dwellers and agricultural and food production, and among urban dwellers themselves. However, urban agriculture also involves significant health issues, which advocate for urban planning that promotes its maintenance or establishment under healthy environmental conditions.

Federico Davila, Robert Dyball · Australian Journal of Environmental Education · Australia

This article examines the potential of food sovereignty, as defined by La Via Campesina, to reframe food as a human right within the Australian food discourse. It argues that urban food production in Australia offers educative value by transforming individuals' social and environmental concerns about food systems. Community participation in urban food production can foster political understanding and support for alternative food systems, developing elements of food sovereignty in an Australian urban context.

Chiara Certomà, Bruno Notteboom · Planning Theory · Belgium (Ghent)

This article examines a new planning mode involving collaboration between state, private, and community actors in the context of urban gardening movements. It analyzes urban gardening projects in Ghent, Belgium, to explore the transformation of planning practices. The article concludes that urban gardening exemplifies an emerging informal planning mode supported by a transactive governmentality, potentially leading to co-creative transformation of public urban space.

Nishesh Chalise · Open Scholarship Institutional Repository (Washington University in St. Louis) · Global

This study investigated the processes leading to sustained or eroding community engagement over time in urban community gardens within a low-income urban neighborhood. Key informant interviews were conducted with gardeners from various community gardens, and the data was used to understand the context of garden establishment and to revise a system dynamics model based on collective action theories. The model, which incorporated eight main structures including gardeners, land, activities, and social relationships, successfully produced both sustained and eroding community engagement.

Gerardo Patron-Cano · Digital Commons - DU (University of Denver) · Global

This thesis argues that agriculture should be divorced from capitalist economic principles, pointing out that industrialized growing methods have been economically, socially, and environmentally unsustainable. For sustainable and equitable agriculture, food systems need to be de-commodified, with policies empowering local community control and subsidizing localized production-consumption cycles. Urban farming and food hub initiatives are discussed as primary solutions to address challenges limiting local food systems from replacing the dominant industrial agricultural paradigm.

Wang Hai-ya · · Global

Under the background of urban agriculture, family farms have broad development prospects and are categorized into three development modes: professional production type, multi-functional integrated type, and ecological protection type. This study proposed countermeasures for key issues such as land, capital, talent, products, and social services, including formulating family farm development plans, accelerating land approval, promoting land circulation, encouraging company registration, strengthening government funding support, and introducing social capital.

Ingrid Jahrl, Otto Schmid · Organic Eprints (International Centre for Research in Organic Food Systems, and Research Institute of Organic Agriculture) · Switzerland

In Zurich, Switzerland, urban agriculture policies have evolved towards fulfilling multiple functions. This multifunctional approach aims to provide diverse services for city dwellers, fostering biodiversity, offering attractive recreational landscapes, and creating educational opportunities, with food production being a part but not the main goal. The city administration has implemented various support mechanisms to ensure the concept's implementation and maintenance.

Guy M. Robinson, Zhiling Liu · AIMS environmental science · Australia

This paper examines the contradictions between greening and "ungreening" in Adelaide, South Australia, focusing on the city's Park Lands and urban sprawl. It argues that urban sprawl, including recent development on prime farmland, has been antithetical to biodiversity maintenance and greening principles, reducing sustainability capacity. The paper identifies problems such as conflict between biodiversity and protecting residents in bushfire risk areas, stemming from a relaxed attitude towards low-density expansion.

Anna Maria Orrù · Chalmers Publication Library (Chalmers University of Technology) · Sweden (Stockholm)

This paper investigated whether engaging citizens as design agents through an alternate participation platform could bridge the gap between urban design processes and citizens. This approach was applied to Stockholm's urban agriculture movement, aiming to engage citizens in locating existing and potential food growing places and gathering information. Results showed that a combination of digital and bodily approaches was necessary for critical cartography to holistically engage citizens as spatial agents informing urban policy.

Shreema Rana · Journal of Natural Resources and Development · Nepal

This paper reviews existing literature on urban food supply chains and food security benefits of peri-urban agriculture in developing regions, focusing on the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. It highlights the significance of peri-urban areas for a sustainable food chain and points out existing but unrecognized features of peri-urban agriculture at local and policy-making levels. The review identifies gaps in local preferences and policy acknowledgment, suggesting further research is needed for sustainable peri-urban agriculture approaches.

Delgado Pontón, Daniela María · · Ecuador (Machala)

This work aims to provide guidelines for implementing a municipal urban and peri-urban agriculture program in Machala, Ecuador, to improve environmental quality and food security for the population. The proposed program's guidelines are presented, supported by arguments for its importance in combating hunger, enhancing food and nutritional security, reducing urban habitat deterioration, and generating employment for participating families.

Udo Weilacher · · Global

Gardening, particularly in the context of 'urban gardening', is regaining focus in landscape architecture debates about city sustainability. This trend raises questions about whether it is a lasting direction or a temporary fad related to romantic notions of withdrawing from rationally designed cities. To understand why gardening's importance in landscape architecture diminished, a historical review of landscape architecture over the past century is necessary.

Lauren Baker and Henk de Zeeuw · · Global

This chapter analyzes the opportunities and limitations of urban agriculture for climate change mitigation and adaptation, providing information on city projects and policies. It identifies challenges for research and policy development concerning urban agriculture's potential as a city climate change and disaster risk-reduction strategy.

А А Золотаревский, И И Прокопович · Лесной вестник / Forestry bulletin · Russia (Moscow)

This article explores the potential of composts made from woody-plant waste (WPW) as an alternative to expensive organic additives for urban gardening in Moscow. It suggests that composting WPW can provide a cost-effective solution for preparing fertile soil, which is crucial for plant survival in urban environments. Modern composting technologies allow for the mechanization of WPW composting, producing vegetable earth suitable for planting trees.