Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
2091 results(47 / 84)
The School-Plus-Home Gardens Project in the Philippines: A Participatory and Inclusive Model for Sustainable Development
2019Bessie M. Burgos, Henry Custodio, Shun-Nan Chiang, Anna Gale C. Vallez, Elson Ian Nyl Ebreo Galang, Maria Katrina R. Punto, Leila S. Africa, Blesilda M. Calub · · Philippines
The School-Plus-Home Gardens Project (S+HGP) was implemented in six pilot schools in Laguna province, Philippines, through a collaboration of SEARCA, UPLB, and DepEd. This project focused on nutrition, education, and economic well-being by providing school garden harvests for school feeding programs and establishing food gardens in children's homes. The S+HGP demonstrated the multi-functionality of school gardens as learning laboratories for sustainability, food and nutrition, organic agriculture, climate change, and solid waste management.
Food educationCommunityHealthWelfarePolitics and the contested terrain of urban gardening in the neoliberal city
2019Chiara Certomà, Chiara Tornaghi · Ghent University Academic Bibliography (Ghent University) · Global
This book is a collection of chapters unpacking the forms, functioning, and meanings of urban gardening in the context of the neoliberal transformation of cities. It offers an overview of diverse claims in the micro-politics of garden activism and discusses how these projects are fraught with social solidarities and divisions, empowerment and learning processes, conflicts and negotiations. The collection aims to contribute to a critical discussion of the “politics of urban space” and enrich the emerging debate on radical, critical, and political gardening.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyFood sovereignty & justiceDIYPara comprender la práctica de la agricultura urbana
2019Edgar Alfredo Portilla-Flores · DU & P: revista de diseño urbano y paisaje · Global
This article discusses urban agriculture as a contemporary practice that requires understanding across multiple dimensions. It states that urban and peri-urban food production encompasses not only agronomic aspects but also relates to food security, public policies, urban planning, entrepreneurship, recycling culture, environmental education, and recreational and therapeutic activities.
Food sovereignty & justicePolicyFood educationCommunityHorta no ambiente escolar: promoção de saúde por meio de práticas alimentares
2019Anelise Pillon Ortiz, Lilian Regina Lengler Abentroth, Polliana Radtke dos Santos, Edna Linhares Garcia, Suzane Beatriz Frantz Krug · RBONE - Revista Brasileira de Obesidade, Nutrição e Emagrecimento · Global
This narrative literature review aimed to identify the results of implementing vegetable gardens in school environments and analyze their impact on children, adolescents, and family life. Out of 28 analyzed articles, 13 answered the research question. The study concludes that school gardens have positive repercussions on the lives of children and adolescents, directly influencing food behavior, fostering environmental awareness, improving school performance, and enhancing social interaction and quality of life for those involved.
Food educationHealthCommunityCreativity within urban gardening at times of emergency
2019Nina Gren · Lund University Publications (Lund University) · Sweden
This presentation, based on ethnographic research from 2017-2018 in the Malmö-Lund area, Sweden, examines creativity in urban gardening projects as a response to ecological crisis. Urban gardeners, particularly project coordinators, expressed concerns about ecological emergency and sought to promote sustainable living. They developed creative events and workshops for children, including storytelling, planting, harvesting, and making 'bee hotels', to educate them on ecological issues and inspire aspirations for a different future.
CommunityFood educationClimate changeBiodiversityPostdevelopment alternatives in the North
2019Daniel Bendix, Franziska Müller, Aram Ziai · · Global
This study examines alternatives to 'development' in the Global North, focusing on community-supported agriculture (CSA), a tenement trust, and the anti-coal movement. It investigates how these cases align with postdevelopment ideas such as non-capitalist practices, new commons, local knowledge, and a break with colonialism. The research questions the universalization of Western development models and their historical hegemony.
CSA & TeikeiCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceSustainability: through cross-cultural community garden activities
2019Ranjan Datta · Local Environment · Global
This study explored the concept of sustainability among First Nations, visible minorities, and non-visible minorities through cross-cultural activities in a community garden setting, using a relational participatory action research (PAR) process. It argues that cross-cultural activities, such as dance, music, children’s art, anti-racist workshops, traditional story-sharing, land-based learning, and cross-cultural food sharing, can create positive change in an urban environment by empowering communities through cross-cultural bridging.
CommunityWelfareFood educationHealthCreating connections
2019Simon Woodward · · Global
This chapter contextualizes environmental arts therapy within the urban clientele’s relationship to nature, exploring how it facilitates connections through myth, metaphor, and art-making. It synthesizes theoretical models of Environmental Arts Therapy and Five Ways to Wellbeing, which underpin the Community Outdoor Art Therapy Service (COATS). Three COATS therapeutic workshops, including monthly sessions in a community garden, are explored as illustrations of deepening participants' connection with nature.
CommunityHealthLocal and Landscape Effects to Biological Controls in Urban Agriculture—A Review
2019Joshua Arnold, Monika Egerer, Kent M. Daane · Insects · Global
This review assessed urban conservation biological control (CBC) research and provided a synthesis for urban agriculture practitioners. Findings indicated that local and landscape factors differentially affect insect pests and beneficial arthropods across the reviewed studies. Several on-farm practices that can be implemented to increase biological control in urban agriculture were also identified.
BiodiversityCommunityEffect of infaq and takmil wal istikmal in sustaining community vegetable farming in Malaysia
2019Suhaimi Mhd. Sarif · The International Islamic University Malaysia Repository (The International Islamic University Malaysia) · Malaysia
This study investigated the effect of infaq (charitable contribution) and takmil wal istikmal (complementarity) on sustaining community vegetable farming in Malaysia. Personal interviews with selected farmers, CSA administrators, and agricultural regulators revealed that the effect of infaq and takmil wal istikmal is limited to small-scale community farming.
CommunityOrganic cycleEconomicsEmergence and diffusion of social innovation through practice fields
2019Maria Rabadjieva, Anna Butzin · European Planning Studies · Global
This paper analyzes how social innovations diffuse, proposing that they spread through "travelling elements" of material, competence, and meaning, rather than solely social interaction. This perspective explains the global emergence of similar social innovations, such as urban gardening initiatives, without direct interaction between actors. The research argues that "practice fields," defined as bundles of similar social innovation initiatives, facilitate this diffusion.
CommunityPolicyUrban–rural linkageSOCIAL CAPITAL AMONG URBAN AGRICULTURE PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS IN KLANG PERDANA SELANGOR, MALAYSIA
2019Nur Shuhamin Nazuri, Nobaya Ahmad · International Journal of Modern Trends in Social Sciences · Malaysia
This quantitative study measured the level of social capital among 30 urban agriculture program participants in Klang Perdana, Selangor, using a survey method. The preliminary study's findings indicated that the community participating in the urban agriculture program had a high level of social capital. Analysis revealed that age and gender variables significantly affected their social capital, and social capital was found to be important in increasing community participation in urban agriculture programs.
CommunityFood Policy Councils, Lessons on inclusiveness
2019Jess Halliday, D.M.R. van Veenhuizen · CGSPace A Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) · Global
UA Magazine 36 focuses on Food Policy Councils. Urban Agriculture Magazine (UA Magazine) is produced by the RUAF Global Partnership on Sustainable Urban Agriculture and Food Systems. It facilitates information sharing, promotes analysis and debate on critical issues, and publishes good practices and impact stories related to urban agriculture and urban food systems.
PolicyFood sovereignty & justiceCommunityDiversity of arboreal species in scenarios of urban agriculture in the municipality of Pinar del Río
2019Lisandra Hernández Guanche, Yoerlandy Santana Baños, Armando Acosta Hernández, Armando del Busto Concepción · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Cuba (Pinar del Río)
This research determined the diversity of arboreal species associated with the "Vial Colón" organoponics system in Pinar del Río municipality, Cuba. Inventories identified 37 arboreal species from 26 botanical families. Fabaceae was the most represented family, with Persea americana Mill. and Moringa oleifera Lam. showing the highest abundance.
BiodiversityCommunityOrganic cycleRestorying Garden Relations
2019Fikile Nxumalo · · Global
In this chapter, the author explores the practices, sociomaterialities, and colonial histories and relations that contribute to the creation of a community garden visited with children and early childhood educators in child care centers where her research is situated. School gardens were widely introduced as tools to teach desired moral and social attributes, such as pride in community and individual responsibility for public property.
CommunityFood educationA snapshot of Community Supported Agriculture in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand 2018
2019Bronwyn Wilkes · ANU Open Research (Australian National University) · Australia, New Zealand
This report presents preliminary descriptive results from a survey of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand in 2018. The survey aimed to gather characteristics of CSA farms operating in the region to capture a point-in-time snapshot. The survey was not intended to provide detailed qualitative information regarding the CSA experience in the region, which is anticipated to be explored in a future series of interviews.
CSA & TeikeiCommunityEconomicsCollective action and social contagion: Community gardens as a case study
2019Michal Shur‐Ofry, Ofer Malcai · Regulation & Governance · Israel
This study investigated whether Institutions for Collective Action (ICAs), using community gardens as a case study, exhibit dynamics of social contagion and diffuse in accordance with patterns prevalent in self-organized complex systems. Quantitative methods derived from the field of complexity were applied to measure the temporal, spatial, and spatiotemporal diffusion of community gardens in the city of Jerusalem. The results suggest that the spread of community gardens in the urban space displays patterns of self-organization and social contagion.
CommunityPolicyHealthFood Activism and Citizens’ Democratic Engagements: What Can We Learn from Market-Based Political Participation?
2019Jasmine Lorenzini · Politics and Governance · Global
This article analyzes the action repertoire of food democracy to assess the influence of market-based logics on various forms of food activism. It addresses which forms of political participation citizens use to democratize the food regime, which conceptions of democracy relate to these forms, and which critiques of market-based politics apply. The article highlights the widespread risk of unequal participation, crowding out, commodification, and state retreat across forms of participation used to democratize food regimes.
Food sovereignty & justiceCommunityCSA & TeikeiImpact of school gardens and complementary nutrition education in Burkina Faso
2019Pepijn Schreinemachers, Mamounata Sandaogo Ouedraogo, Serge Diagbouga, Amadou Thiombiano, Serge Rodrigue Kouamé, Caroline Makamto Sobgui, Hsiao-pu Chen, Ray-Yu Yang · Journal of Development Effectiveness · Burkina Faso
A repeated cluster randomized controlled trial in 30 schools with 1,760 schoolchildren (8–14 years old) in Burkina Faso evaluated the impact of school vegetable gardens combined with nutrition education. The study found a small but significant increase in knowledge of sustainable agriculture (+5.0%) and food/nutrition (+6.6%). However, there was no significant increase in other outcome indicators, including fruit and vegetable consumption.
Limited or null effectFood educationHealthCommunityHistorical perspectives on the ties between cities and food
2019Nicolas Bricas, Damien Conaré · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Global
The 20th century marked a significant shift in how cities approach their food supply. While the revival of urban food policies extends beyond urban agriculture and food production, urban agriculture can play a role in reintroducing nature and agriculture into the heart of the city while rebuilding social ties. The challenge is less about feeding cities, given its limited production potential, and more about its symbolic dimension.
PolicyFood sovereignty & justiceUrban–rural linkageCommunityPlanning for Healthy Eating
2019Jennifer Kent, Susan E. Thompson · · Australia
This chapter reviews the link between the built environment and eating habits, noting that where people live and work influences food types and prices. It examines how urban planning in Australia supports local food production to encourage healthier eating. This support includes protecting peri-urban agricultural lands and promoting food cultivation in community gardens, verges, and homes.
HealthPolicyCommunityPeri-urban agricultureStudy on acceptance of urban garden in bamboo seating structure in Ipoh, Perak
2019Mohd Hamezan, Intan Syafiqah · · Malaysia
This project, conducted in the Plan B area of Ipoh, Malaysia, investigated urbanized residents' interest in urban gardening and their perception of an ergonomic bamboo seating structure design. A questionnaire survey revealed that 59% of respondents lacked awareness of urban gardening. Among the proposed bamboo seating structure designs, Design 2 was the most selected by 57.8% of respondents, and younger respondents showed the most interest in urban gardens.
DIYFood educationCommunityPost-industrial robotics: exploring informed architectures in the post-digital era
2019Angelo Figliola · IRIS Research product catalog (Sapienza University of Rome) · Global
This paper explores post-industrial robotics through prototypes developed with industrial partners, showcasing transdisciplinary experiments where environmental, structural, and material performances guide computational and robotic manufacturing processes. "Fusta Robotica" demonstrates tectonic exploration with non-engineered materials, while "Digital Urban Orchard" expresses a complex functional program based on form, function, and context. The analysis defines the limits and potential of this design approach, opening a debate on technological experimentation in the post-digital era.
Digital agricultureCommunityAgricultura urbana em Portugal: práticas espontaneas e institucionalizadas
2019Rosangela Medeiros Hespanhol · Confins · Portugal
This field research in Portugal analyzed urban gardens, identifying both spontaneously emerging gardens with no public oversight and those organized by public authorities. Interviews revealed that urban agriculture facilitates subsistence food production without pesticides, creates intergenerational and intercultural coexistence spaces, fosters social cohesion through experience exchange, and promotes environmental education. These findings emphasize the social and cultural importance of urban cultivation practices.
CommunityPolicyEconomicsFood sovereignty & justice‘The play’s the thing’: A creative collaboration to investigate lived experiences in an urban community garden
2019Yvonne Black · Management Learning · Global
This article explores a non-traditional qualitative research project that used a creative approach, specifically collaborative performance ethnography, to investigate lived experiences in an urban community garden. Working with a playwright and garden staff/volunteers, the study explored connections between people and nature and their impact on well-being. The creative method, incorporating arts-based inquiry and performance, facilitated relaxed communication with participants and provided new perspectives on data collection and analysis, stimulating discourse on community gardens' role in social and environmental change.
CommunityHealthFood education