Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
165 results(5 / 7)
Non-traditional grains for a balanced diet
2018Aneta Popova, Dasha Mihaylova · Bulgarian Portal for Open Science · Europe
This article discusses the role of grains in a balanced diet, noting that non-traditional grains are increasingly available commercially and reflect a broad interest in diverse food genres. These grains are frequently cultivated in home, allotment, and community gardens, often connected to the ethnic ancestry of the growers.
DIYCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceProduction for consumption: Prosumer, citizen‐consumer, and ethical consumption in a postgrowth context
2018Elisabeth Kosnik · Economic Anthropology · Europe
This article investigates self-provisioning practices and diverse economies, drawing on ethnographic research of lifestyle subsistence farmers in central Europe and New Zealand. It uses Alvin Toffler's "prosumer" concept to explore the meaning of production for consumption in relation to discourses on ethical consumption, social distinction, and the "citizen-consumer" within a postgrowth society.
DIYCSA & TeikeiCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceEconomicsWie weit reicht die transformative Kraft der urbanen Ernährungsbewegung?
2018Cordula Kropp, Sven Stinner · Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Münster · Germany
The urban food movement aims to bring food production back to cities through initiatives like urban gardening and CSA, creating new economic relationships and sustainable food supply locations. This study explored the motives of founders and participants, examining how projects develop and disseminate innovative practices, participatory organization, and sustainability-oriented models. It found that while the movement generates productive internal tensions for socially just development and innovation-promoting external frictions to existing supply understandings, its penetration of the food system remains limited compared to conventional food trade.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justiceEconomicsPolicyパリと東京の都市の路上で共通。芸術、音楽、都市ガーデニングを通じて通りを充当 (Commonality on the urban street in Paris and Tokyo. Appropriating the street through arts, music and urban gardening)
2018Monika Salzbrunn · IRIS · France (Paris)
This study analyzed street phenomena in the Belleville district of Paris, demonstrating how artistic engagement and the use and occupation of land through urban gardening create commonality. This movement achieved a political victory by preserving 19th-century workers' homes and transforming private into public space. Similar commonality and resistance against the privatization of public space are observed in Tokyo through arts and urban gardening.
CommunityPolicyFood sovereignty & justiceLondon’s Urban Agriculture: Building Community through Social Innovation
2018Les Levidow · AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA) · United Kingdom (London)
This research examines the role of 'community' in London's food initiatives and how it stimulates congenial activities through social innovation. These initiatives involve forms of social innovation such as enhancing socio-political capabilities, fulfilling unsatisfied needs, and redefining societal problems. London's food initiatives face challenges in combining these diverse aims and activities.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justicePolicyWelfareThe Challenges of Governing Urban Food Production across Four European City‐Regions: Identity, Sustainability and Governance
2018Matthew Reed, Evy Mettepenningen, Paul Swagemakers, M.D. Domínguez García, Ingrid Jahrl, Marlinde Koopmans · Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems · Europe
This paper examined urban food governance in four European city-regions: Bristol (UK), Ghent (Belgium), Vigo (Spain), and Zurich (Switzerland). The case studies demonstrated the role of citizens in urban food and the challenges this presents to city-region governance. Urban food activists, through horizontal networking and clear communication of demands, have raised significant questions about how cities are governed.
Governance failurePolicyCommunityFood sovereignty & justicePlacemaking and urban gardening: Himmelbeet case study in Berlin
2018Toni Karge · Journal of Place Management and Development · Germany (Berlin)
This participatory action research examines the Himmelbeet urban community garden in Berlin from an urban planning perspective, using placemaking principles for ex-post analysis. The study found that the garden functions as a placemaking scheme, despite not being planned with placemaking instruments. Its process demonstrates strategies to address exclusion, disinvestment, and depoliticization of public spaces, showcasing the potential of citizen-controlled placemaking.
CommunityPolicyFood sovereignty & justiceProtection of a place?
2018Birgit Peuker · · Germany
This chapter discusses whether community supported agriculture (CSA) constitutes a real alternative to the conventional food system. From the perspective of social movement research, CSA is viewed not as a niche that will replace the agri-food system in the future, but rather as a space for learning and expressing sustainability. The analysis is based on experiences with CSA in Germany and includes comparisons with developments in other European countries.
CSA & TeikeiFood sovereignty & justiceCommunityEconomicsBeyond the market—New practices of supply in times of crisis: The example community‐supported agriculture
2017Birgit Blättel‐Mink, Moritz Boddenberg, Lenard Gunkel, Sarah Schmitz, Franziska Vaessen · International Journal of Consumer Studies · Germany
This study analyzed Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) in Germany, applying the concept of social innovation. It conducted a standardized survey, semi-structured interviews, and discourse analysis, identifying the crisis discourses to which CSA reacts and the motivations of its members. While CSA exhibits innovative facets such as solidarity, de-commodification, and prosuming, it is not a homogeneous phenomenon, differentiating into sociopolitical, spiritual-communal, and pragmatic-economic types that vary in their expression of social innovation and attitudes towards crises.
CSA & TeikeiCommunityEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceContributions of Social Currencies to Alternative Short Food Supply Chains
2017Ana María Rivero Santos · Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems · Spain (Asturias)
This research aims to identify the contributions of social currencies to creating short food supply chains. A case study of RASTRU's consumption groups and community supported agriculture (CSA) in Asturias, northwest Spain, and its social currency "Copin," was presented. Through surveys and participant observation, it was evidenced how social currencies generate proximity and trust-based relations between consumers and producers, based on inclusion and fair access to food for people.
CSA & TeikeiCommunityEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceGoverning the peri-urban agricultural territory. Opportunities and obstacles of integration between spatial planning and the Common Agricultural Policy
2017Annalisa Lodigiani · · Europe
This research addresses the ineffective governance of peri-urban agricultural territory in Europe, noting that spatial planning lacks the tools to guide agricultural sector forces influencing landscape transformation. Public action, through agricultural and rural development policies, significantly transforms the environment and territory but does not directly target space. The study finds that the separation between spatial planning and rural development policy creates ineffectiveness and stalemates in governing peri-urban agricultural land, concluding that integration of these two fields is required.
Governance failurePeri-urban agriculturePolicyFood sovereignty & justice8,000 Landlords, 1 Farm: The Individual and Societal Benefits of Community-Owned Farms
2017Grant J. Bosworth, John Hegarty · Ecopsychology · United Kingdom
This study reviewed the opinions of 419 supporters of a crowd-funded Community-Owned Farm (COF) in the English Midlands, 10 years after its inception. Findings indicated many long-term benefits for supporters, including feelings of empowerment and a sense of belonging to a wider community. The study also offered reasons for optimism regarding wider societal benefits, such as supporters initiating or increasing their involvement with other similar organizations and becoming more locally involved in their own community due to their COF involvement.
CommunityEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceAgriculture urbaine, agriculture locale, et nouveaux systèmes alimentaires territoriaux.
2017Elsa Perroit · · France
This article reflects on the French agricultural model and the absence of urban agriculture from the "Etats généraux de l’Alimentation" (General Assembly on Food). Despite its multifaceted nature and role in urban food security, urban agriculture was relegated to a non-productive status, with its food functions disregarded. The article concludes that while urban agriculture possesses many qualities, it is not and will not be sufficient to feed urban areas.
Governance failureFood sovereignty & justicePolicyReappropriating urban green spaces and urban food production
2017Judith Schicklinski · · Europe
This chapter discusses the reasons behind the re-appropriation of public space and its relation to urban food production. The commodification and privatization of public spaces are considered a spatial structure that transforms spaces into strategic resources. The urban gardening movement in European cities has drawn attention to using common green spaces for urban food production.
CommunityPolicyUrban–rural linkageFood sovereignty & justiceThe role of interdisciplinarity in evaluating the sustainability of urban rooftop agriculture
2017Esther Sanyé‐Mengual, Jordi Oliver‐Solà, J.I. Montero, Joan Rieradevall · Kobra (Universitätsbibliothek Kassel) · Europe
This paper presents an interdisciplinary scheme to evaluate the sustainability of urban rooftop agriculture (URA), investigating its quantitative and qualitative potential, and environmental and economic impacts. Using Barcelona, Spain, and Bologna, Italy, as case studies, four interdisciplinary methods were combined: qualitative research, geographic information systems (GIS), life cycle assessment (LCA), and life cycle costing (LCC). Results indicate that a combined GIS-LCA tool is useful for evaluating URA implementation and its environmental benefits at the city scale, with soil cultivation using compost in open-air rooftop gardens being the most eco-efficient option.
CommunityEconomicsClimate changeFood sovereignty & justiceStatus and possibilities of the development of Community Supported Agriculture in Poland as an example of short food supply chain
2017Marta Sylla, Julia Olszewska, Małgorzata Świąder · Journal of Agribusiness and Rural Development · Poland
This article analyzes the current state of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in Poland, focusing on farm characteristics, spatial distribution of producers and consumers, and operational principles of CSA groups. Based on survey data from telephone interviews, the analysis indicates a rapid increase in CSA groups, which primarily operate in large cities. A common operational principle is that consumers prepay for organic, high-quality produce at the beginning of the growing season.
CSA & TeikeiCommunityEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceUndergraduate Student Research Opportunities and Economic Revitalization through Urban Agriculture Initiatives
2017Michael Schläppi · Metropolitan Universities · United States (Milwaukee)
This paper discusses the Sustainable Research and Economic Development model, which involves undergraduate students in interdisciplinary community-based research. Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, supports community efforts to bring healthy food to urban environments through interactions with the Cooperative of the Institute of Urban Agriculture and Nutrition (CIUAN). The model explores pathways for urban agriculture and urban farmers' markets to convert blighted properties into productive spaces as part of metropolitan economic development.
CommunityEconomicsFood educationFood sovereignty & justiceCuatro iniciativas de agricultura en la ciudad frente a la banalización del paisaje histórico urbano | Four urban agriculture initiatives against the banalization of urban historical landscape
2017David Arredondo Garrido · ZARCH · Spain
This study analyzed four urban agriculture and gardening initiatives in the city centers of Seville, Barcelona, Madrid, and Zaragoza, Spain, over the last decade. These projects aimed to counteract the homogenization of urban historical landscapes and create spaces for culture and social interaction. Despite difficulties in their management and their minor impact, these interventions demonstrated a method for reconfiguring urban landscapes in abandoned central areas.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyFood sovereignty & justiceUnderstanding the organization of sharing economy in agri-food systems: evidence from alternative food networks in Valencia
2017Isabel Miralles, Domenico Dentoni, Stefano Pascucci · Agriculture and Human Values · Spain (Valencia)
This study investigated the organization of sharing economy initiatives in agri-food systems by conducting a comparative case study across 18 alternative food networks (AFNs) in Valencia. It compared AFN organization in terms of leadership, bureaucracy, shared resources, and participants’ engagement, identifying five sharing economy models: consumer groups, commercial community gardens, and network-based, privately owned, and publicly owned self-consumption community gardens. These models displayed notable differences in their origins, participants’ goals, and constraints.
CommunityEconomicsFood sovereignty & justicePeri-Urban Food Production and Its Relation to Urban Resilience
2016Eva Olsson, Eva Kerselaers, Lone Søderkvist Kristensen, Jørgen Primdahl, Elke Rogge, Anders Wästfelt · Sustainability · Europe
A study focusing on peri-urban land in Gothenburg (Sweden), Copenhagen (Denmark), and Gent (Belgium) analyzed the relationship between peri-urban food production and urban resilience. It found that arable farming has declined in all three areas since 2000 due to urban expansion and recreational land use changes. While policies for farmland preservation exist, strategies for local food production are not expressed in current planning documents, and competing land uses and high dependence on global food systems reduce peri-urban food production and improvements in urban food security.
Governance failurePeri-urban agriculturePolicyUrban–rural linkageFood sovereignty & justiceRadical Urban Horticulture for Food Autonomy: Beyond the Community Gardens Experience
2016Pierpaolo Mudu, Alessia Marini · Antipode · Italy
In Italy, the occupation of abandoned urban spaces for "orti urbani" (urban gardens) has increased within the squatting movement over the last 10 years. The city of Rome shows widespread activity in organizing self-managed spaces for growing fruits and vegetables. These initiatives support food autonomous configurations and represent a strategy to re-appropriate and commune urban space.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justicePolicyDIYContesting Neoliberal Urbanism in Glasgow's Community Gardens: The Practice of DIY Citizenship
2016John Crossan, Andrew Cumbers, Robert McMaster, Deirdre Shaw · Antipode · United Kingdom (Glasgow)
This paper examines community gardens in Glasgow, acknowledging their vulnerability to neoliberal cooptation where citizen work may alleviate state service provision. However, it argues that even with neoliberal practices, these gardens cultivate collective practices that suggest a progressively transformative polity. This form of citizen participation, termed "Do-It-Yourself" (DIY) Citizenship, encourages reconsideration of relationships and effective political practice.
Governance failureCommunityDIYPolicyFood sovereignty & justiceTowards Regenerated and Productive Vacant Areas through Urban Horticulture: Lessons from Bologna, Italy
2016Daniela Gasperi, Giuseppina Pennisi, Niccolò Rizzati, F. Magrefi, Giovanni Giorgio Bazzocchi, Umberto Mezzacapo, Monique Centrone Stefani, Esther Sanyé‐Mengual, Francesco Orsini, Giorgio Gianquinto · Sustainability · Italy (Bologna)
This paper analyzed current practices in the requalification of vacant areas as urban gardens in Bologna, Italy, using six case studies across four types of vacant areas. For most cases, urban horticulture improved the image and quality of the areas and provided social benefits like improved life quality, food access, and social interaction. Strong differences were found between top-down and bottom-up initiatives, with bottom-up approaches being preferable for citizen engagement.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justiceEconomicsPolicyDIYPolitics of grassroots innovations
2016Mari Martiskainen, Eva Heiskanen · INDIGO (University of Illinois at Chicago) · United Kingdom
This article examines grassroots innovations, such as community energy projects and community gardens, as forms of political engagement. It argues that while contemporary grassroots innovations may appear less explicitly political than their 1970s predecessors, they still represent political participation. Using UK community energy initiatives as an example, the paper asserts that these projects possess political dimensions extending beyond their immediate communities, fostering political engagement whether intentionally or not.
CommunityPolicyFood sovereignty & justiceHarvest to harvest
2016Rosanne Wielemaker, Jan Weijma, G. Zeeman · Resources Conservation and Recycling · Netherlands (Rotterdam)
This paper assesses the match between supply from New Sanitation (NS) systems and demand from Urban Agriculture (UA) for nitrogen, phosphorus, and organic matter in Rotterdam. Using the Urban Harvest Approach, the research found that UA's demand for nutrients and organic matter can be minimized by 65–85%, achieving 100% self-sufficiency for phosphorus and partial self-sufficiency for nitrogen and organic matter. The integration of NS and UA maximizes urban self-sufficiency.
Organic cycleCompostClimate changeFood sovereignty & justice