Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
2091 results(53 / 84)
Sustainability as a motive for leisure-time gardening: a view from the ‘veggie patch’
2018Shelley Burgin · International Journal of Environmental Studies · Global
This paper reports a desktop survey investigating the drivers of sustainability that motivate leisure-time gardening in private (backyard) and public (community) gardens, against a background of limited understanding of sustainability at the individual level. The survey found little mention of the "three pillars" of sustainability, and they were seldom interlinked. The study suggests the necessity to raise awareness of sustainability in an individual’s everyday leisure activities.
CommunityDIYClimate changeFood educationContribuição da horta comunitária para alimentação saudável dos agricultores e suas famílias
2018Natália Peres Almeida · · Global
This research aimed to identify the contribution of community gardens to healthy food for farmers and their families, with objectives of Food and Nutrition Security, Human Right to Adequate Food, and Food Sovereignty. Interviews were conducted with the president and farmers in the community garden, randomly addressed during their activities. It was concluded that the community garden significantly contributed to the healthy eating of farmers and their families through the production of in natura food of vegetal origin, of sufficient quality and quantity.
CommunityHealthFood sovereignty & justiceBiodiversityUrban landscapes and public health
2018Timothy Beatley, Cecil Konijnendijk van den Bosch · Oxford University Press eBooks · Global
This chapter examines the role of urban landscapes in public health, addressing environmental health concerns arising from urbanization, such as physical inactivity. It promotes a socioecological approach, providing examples of how urban landscapes, including urban agriculture and community gardening, contribute to improved public health. The chapter introduces concepts like green urbanism and biophilic urbanism, offering suggestions for planning health-promoting urban landscapes.
HealthCommunityPolicyReviewing University Community Gardens for Sustainability: taking stock, comparisons with urban community gardens and mapping research opportunities
2018Rebecca Laycock Pedersen, Zoë Robinson · Local Environment · Global
This paper systematically reviewed literature on University Community Gardens for Sustainability (UCGS) to suggest directions for future research. UCGS face challenges with transient and inexperienced student gardeners but have the potential for a lasting impact on young people's food behaviors. The literature shows that UCGS have similar benefits to urban community gardens, with a greater emphasis on educational and environmental sustainability benefits.
CommunityFood educationClimate changeCommunity gardens as multipurpose, technological systems
2018David Hallberg · Journal of Sociology and Social Anthropology · Global
This paper introduces community gardens as multipurpose, technological systems with dynamic boundaries. It also aims to revise the notions of food security and health in relation to these systems.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justiceHealthRaising the standard: Developing a benchmark for green infrastructure
2018Danielle Sinnett, Gemma Jerome, Nick Smith, Sarah Burgess, Roger Mortlock · International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning · Global
This paper presents an emerging benchmark for green infrastructure (GI) developed through literature review and stakeholder engagement, addressing uncertainty in GI design, delivery, and maintenance. The benchmark offers flexible standards for assessing GI policy, planning, design, delivery, and long-term management across various spatial scales. Preliminary testing on two mixed-use developments found the benchmark performed well, rewarding high-quality GI without demanding exemplary levels.
PolicyCommunityBiodiversityClimate changeEdible green infrastructure: An approach and review of provisioning ecosystem services and disservices in urban environments
2017Alessio Russo, Francisco J. Escobedo, Giuseppe T. Cirella, Stefan Zerbe · Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 242, 53-66 · Global
A foundational paper proposing and reviewing the concept of Edible Green Infrastructure (EGI), addressing the neglect of provisioning (food) ecosystem services in green infrastructure planning that has emphasized regulating and cultural services. It frames allotment gardens, rooftop gardens, edible landscapes and urban forests as a multifunctional green network that, with best management practices to minimize disservices, can enhance food security and urban resilience.
BiodiversityEconomicsCommunityOrganic cycleUrban Agriculture as a Productive Green Infrastructure for Environmental and Social Well-Being
2017Brenda B. Lin, Stacy M. Philpott, Shalene Jha, Heidi Liere · Greening Cities (Advances in 21st Century Human Settlements), Springer, 155-179 · Global
A book chapter framing urban agriculture—community farms, rooftop gardens, edible landscaping and urban orchards—as 'productive green infrastructure' supplying high biodiversity and diverse ecosystem services. It synthesizes both ecosystem services (pollination, biological pest control) and social benefits (food and nutrition, cultural and recreational value) that this green infrastructure delivers to cities.
BiodiversityCommunityHealthEconomicsGardening is beneficial for health: A meta-analysis
2017Soga M., Gaston K. J., Yamaura Y. · Preventive Medicine Reports · Global
Meta-analysis demonstrating that gardening yields wide-ranging health benefits, reductions in depression and anxiety and gains in life satisfaction and physical activity, underpinning the health rationale for workplace and community garden programs.
HealthWelfareCommunityUrban Agriculture in the Food-Disabling City: (Re)defining Urban Food Justice, Reimagining a Politics of Empowerment
2017Tornaghi C. · Antipode 49(3):781-801 · Global
Critically theorizes the neoliberal 'food-disabling city' that deprives citizens of food agency, redefining urban food justice and arguing for an urban agriculture politics grounded in empowerment and food sovereignty.
PolicyWelfareCommunityThe Intersection of Planning, Urban Agriculture, and Food Justice: A Review of the Literature
2017Horst M., McClintock N., Hoey L. · Journal of the American Planning Association 83(3):277-295 · Global
Multidisciplinary literature review questioning who benefits and who does not from urban agriculture, suggesting ways urban planners can structure urban agriculture in support of food justice.
PolicyWelfareCommunityUrban Allotment Gardens During Precarious Times: From Motives to Lived Experiences
2017Partalidou M., Anthopoulou T. · Sociologia Ruralis, 57(2), 211–228 · Greece (Thermi, Northern Greece)
Using Maslow's hierarchy of needs and fieldwork in a municipal allotment garden in northern Greece, the study constructs a typology of gardeners and finds that participation evolves from satisfying basic subsistence needs during economic crisis toward self-actualization and placemaking.
CommunityWelfareEconomicsPolicyThe Emergence of Municipal Allotment Gardens in Greece in Times of Crisis: Governance Challenges for New Urban Gardening Practices
2017Anthopoulou T., Nikolaidou S., Partalidou M., Petrou M. · In: Soulard CT., Perrin C., Valette E. (eds) Toward Sustainable Relations Between Agriculture and the City. Springer, Cham, pp. 181–199 · Greece
Drawing on fieldwork at three municipal allotment gardens in Greece, the chapter examines the institutional and political context of their rapid proliferation during the economic crisis and identifies governance challenges facing local authorities and urban gardening communities.
CommunityWelfarePolicyEconomicsUrban Agriculture in the Philippines: Initiatives, Practices, Significance, and Threats
2017Guzman C. · Sustainable Landscape Planning in Selected Urban Regions (Springer, Tokyo) · Philippines (Metro Manila)
This book chapter reviews urban agriculture initiatives, practices, and impacts in the Philippines, using Metro Manila vegetable production and peri-urban jasmine cultivation as case studies. It highlights employment and income benefits while identifying land-use competition and lack of clear policy as major threats to continued urban farming.
PolicyEconomicsCommunityBiodiversityUrban Agriculture in Helsinki, Finland
2017Hagolani-Albov S.E. · Focus on Geography, Vol. 60, No. 1 · Finland (Helsinki)
This photographic study documents four forms of urban agriculture in Helsinki — colony allotments, market gardens, box gardening, and community-supported agriculture — tracing over a century of practice and illustrating how urban farming is spatially and institutionally embedded in the city.
CommunityBiodiversityFood educationThe city as a refuge for insect pollinators
2017Hall D.M., Camilo G.R., Tonietto R.K., Ollerton J., Ahrné K., Arduser M., Ascher J.S., Baldock K.C.R., Fowler R., Frankie G., Goulson D., Gunnarsson B., Hanley M.E., Jackson J.I., Langellotto G., Lowenstein D., Minor E.S., Philpott S.M., Potts S.G., Sirohi M.H., Spevak E.M., Stone G.N., Threlfall C.G. · Conservation Biology, 31(1):24-29 · Global
A review by an international team arguing that, as pollinators decline globally under agricultural intensification and pesticide use, cities can serve as important refuges for insect pollinators including native bees. It highlights the conservation value of designing and managing urban green spaces such as gardens and community plots for pollinators, framing citizen urban agriculture as a contributor to biodiversity conservation.
PollinatorsBiodiversityCommunityPolicyBeyond Inclusion and Exclusion: Community Gardens as Spaces of Responsibility
2017· Annals of the American Association of Geographers · Singapore
Using a Singapore case study, argues that the 'responsibilization' embedded in community gardens invariably produces practices of inclusion and exclusion, reframing gardens as spaces that impose responsibilities and can exclude.
CommunityPolicyGreen Shoots in Vacant Plots? Urban Agriculture and Austerity in Post-Crash Ireland
2017Mary P. Corcoran, Patricia C. Kettle, Cian O'Callaghan · ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies · Ireland (Dublin)
Shows how post-crash austerity governance in Dublin treated urban agriculture on vacant lots as a cheap 'stop-gap' between development booms, entrenching precarity: gardens exist only until land is reactivated for building, exposing the instrumentalization of UA under austerity.
PolicyEconomicsCommunityFood gardens as important elements of urban agriculture: Spatio-developmental trends and future prospects for urban gardening in Czechia
2017Jana Spilková, Jiří Vágner · Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift - Norwegian Journal of Geography · Czechia
This study examined the historical context, current spatial patterns, and recent trends of urban food gardens in Czechia using literature review, geographical mapping, and semi-structured interviews in Prague. It found a strong tradition of urban agriculture, with gardens concentrated in major cities and industrial areas. However, uncertainty regarding land tenure and long-term sustainability were identified as major obstacles for the future of allotment and community gardens.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyUrban–rural linkageContested urban green spaces in the compact city: The (re-)negotiation of urban gardening in Swiss cities
2017Simone Tappert, Tanja Klöti, Matthias Drilling · Landscape and Urban Planning · Switzerland
A qualitative study conducted in the Swiss cities of Basle, Berne, Geneva, and Zurich analyzed the political negotiation processes of urban gardening within the compact city framework. Findings demonstrated that urban growth strategies, aiming for efficient and resource-saving reorganization of urban space, are discursively rationalizing current transformation processes. This has led to traditional forms of urban gardening being closed down, displaced to less significant locations for urban development plans, or spatially and functionally transformed, while new forms of urban gardening are emerging in inner-city areas.
Governance failurePolicyCommunityUrban–rural linkageSmells like politics: planning and the inconvenient politics of intensive peri‐urban agriculture
2017Andrew Butt, Elizabeth Taylor · Geographical Research · Australia (Victoria)
This paper analyzes planning appeals and media from 2011–2016 in Victoria, Australia, regarding intensive poultry developments, revealing tensions between planning processes and local politics. Planning for intensive farming assumes stability and agricultural primacy, but concerns about agricultural industrialization are live local issues in dynamic peri-urban areas. Code-based planning's certainty does not negate the ongoing, inconvenient politics of intensive peri-urban agriculture.
Governance failurePeri-urban agriculturePolicyCommunityThe Importance of Edible Landscape in the Cities
2017Filiz Çelik · Turkish Journal of Agriculture - Food Science and Technology · Global
This study explains the emergence, design, maintenance, and importance of edible landscapes in urban environments. Edible landscaping integrates food plants as design features for both aesthetic value and consumption, aiming to reconnect people with local food systems. It encompasses a variety of garden types and scales but does not include food items produced for sale.
CommunityHealthDIYUrban–rural linkageUrban agriculture
2017Brenda B. Lin, Monika Egerer · · Global
Urban agriculture, the production of food and livestock in urban areas, is a key component of urban green infrastructure, supported for food security and biodiversity enhancement. While habitat management in urban agriculture aids local biodiversity and food production, the effect of native plants on beneficial insects and ecosystem function is debatable. Declines in urban bees are likely linked to increased impervious cover, which reduces habitat and restricts bee movement.
BiodiversityPollinatorsCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceThe Rise of Urban Agriculture
2017James C Padgett · Murray State's Digital Commons (Murray State University) · Global
This paper aimed to highlight the increasing number of communities positively impacted by urban agriculture across the United States, drawing data from case studies in the US and other countries. It argues that urban agriculture is becoming a necessity for cities, offering an opportunity to grow fresh produce locally and address the burdens of current food systems on the environment and economy. While challenges like limited space exist, the paper suggests that underutilized urban spaces can be transformed through urban agriculture.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justiceEconomicsGood gardeners and bad plants: Governing health in community gardens
2017Virginia Webb · New Zealand sociology · New Zealand (Palmerston North)
This research in a Palmerston North, New Zealand community garden examined the struggle over norms and power relations, specifically regarding tobacco cultivation. It found that the garden hierarchy's reluctance to accommodate alternative perspectives on tobacco cultivation revealed a troubling politics of race and class. This reluctance meant the garden's potential to disrupt social hierarchies was unrealized, highlighting how health notions can become a basis for social control.
Equity & displacementCommunityHealthPolicy