Research & reports

de Cárdenas Maestre I. · Cuaderno de Notas, no. 12, 119-134 · Germany

A Spanish-language study of Migge's 1919 'Green Manifesto', examining his utopian call for self-sufficiency and self-governance through small, interconnected rural-urban groups he termed Stadtland or Landstadt.

Coley, D., Howard, M., Winter, M. · Food Policy 34(2), 150–155 · United Kingdom

Compares farm-shop and mass-distribution approaches, showing that if a consumer drives more than 6.7 km one way, even local produce can emit more carbon than mass distribution—a classic paper opening the debate that 'local food is not automatically sustainable'.

Cezary Kabała, T. Chodak, L. Szerszeń, Anna Karczewska, Katarzyna Szopka, Urszula Fratczak · Fresenius environmental bulletin · Poland (Wroclaw)

An analysis of 180 allotment garden soils in Wroclaw, Poland, found that concentrations of Cu, Pb, and Zn (12.5-659 mg Pb kg-1, 38.1-2103 mg Zn kg-1, 12.9-595 mg Cu kg-1) were influenced by industrial pollution sources, organic matter, pH, and macronutrients. Soils in gardens on former housing or industrial areas had significantly higher metal concentrations. Up to 35% of soils in the city zone were excessively contaminated, making them unsuitable for vegetable and fruit production and requiring reclamation.

Maria Gabriella Errico · · Europe

This study analyzed theories and concepts intertwining human activity with economic, social, scientific, and political aspects, driven by interest in solutions for maintaining agricultural landscapes in peri-urban areas. It investigated the landscape characteristics of territories between city and countryside that retain cultural historical signs. By synthesizing key challenges of peri-urban areas, the research aimed to identify design strategies for active conservation and transformation through agricultural park projects. The study proceeded to recognize the characteristics and critical issues of the peri-urban agricultural landscape.

· Engineering & Technology · United Kingdom (London)

This article describes the historical landscape of the 2012 London Olympic Park site, a 321-hectare brownfield in the Lea Valley. Archaeological findings by the Museum of London indicate human presence from the Mesolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Roman periods, with evidence of dwellings, skeletons, and a Roman coin. The site hosted textile printing in the 17th century, followed by petrol factories, bone, varnish, soap, and tallow works, distilleries, engineering, and chemical plants, and was used for landfill from the late 19th century. It also had strong electronic associations, with the development of the first diode valve in 1904 and the establishment of Britain's first radio valve factory in 1916 and first television tube factory in 1936.

C. Colliot, J.M. Bertrand · HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) · France

This paper discusses how peri-urban agriculture is influenced by urban sprawl, noting that common tools like SCoT and PLU are insufficient for rural extension services in this context. Based on examples from the Provence-Alpes Côtes d’Azur region and a CASDAR project, it proposes a future network to renew competencies of rural advisors. The objective is to foster fruitful relationships with city extension services.

홍석기 · 정책리포트 · France (Paris)

The "Le Grand Paris Project" proposes a major reform of Paris to transform it into a sustainable and globally competitive city for the 21st century. Proposed plans, to be implemented from 2020 to 2030, include physical spatial expansion beyond current boundaries, establishment of new governance for geographical and sociocultural integration, and a shift from a single-core radial to a multi-core linear urban structure. The project also suggests urban agriculture, agro-cities, and green car activation to improve the urban environment in line with the Kyoto Protocol.

Robert Rogerson, Sue Sadler · Strathprints: The University of Strathclyde institutional repository (University of Strathclyde) · United Kingdom

This case study, prepared by BRASS (Centre for Business Relationships Accountability, Sustainability & Society), is part of an HCA/ESRC funded research project. The project investigated skills and knowledge applied in sustainability initiatives related to housing, land, food, and transport.

Hubert Więckowski · Jagiellonian University Repository (Jagiellonian University) · Germany (Berlin)

This article describes the 8th edition of the Synaxis Baltica Summer Academy, organized in Potsdam and Berlin, Germany. It presents the significant aims of the Synaxis Baltica Summer Academy, established in 2002, and briefly describes the main topics of the 8th academy, which included community gardens and guerilla gardening. Information about lectures, experts, and participants' tasks and obligations is also provided.

AÇIKSÖZ Sebahat · Tarım Bilimleri Dergisi · Turkey (Bartın)

This study investigated whether urban agriculture activities in Bartın, Turkey, could be organized as a cluster according to Cluster Growth Theory, and examined its cluster characteristics as part of the TR-26 Bartın Regional Development Project. While urban agriculture in Bartın was identified as having cluster characteristics and growth potential, the study found that a fundamental problem for its future development is weak coordination and cooperation among stakeholders. It proposes a model for urban agriculture activities for a "Bartın Urban Initiative" at the city level.

Lucette Laurens · Journal for Geography · France

This inquiry examines peri-urban agricultural spaces in Languedoc-Roussillon and the Montpellier agglomeration, France, which are characterized by a decline in agricultural activities and abandonment. These spaces are confronted with new, uncertain, and innovative dynamics, appearing as multifunctional spaces that need to be re-invented. The study highlights the paradox of these areas caught between appropriation for different uses and agricultural decline.

C. Liesegang · · Europe

An empirical, cross-context study of community engagement in public urban space examined community garden projects in Berlin, Germany, and Rotterdam, the Netherlands, as case studies. These projects — which typically upgrade empty, abandoned land into public or semi-public urban space and community access to nature — were studied to understand why people get involved in collective projects in public space, focusing on social and place-bound processes, with a central research question of which social processes and project features lead organizers, participants, and neighbors to understand community gardens as fostering place-making and social connectedness. The two case studies were selected as legally or formally recognized grassroots, self-organized initiatives combining individual and mainly collective gardening activities with semi-public or public access, and were analyzed for place characteristics, social and organizational features, partnerships with public institutions, degree of public accessibility, and collective versus individual gardening.

E. Peduto, D. Satdinova · · United Kingdom

The available abstract is fragmentary and cuts off mid-sentence, but it states that some areas of London have already advanced considerably under the "Capital Growth" initiative launched in November 2008. That initiative is described as aiming to turn 2,012 pieces of land into green spaces for growing food, though the abstract breaks off before providing further study details or findings.

Laura Terragni, Hanne Torjusen, Gunnar Vittersø · Anthropology of food · Europe

Drawing on studies conducted over the past 15 years at the Norwegian National Institute for Consumer Research (SIFO), this article analyzes alternative food consumption in Norway centered on organic food. Tracing the organic movement from its origins, it shows organic products have gained a notable position within the conventional market even as they face conventionalization, while other alternative initiatives are emerging, including fair trade, farmers' markets, farm food outlets, box schemes, and community supported agriculture (CSA). It argues the consumer's role must be understood contextually, and that products consumers identify as "alternative" are those that, in a given time and place, are socially constructed to best reflect alternative values.

Rosie Cox, Lewis Holloway, Laura Venn, Liz Dowler, Jane Ricketts Hein, Moya Kneafsey, Helena Tuomainen · Local Environment · United Kingdom

This paper examines the motivations of producers and consumers participating in a community-supported agriculture (CSA) project in Scotland. It reveals the diverse motivations and philosophies consumers bring to the scheme, contrasting them with the organizers' stated aims. The study argues that effective communication within direct marketing schemes is important for fostering long-term commitment between producers and consumers, and for encouraging consumers to consider broader behavioral changes.

Zoia Komirenko, D.M. Hoermann, Komirenko, Z., Hoermann, D.M. · AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA) · Ukraine (Kyiv)

This study surveyed 240 Kyiv households with urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) in 2005 using a standardized questionnaire. Data collected covered production, inputs, sales, and the importance of plots for self-sufficiency, recreation, and leisure. Cluster analysis identified four groups of UPA users, revealing that the importance of UPA shifts from livelihood necessity to recreational resource, or combines both, depending on the plot type.

Melanie Dana Nakaue · The Brock Review · Europe

This article investigates the use and representation of the garden in contemporary art by applying Michel Foucault's concept of heterotopia. Stan Douglas reconstructs early 19th-century Northern European community gardens in his work "Der Sandman," while Hew Locke recontextualizes the garden as a site of postcolonial experience with his assemblage topiary sculpture "Black Queen." Through this analysis, the article aims to illuminate the connection between site and subjectivity and the multiplicity of meaning resulting from the garden as a quintessential site of postmodern experience.

Sara Strajnar · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Europe

An abstract from a graduation thesis (2008, Europe) on two types of "small-scale agriculture" in water-protected areas in and around Ljubljana, Slovenia — allotment gardens and private vegetable gardens — states that these gardens matter for environmental protection because of their production intensity and large number of gardeners. The author investigated gardening habits in detail, combining field-work data with numerous measurements of phytopharmaceutical (pesticide) products and nutrients in soil and vegetables.

European Commission · European Commission — Directorate-General for Environment · Europe

This European Commission page on the Waste Framework Directive states the directive entered into force on 12 December 2008. It notes the EU generates around 2.5 billion tonnes of waste per year (roughly 5 tonnes per person annually). An amended version, effective 16 October 2025, includes food-waste reduction targets.

Haney D. H. · Landscape Journal, 26(2), 201-218 · Germany

Analyzes Migge's 1919 'Green Manifesto', one of the most overtly political tracts by a landscape architect, proposing that intensive vegetable gardens for everyone could solve Germany's social and economic problems through a technologically modern synthesis of garden and dwelling.

Lindsey Cox · SecEd · United Kingdom

This article by Lindsey Cox examines how school gardens can contribute to pupils' engagement with healthy eating. It suggests that learning about the origin of food through school gardens is important for fostering healthy eating habits among students.

Nadine Holdsworth · Research in Drama Education The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance · United Kingdom

This article examines Joan Littlewood's cultural innovations beyond traditional theatre, focusing on her local projects in the 1960s that promoted cultural democracy and active citizenship. During redevelopment around Theatre Royal, Stratford East, Littlewood transformed discarded spaces into temporary structures, playgrounds, mini inner-city farms, and planting schemes. These activities emphasized children's access to cultural activity, social encounter, and creative play, and explored their interaction in the public realm and responsibility for animating spaces.

Mark Stenton · Archaeology Data Service · United Kingdom (Sheffield)

A desk-based assessment of land at Garden Street and Broad Lane, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, conducted in July 2007, involved a site visit and documentary research. The site, undeveloped prior to 1736, contained allotment gardens by 1779 and was developed with housing, retail, and industrial premises by the mid-19th century. These 19th-century structures were demolished in 1935 and replaced by current buildings. The assessment notes uncertainty regarding the presence of cellarage in earlier buildings and the impact of 20th-century construction on potential sub-surface archaeological deposits.

Mark Stenton · Archaeology Data Service · United Kingdom (Sheffield)

This desk-based archaeological assessment of Hanover Works in Sheffield, UK, conducted in July 2007, involved a site visit and documentary research. The area was likely agricultural in the medieval period, becoming small plots by the early 17th century, and developed industrially from the early 19th century. The assessment suggests that 19th-century subsurface archaeological features may remain beneath present-day structures, though their condition is undetermined.

Mark Stenton · Archaeology Data Service · United Kingdom (South Yorkshire)

In October 2007, ARCUS conducted a desk-based assessment of land at Bankwood Lane, New Rossington, South Yorkshire (SK 60828 98613), which included a site visit, documentary, and cartographic research. The site is located in an area of key significance for the Iron Age and Romano-British periods and was parkland or pasture within the Rossington Hall estate between approximately 1220 and 1938. Substantial ground disturbance was unlikely during this period or subsequent post-war development, as the site contained allotment gardens and a factory unit without basement levels.