Research & reports

Salvatore Pinna · Kobra (Universitätsbibliothek Kassel) · Spain

This study examines a municipal rural park in the Madrid region, Spain, established to promote local and seasonal produce, and analyzes its role in agricultural landscape enhancement using in-depth interviews and website analysis. Drawing on the European Landscape Convention's definition of landscape, it shows how spatial, ecological, and social outputs of farmer-led multifunctional and peri-urban agriculture interact with the park's management framework. The results are discussed in relation to Spanish environmental and landscape law, particularly regarding the connection between food, territory, and traditional landscape.

Katharina Witterhold · · Germany

A book chapter drawing on the empirical study "Consumer Netizens," carried out at the University of Siegen, Germany, between October 2011 and August 2015. It examined the shift toward lifestyle-related forms of political participation, showing that everyday food consumption practices in the private sphere are directly interwoven with (semi-)public social media practices addressing political concerns and self-identity. It argues that "food activism" becomes a strong symbol for other political issues, serving as a starting point for social movements as varied as the Slow Food Movement, Fair Trade, and Community Supported Agriculture.

Antoni F. Tulla i Pujol, Ana Vera, Natàlia Valldeperas, Carles Guirado González · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Spain

This study examines Social Farming (SF), using local agricultural and natural resources to promote health, employment and empowerment among groups at risk of exclusion, including people with disabilities, those in poverty, with dependencies, in the penitentiary system, survivors of gender violence, older people, at-risk youth, immigrants and homeless people, as a sustainable alternative to urban agriculture around Barcelona. Amid conflict over land demand for housing, infrastructure and facilities in Barcelona's peri-urban areas, protected agricultural land (agricultural parks) and natural parks have facilitated SF projects linked to social movements and the Third Sector; the study built a database of 161 SF projects in Catalonia and used quantitative and qualitative methods, including the CANVAS method for structural and economic viability and the SROI method for social return on investment.

Eva 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.

Pierpaolo 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.

John 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.

Daniela 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.

Mari 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.

Rosanne 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.

Madeleine A. Guerlain, Catherine Campbell · Journal of Social and Political Psychology · United Kingdom (East London)

This qualitative research explored the impact of community gardens on the psycho-social well-being of marginalized groups in East London, UK, and their role in prefigurative social change. Through interviews, Photovoice, and participant observation with 28 gardeners from four groups, findings suggest that participation is driven by the shared practice of gardening, leading to unintended benefits addressing personal adversities. Community gardens create "health-enabling social spaces" and offer an alternative understanding of prefiguration based on participants' lived experiences.

Jesús Viçens · Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks · Spain (Barcelona)

This chapter investigated which social actions in modern urban neighborhoods aid the transition to a post-carbon society and mitigate global warming effects, examining a neighborhood in Barcelona. Data was collected through eight semi-structured interviews (averaging 70 minutes), and Nonaka and Takeuchi's (1995) knowledge creation model was used for analysis. The study is based on the capacity of communities to support innovative social actions through experiential knowledge creation.

José Antônio Segrelles Serrano · Revistes Científiques de la University of Barcelona (University of Barcelona) · Spain

This study discusses peri-urban agriculture, Agricultural Natural Parks, and local markets in Spain as a response to the subordination of rural areas to urban expansion. Peri-urban areas suffer negative impacts from urban functions, marginalizing family farming, yet peri-urban agriculture generates valuable environmental and cultural heritage. Agricultural Natural Parks are presented as a means to ensure sustainable agricultural activity and promote efficient, profitable farming with high added value in these areas, supporting local and seasonal food consumption and increased food security.

Katharina Nowak · Freiburger Geschlechterstudien/Freiburger Zeitschrift für Geschlechterstudien · United Kingdom (London)

This paper explores participation in London's local organic food network, Organiclea, examining how whiteness and coloniality influence engagement in food activism. Using inductive interviews and intersectionality, the study found disproportionate participation of diaspora subjects in the design and operation of local organic food practices. This highlights racialized ecological identity formation within such networks.

Rosie Cox, Moya Kneafsey, Lewis Holloway, Elizabeth Dowler, Laura Venn · · United Kingdom

This chapter introduces the concept of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and positions it within the literature on local food, moral economies, and ethics of care. Using the case of EarthShare, the longest-running CSA in Britain, founded in Forres, Scotland in 1994, it argues that by exposing differences in members' priorities, local food systems can be seen as sites of political potential despite not being perfect or free from conflict. CSAs are presented as offering opportunities to strengthen place-based community relationships between growers and eaters, characterized as a form of caring practice in food production and consumption.

Andrew E. G. Jonas · · United Kingdom

This chapter explores the notion of "the alternative" as relatively unexamined. Empirical work over three years involved six food businesses and initiatives facilitating direct contact between producers and consumers. Earth Share Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in Nairn, North East Scotland, provides vegetables to approximately 200 households weekly. The chapter suggests that diversity within the "alternative" food sector is not necessarily problematic, and consumers' contingent, accidental, and partial commitment has not undermined the success of these schemes.

Darya Hirsch, Christian H. Meyer, Johannes Klement, Martin Hamer, Wiltrud Terlau, Hirsch, Darya, Meyer, Christian, Klement, Johannes, Hamer, Martin, Terlau, Wiltrud · Publication Server of Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences (Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences) · Germany

This paper presents an empirical case study on Urban AgriCulture initiatives in the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg region of Germany. It states that Urban AgriCulture is a niche movement with the potential to contribute significantly to urban development and constitute a pillar of urban quality of life.

Charlotte Prové, Joost Dessein, Michiel De Krom · Ghent University Academic Bibliography (Ghent University) · Belgium; Poland

A study evaluating urban agriculture in Belgium and Poland argues that current governance approaches fail to reflect the importance of local context. The authors found that considering city-specific factors is crucial for urban agriculture to reach its full potential. They recommend a broader policymaking strategy that acknowledges benefits beyond food production.

Rosanne Wielemaker, Jan Weijma, G. Zeeman · Resources Conservation and Recycling · Netherlands

A study on Rotterdam, the Netherlands, assessed how source-separation-based New Sanitation (NS) systems could match the supply of nitrogen, phosphorus, and organic matter with demand from Urban Agriculture (UA), premised on the view that sustaining cities long-term requires a circular metabolism where the output ('waste') of one urban process becomes input for another. Applying the Urban Harvest Approach, originally developed for the urban water cycle, to nitrogen, phosphorus, and organic matter across two UA typologies (ground-based and rooftop) and four NS concepts treating domestic urine, feces, and organic kitchen waste, the study found that UA's demand for nutrients and organic matter could be reduced by 65-85%, with full (100%) self-sufficiency achievable for phosphorus, while nitrogen and organic matter would reach only partial self-sufficiency.

Silke Ötsch · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Europe

Working from the premise that the "static-hedonic" economic ideal type — historically cast in a negative light against Joseph Schumpeter's ideal of the entrepreneur — is being positively reframed within the degrowth-critical movement and in writing on urban gardening, an essay examines the conceptions of life and economic activity held by people involved in the degrowth-oriented Transition movement, based on qualitative, problem-centered interviews. It poses the question of whether the figure of the gardener (Gärtner/Gärtnerin) embodies a new guiding model (Leitbild) of economic activity that could replace the entrepreneur.

Matthew Thompson · Antipode · United Kingdom (Liverpool)

This paper explores the community land trust (CLT) model as an institutional solution to urban decline, focusing on a case study in Granby, Liverpool, England. The Granby CLT campaign aims to collectively acquire empty homes, with guerrilla gardening playing a role in gaining political trust and financial support. The study discusses the CLT model's potential for democratic stewardship and the contradictions that may undermine its political legitimacy.

Marta Camps‐Calvet, Johannes Langemeyer, Laura Calvet‐Mir, Erik Gómez‐Baggethun, Hug March · Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) · Spain (Barcelona)

This research examined the role of urban gardens in building community resilience and articulating resistance in Barcelona, Spain, based on data from 27 urban gardening initiatives (13 self-governed, 14 public). Results showed that urban gardens contribute to resilience by fostering social and ecological diversity, transmitting local ecological knowledge, and creating opportunities for collective action and self-organization.

Flor Ccorahua balboa, Sylvie Clarimont · · Spain

This abstract discusses the re-evaluation of nature's role in and around cities, driven by global sustainable development challenges like environmental preservation and food security. It notes that agriculture is increasingly used to reconcile urban and natural spaces due to its recognized multifunctional character. The emergence of new agricultural spaces in intra-urban and peri-urban areas of major cities in both developed and developing countries reflects a shift in local policies towards integrating cities with nature.

M. Antonio Zárate Martín · Anales de Geografía de la Universidad Complutense · Spain (Madrid)

This paper is based on investigations for urban greenspace planning and the opportunities of urban agriculture for feeding a growing population. It also results from urban environmental improvement activities conducted with the School of Engineer Agronomists of the Polytechnic University of Madrid. Through urban agriculture cases, the paper analyzes alternatives for recovering constructed spaces and increasing inhabitants' quality of life.

· REGAC - Revista de Estudios Globales y Arte Contempor�neo · Spain (Valencia)

This paper maps collective initiatives in Valencia, Spain, that emerged in response to inadequate national and local cultural policies. These initiatives, including urban orchards, acted as resistance to institutional policies or appropriated spaces due to a lack of public institutional interest. They function as urban experimentation laboratories for social and cultural transformation, forming a dense local network.

Alan Hallsworth, Alfred Wong · International journal on food system dynamics · United Kingdom (Portsmouth)

This empirical case study examined the potential for urban gardening to contribute to individual food security. Focusing on Portsmouth, England, the study found that prevailing economic and social structures hamper the likelihood that urban gardening can offer much greater food security. Realistically, contemporary urban gardening most closely resembles a middle-class pursuit for personal enjoyment, rather than a significant contributor to food security.