Research & reports

Mahir Yazar, Ece Baykal Fide, İrem Daloğlu Çetinkaya · Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning · Turkey

A 2023 study of climate policies in nine cities in Turkey examined how vulnerable groups and individuals are identified and how land-use policy is developed to address the identified vulnerabilities and climate justice concerns, using policy content analysis and expert interviews. The analysis found critical relationships between identified vulnerable groups, responsive land-use policy and climate justice. While social-aid municipalism-related vulnerabilities dominated districts' climate policies, nature-based solutions (NBS) — especially green infrastructure and urban agriculture — emerged as the dominant climate adaptation approach. However, the way urban vulnerabilities are prioritized in the climate and sustainability plans places less emphasis on intersectionality and infrastructure-related vulnerabilities, and tokenism of justice occurs in the policy documents: the plans do not incorporate vulnerable communities into land-use planning. The study concludes that the complexity of responsive land-use policy requires greater awareness of how to practically support vulnerable communities.

Jesús Sanz Abad, Sara Sama Acedo, Gaël Carrero Gros · · Spain

Case studies of two cooperative enterprises (in finance and forestry) and one new urban commons — community gardens in Madrid — all located in Spain, were analyzed using ethnographic methods within the field of solidarity economy and commons. The analysis found tensions between the initiatives' economically and politically "transformative" aspirations and the reality of operating in a market-driven capitalist environment, alliances and tensions arising from interactions with established institutions, and dilemmas or conflicts between maintaining ideological coherence and extending the initiatives' social base.

Noémi Gonda, Péter József Bori · Geoforum · Europe

A study using the case of Hungary examined how agricultural initiatives such as Community Supported Agriculture, permaculture, and small-scale and regenerative farming relate to sustainable rural politics under an authoritarian regime. Based on qualitative interviews conducted in Hungary, it identifies three rural pillars sustaining the Hungarian authoritarian regime — unequal land relations, agricultural subsidies, and agricultural commodity sales — and proposes emancipatory alliances, counter-knowledge claims, and emancipatory subjectivities as potential rural pillars of sustainable democracy in response.

Maria Dankowska · Protection of cultural heritage · Poland

This study examines a design proposal, the Green Ring of Tradition and Culture, for a system of attractive spaces surrounding the city centre of Lodz, Poland, incorporating green areas such as parks and allotment gardens, greenery along the Lodka and Jasien rivers, cemeteries, and post-industrial buildings including factories and owners' villas, with Piotrkowska Street and its adjacent buildings serving as the connecting element. The Green Ring is currently not implemented but is presented as a system of public spaces that could highlight and preserve the city's most valuable cultural and natural heritage elements.

Tainan Messina, Rui Figueira, José M.L. Santos · Ecosystem Services · Europe

A study in intensive farming systems of Central Portugal developed a methodology integrating species, trait and crop data, pest predation indicators and local farmers' expertise to estimate pest consumption by birds. Using point count data and each species' energy requirements and life-cycle characteristics, it estimated birds' daily invertebrate consumption and examined the relationship between birds and service provision along a tree gradient. Relating habitat requirements to pest control services via species guilds, the study found higher predation in annual crops close to trees or woody vegetation than in crop-only plots. After analyzing the methodology's main challenges and strengths, the study concludes that farmers' participation improved the accuracy and results of the analysis and that the methodology's holistic character can guide stakeholders and policymaking more effectively.

J. Meyer, Markus Hassler · Sustainability · Germany

A qualitative study applied the "leverage points" concept, which holds that rethinking how knowledge is produced and used within systems is a key lever for transformation toward sustainability, to community-supported agriculture (CSA), an application not previously made. Semi-structured interviews were conducted at 22 CSA farms in Germany to gather detailed insight into the production and flow of knowledge among stakeholders and to analyze the degree to which these CSAs hold potential to leverage transformational change toward sustainability. The data indicate that CSAs bear substantial potential to leverage sustainability transformation with regard to rethinking agriculture, with a highly cooperative, participatory and transparent structure identified as the characteristic that allows the creation and exchange of information to flourish.

Н.А. БУЛХОВ, С.Л. МОИСЕЕНКО, Н.П. Малышева · Экономика и предпринимательство · Europe

This article examines raising the level of food security in a Russian region through the development of urban agriculture, using the Bryansk region as its example. It considers the mechanism for ensuring food security and identifies its key elements at the present stage, reviews approaches to assessing food security levels, and substantiates possible and significant criteria for such assessment. Using the methodology of D. G. Olovyannikov, it calculated the influence of a proposed measure on the food security level of the Bryansk region, though the abstract does not report the specific resulting figures.

J.E. Jansma, Sigrid Wertheim‐Heck · Environment and Planning B Urban Analytics and City Science · Netherlands

This study examined Oosterwold, a peri-urban area of Almere, Netherlands, where a top-down policy goal of producing 10% of future urban food needs was delegated to residents' self-organisation under a rule requiring 51% of each plot to be allocated to urban agriculture. Using a social practice theory-informed analysis combining an online survey (n=111) with an analysis of aerial photographs (n=199), the study found that it takes residents time to adopt urban agriculture as a substantial practice within their heterogeneous lifestyles, and that a bottom-up, self-organised approach does not mean planning and policy can adopt a laissez-faire stance — a balance among policy goals, planning instruments, and practitioners' needs is required.

Laura van Oers, Giuseppe Feola, Hens Runhaar, Ellen H.M. Moors · Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions · Europe

This study qualitatively documents the conversion to a solidarity payment system at two Dutch community-supported agriculture (CSA) farms, combining conceptualizations of "organizational unlearning" from organization, business, and management theory with "pedagogical unlearning" drawn from postcolonial and feminist approaches to education, to build a fuller understanding of unlearning in sustainability transitions. The solidarity payment system increases CSA access for low-income members and fosters solidarity with farmers to secure fairer income. The results indicate a generative function of unlearning during processes of change, along with the strategic and pedagogical relevance of unlearning in this specific case.

SUEDANUR ÖZDEN, ESRA ARSLANTÜRK, MEHMET SENEM, İmdat As · Architecture and Planning Journal (APJ) · Europe

Focused on a planned future city for 50,000 residents on the European side of Istanbul, Turkey, this study (2023, Europe) explores a virtual reality (VR) gaming environment that lets citizens experience smart-city topics including innovative mobility approaches, drone delivery, and urban farming. It frames VR as offering a testing ground for ideas, performance simulation, and crowdsourcing input before a city is physically built, with gamification intended to incentivize citizen participation in the design process and generate a feedback loop for shaping the future city. Citizens can experience the city design through four circulation modes — walking, biking, driving, and flying — within the VR environment, and earn points by engaging with smart-city topics such as urban farming, solar energy use, and carbon neutrality. The project comprises three phases — an immersive head-mounted-display VR version of the city, edutainment/gamification, and integration into Meta's multi-user space — and the paper presents early findings, the methods and tools explored, and a discussion of VR's utility in architecture and urban planning design processes.

Nancy Harlet Esquivel-Marín, Leticia Myriam Sagarnaga Villegas, Octavio T. Barrera-Perales, Juan Antonio Lugo Machado, José María Salas González · Acta Universitatis Sapientiae Agriculture and Environment · Europe

This bibliometric review analyzes the systemic structure of multifunctional agriculture (MFA) and its relationship to sustainability, based on a sample of 432 documents published on the Web of Science platform. Using Bibliometrix and VOSviewer to map scientific collaboration networks, the review identified the authors, journals, and countries shaping the current knowledge structure and four thematic clusters: (a) MFA and sustainability, (b) ecosystem services and biodiversity, (c) European public policies, and (d) governance and urban agriculture. It concludes that, despite an increase in publication rates, research remains concentrated in Europe with few collaborative networks across disciplines, indicating that SDG 17 (partnerships) is not being achieved.

G. C. Moore Smith, Gilda Berruti · · Italy

This chapter explores Italian community gardens and the multiple policy frameworks that govern these activities, framing urban and peri-urban horticulture as part of a long tradition carrying social, environmental, and health benefits. It states that the drive for locally produced food is part of a recurring theme in public discussion; while few advocate national self-sufficiency, the widespread presence of locally based civic horticulture is said to raise awareness of food-production factors and to have a beneficial impact on patterns of food consumption and procurement. The chapter presents results of an investigation carried out in various parts of the country — Turin, Venice, Bologna, Siena, Rome, and Palermo — and also explores the special case of urban horticulture in greater Naples.

Ministère de la Transition écologique · Ministère de la Transition écologique (France) · France

France's Ministry of Ecological Transition's official page on the mandatory source-sorting of biowaste (food and garden waste). Per EU law and France's 2020 anti-waste law, source-sorting became mandatory nationwide for all professionals and households from January 1, 2024. Biowaste is described as making up one-third of unsorted household waste; the government's 'Fonds vert' has supported local authorities' sorting infrastructure since 2023.

Fields in Trust · Fields in Trust · United Kingdom

The UK charity Fields in Trust protects parks and green spaces permanently for sport and recreation by entering a legally binding agreement with the landowner — a Deed of Dedication in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, or a Minute of Agreement in Scotland. The process runs through 10 steps, and the deed must be registered with the land registry within three months of signing. The charity states it has helped save almost 3,000 parks and green spaces to date.

Josephine Rother · Stadt und Grün 11/2023 · Germany

An article that traces the history of German allotments through one site in the Linden district of Hannover. The Linden association first appears in lease records in 1909, had more than 1,000 members by 1925, and saw its first colony building erected in 1926. On the municipal side it notes the establishment of an office for allotment construction (Amtsstelle für den Kleingartenbau) in 1919 and the merging of the clubs into the Reichsverband der Kleingartenvereine in 1921. Plot numbers rose to 20,000 in the five years from 1927 to 1932 and peaked at 26,000 in 1935. In 1983 the land was secured by permanent-allotment designation; Hannover today has roughly 20,000 gardens on 1,048 hectares, about 5 per cent of the city's area, or one garden per 28 residents.

Seitz B., Buchholz S., Kowarik I., Herrmann J., Neuerburg L., Wendler J., Winker L., Egerer M. · Urban Ecosystems, 25(3):927-939 · Germany (Berlin)

A survey of cultivated and spontaneously occurring wild plants in 18 community gardens across metropolitan Berlin, classifying each species as native or non-native. It found that gardens host many plant species — especially wild ones, including some endangered natives — regardless of surrounding urbanization, and that more cultivated species co-occur with more wild species (land sharing). The authors argue urban gardens can be sites of 'reconciliation ecology' that combine food production with conservation of native and wild flora.

Grodzicki T., Jankiewicz M. · PLoS ONE (PMC8812895) · Europe

A quantitative analysis of how the EU Common Agricultural Policy affects rural employment, GDP and poverty in the Baltic states, showing that higher rural employment promotes rural economic growth.

Michael Carriere, David Schalliol · Journal of Urban History · United States (Milwaukee)

This historical essay documents the history of urban agriculture in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, complicating the "declensionist" narrative of the twentieth-century U.S. city. It argues that food production played a significant and often overlooked role in Milwaukee's economic, social, and spatial development, even during industrial expansion. The authors show that urban agriculture remained a viable tool for urban redevelopment, used by both public- and private-sector actors well into the twenty-first century.

· Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · Germany (Upper Rhine)

A comparative case study of food policy councils in the Upper-Rhine region (including Germany), examining opportunities and challenges for food system sustainability and food democracy.

· Sustainability · Italy

A case-studies analysis examining the development of sustainable social farming in Italy, addressing social inclusion and the training and employment of disadvantaged people.

· Sustainability · Italy

A study of social farming in North-Eastern Italy from the farmers' perspective, examining challenges and prospects with a focus on the social and work inclusion of disadvantaged people.

Adelina Court, Aileen Kelly, Michael Hardman · Cogent Social Sciences · United Kingdom (Greater Manchester)

This paper explores the need for innovation in urban green infrastructure, focusing on enabling urban food growing in cities. It reviews current policy tools and presents a case study of a multifunctional forest school in Salford, UK, which enables larger-scale farming in a deprived area. The study, conducted by a multidisciplinary team, also proposes a visual methodology framework for future replication.

Maddy Power · Policy Press eBooks · United Kingdom

In the UK, food banks and other food aid providers expanded significantly in parallel with welfare reforms and benefit cuts initiated after 2010. This contemporary phenomenon occurred within a historical context of long-standing community-based responses to poverty and hunger in the UK.

Heike Oevermann, Daniel Keech, Marc Redepenning, Li Fan, Patricia Alberth · Urban Planning · Germany (Bamberg)

The German city of Bamberg offers lessons on how continuity and change interact within the context of inner-urban commercial horticulture, informing sustainable urban transformations in historic cities. Urban food production in Bamberg is not just well-established but a consistent, centuries-old cultural structure influencing the city's fabric. This study discusses what forms of urban horticulture were evident from Bamberg's past and which may prevail in the future.

Andrew Millie · Crime Media Culture An International Journal · United Kingdom

This article considered guerrilla gardening, which involves taking on other people’s land without permission. A qualitative study of guerrilla gardeners from the North West of England found that guerrilla gardening is a normalised form of law-breaking. Despite not necessarily being to everyone’s taste and gardeners having an autocratic view of property, it is broadly accepted and welcomed, even by those who enforce the law.