Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
3623 results(92 / 145)
Establishing Inner City Urban Agriculture in Stockholm: Exploring social and political logics at work in the public park Bellevue
2018Ida Åberg · · Sweden (Stockholm)
This study explores the social and political logics at work in establishing inner-city urban agriculture in Stockholm, focusing on the public park Bellevue. It notes that access to public space embodies highly valued normative democratic values, where anyone can participate and communicate politically.
PolicyCommunityCharacteristics of Urban Farmers
2018Kwaku Obosu-Mensah · · Ghana (Accra)
This study examined the general characteristics of urban farmers in Accra, Ghana. It showed that people of all socio-economic statuses are involved in urban agriculture. Farmers were found to be reluctant to approach government officials, and the most important reason for urban farmers to quit farming was sickness or death.
CommunityEconomicsPolicyRecherche, sélection et valorisation pédagogique de documents audiovisuels portant des thématiques de développement durable : Agriculture urbaine et Alimentation.
2018Rachelle Toinette · · Global
This paper describes an internship experience at the FReDD association, which works on disseminating and valorizing audiovisual materials as a means of raising awareness and educating the public on sustainable development and environmental issues. The internship involved tasks such as video transcription, audiovisual research, participation in various events, and notably the creation of educational sheets for a young audience on the themes of food and urban agriculture, addressing sustainable development challenges.
Food educationCommunityClimate changeGovernance in urban agriculture: challenges and opportunities
2018Isabel de Felipe · LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) · Global
This paper describes urban agriculture as an activity gaining new support but facing difficulties due to inadequate governance. The research identified eight instruments for sustainable urban agriculture, including food security and economic development. It concludes that each city requires specific governance to achieve synergies.
Governance failurePolicyEconomicsHealthCommunityCarving out space for community gardens in Australia
2018Alec Thornton, Kristen Lyons, Scott Sharpe · · Australia
This chapter examines how urban spaces in Australia are being transformed for community gardens through social movements and community interventions for the expansion of urban agriculture. It focuses on community gardeners as part of active social movements, exploring the urban context driven by the challenges of urbanization. The study applies Lefebvre's framework on the social production of space and discusses findings from qualitative interview data collected from two city case studies.
CommunityPolicyFood sovereignty & justiceTipologia de Ação Pública para a Agricultura Urbana
2018Lya Porto, Emmanuel Raufflet, Mário Aquino Alves · · Global
This paper constructs a typology of Urban Agriculture Public Action by analyzing literature from various cities in the Global North and South. The typology is based on a cross-analysis of institutional structures and service delivery to urban agriculture, identifying four main types: "Marginal," "Emerging," "Societal," and "State."
PolicyForest School is for everyone
2018Hannah Powell · Educating Young Children: Learning and Teaching in the Early Childhood Years · Australia
Kurilpa Community Child Care in West End operates a multi-age forest school program weekly at a local community garden's wild-space native plants area. This initiative enables children from a highly urbanized area to develop meaningful relationships with the environment and benefit from ongoing exposure to local green spaces.
CommunityFood educationHealthIn the Shadow of a Willow Tree: A Community Garden Experiment in Decolonising, Multispecies Research
2018Kate Wright · Cultural Studies Review · Australia (New South Wales)
A postdoctoral project involving collaboratively planting and maintaining a community garden on land that was once part of the East Armidale Aboriginal Reserve in New South Wales, Australia, began in 2014. This research offers a personal narrative of involvement in an anti-colonial multispecies research project within the confines of a neoliberal university, interrogating the potential and limitations of anti-colonial projects undertaken from colonial subject positions predicated on social and environmental privilege.
Governance failureCommunityFood educationPolicySustainability 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 & justiceHealthThe potential contribution of disruptive low-carbon innovations to 1.5 °C climate mitigation
2018Charlie Wilson, Hazel Pettifor, Emma Cassar, Laurie Kerr, M. Wilson · Energy Efficiency · Global
This paper investigates the potential for consumer-facing innovations to contribute to emission reductions for limiting warming to 1.5 °C. The study identifies 99 potentially disruptive low-carbon innovations related to mobility, food, buildings and cities, and energy supply and distribution, including car clubs and urban farming. The potential emission reductions from these innovations were assessed using two methods: a survey of experts' perceptions and a quantitative scaling-up of evidence to the UK population.
Climate changePromising sustainable foods
2018Tanja Schneider · · Switzerland (Zurich)
This chapter presents the conceptual framework for studying entrepreneurial visions of sustainable food. It highlights trends in the growth of agtech and foodtech startups and reviews debates on food security and sustainable food systems. UrbanFarmers (UF), an urban agriculture company founded in Zurich in 2011, is presented as an example that builds rooftop farms for commercial growers in the city.
EconomicsClimate changeSocio-economic and ecological transition in community supported agriculture: from the 'transitional' to the 'ideal' CSA
2018Erin Whittingham, Nhu Tuyên Lê, Claudio Vitari, Roxana Bobulescu · International Journal of Agricultural Resources Governance and Ecology · Global
This paper focuses on the transitional features of community supported agriculture (CSA) and its transformational potential for agricultural system change. The research developed a framework that highlights the 'transitional' CSA model and compares it with conventional and 'ideal' CSA models. This framework helps understand how CSAs adapt to their context and demonstrates their transformational potential for agricultural system change, drawing on numerous narratives from the broad literature on CSAs.
CSA & TeikeiEconomicsOrganic cycleFood sovereignty & justiceRaising 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.
BiodiversityCommunityHealthEconomicsA chemical genetic roadmap to improved tomato flavor
2017Tieman D., Zhu G., Resende M.F.R., Lin T., Nguyen C., Bies D., Rambla J.L., Beltran K.S.O., Taylor M., Zhang B., Ikeda H., Liu Z., Fisher J., Zemach I., Monforte A., Zamir D., Granell A., Kirst M., Huang S., Klee H. · Science 355(6323):391-394 · Global
Quantified flavor chemicals across 398 modern, heirloom, and wild tomato accessions and linked them to consumer liking. Shows modern cultivars lost allelic diversity governing sugars, acids, and volatiles, explaining reduced flavor versus heirlooms.
Heirloom & landraceBiodiversityHealthGardening 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.
CommunityWelfarePolicyEconomics