Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
165 results(1 / 7)
Integrating agriculture into European urban landscapes matters: A systematic assessment
2026Stepan Svintsov, Prajal Pradhan, Taylor Smith, Diego Rybski · Sustainable Cities and Society · Europe
A systematic evaluation in 2018 assessed the potential for low-tech, open-air, soil-based urban vegetable production across 840 cities in 30 European countries. The study used geospatial, demographic, and climate data under three land-use intensity scenarios. It estimated that 4551–7586 km² of urban land could yield 11.8–19.8 million tons of vegetables annually, roughly one-third of reported production, revealing substantial opportunities but also structural limits due to spatial variation.
Food sovereignty & justiceClimate changeEconomicsPolicyEnvisioning Sustainable Futures of Localism: The Environmental Imagination of Local Currency Activists in Monnaie Léman and the Brixton Pound
2026Marlena Rycombel · Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Münster · Europe
This article explored how local currency activists in Monnaie Léman and the Brixton Pound envision sustainable futures centered on localism. Based on 19 interviews and ethnographic fieldwork in Brixton and Geneva, local currencies were examined as payments limited to specific areas. Activists promote ethical consumption, short supply chains, environmental awareness, economic education, and strong local communities in the short term. Long-term visions focus on localized economies, food sourced from community gardens, and green, compact, community-oriented small towns with well-developed pedestrian and cycling infrastructure.
CommunityEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceWhat’s in the Share?
2026Jocelyn Parot, Stefan Wahlen, Philipp Weckenbrock, Marina Schneider, Andreas Gattinger · Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Münster · France
This paper investigates how Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) initiatives in France navigate tensions between solidarity ideals and market expectations. Analyzing weekly CSA shares from twelve partnerships, including monitoring and producer interviews, the study found that CSA producers adopt hybrid strategies for economic viability and partial decommodification. The CSA share is presented as a material manifestation of this interfield position, stabilizing CSA as a hybrid field within alternative food systems.
CSA & TeikeiEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceCommunityCity soils, city souls: Urban Agriculture Contribution (New European Bauhaus Online Satellite Event 2026)
2026Pierre Chopin, Anton Parisi, Paola Clerino, Agnès Fargue‐Lelièvre, Carnel Megbleto, Lia van Wesenbeeck, Anna Kirstgen, Paris Pencharz, Charlotte Liborio-Cornet, Marta Sylla, Tomasz Kowalczyk, Gati András, Nadira Berbić, Iva Bedenko, Michele D'Ostuni, Penny Zafiraki, Odysseas Sekkas, Tina Katika, C. Kennard · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Europe
This presentation compiles insights, case studies, and strategic models from the "City Soils, City Souls: Urban Agriculture Contribution" workshop, an official New European Bauhaus satellite event. It merges findings from the Horizon Europe FOODCITYBOOST project and other EU initiatives to outline data-driven, community-led strategies for combating urban sprawl, revitalizing peri-urban land, and building circular food systems in European cities.
CommunityClimate changeFood sovereignty & justicePeri-urban agricultureFood Sharing in Brighton & Hove
2026Jennifer Lyons, Anna Davies · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · United Kingdom (Brighton & Hove)
This report presents sustainability impacts of Food Sharing Initiatives (FSIs) in Brighton & Hove, UK, combining data from CULTIVATE’s Food Sharing Map and submitted Sustainability Impact Assessment (SIA) data. FSIs are community-driven projects enabling collective food activities and skill exchange. The CULTIVATE project developed "The Toolshed" to assess FSI sustainability impacts across social, environmental, economic, and governance pillars. The report notes that the presented indicators are a subset of total impacts, and urban-scale estimations will improve with more SIA data.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justicePolicyEconomicsIs community-supported agriculture a case of real utopia? The case of Germany
2026Hannah Bücheler, Christine Bosch · Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems · Germany
This paper explores the potential of Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) in Germany, applying Erik Olin Wright’s concept of real utopia to assess if CSA challenges capitalist structures. Drawing on secondary literature, the study evaluates the desirability, feasibility, and achievability of CSA. The results suggest that CSA in Germany qualifies as a real utopia, but faces limitations to growth due to implementation constraints such as the need for additional market channels and access to land.
Governance failureCSA & TeikeiEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceWhere have all the farmers gone? Spatial–temporal transformations of peri-urban agriculture in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona
2026Johannes Langemeyer, Gabriele Gervasi, Sergi Ventura Caballé, Gara Villalba Méndez · Ecology and Society · Spain (Barcelona)
This study examined the spatial-temporal transformations of peri-urban agriculture in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona from 2003 to 2015, combining spatial analysis of land use changes with qualitative insights from stakeholder interviews and workshops. Results reveal that the significant decline of peri-urban agriculture is driven by a complex interplay of real-estate speculation, land fragmentation, infrastructure development, evolving land use policies, and ecological pressures from land abandonment and environmental protection. Despite efforts to preserve agricultural spaces, the decline of peri-urban farming remains significant.
Governance failurePeri-urban agriculturePolicyEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceGrowing food and radical hope in Glasgow: A review of The Practice of Collective Escape
2026Rose Jennings · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · United Kingdom (Glasgow)
Helen Traill's book, "The Practice of Collective Escape," presents ethnographic work over six years in Glasgow, Scotland, following two community growing sites. The book critically examines urban agriculture projects as "Petri dishes for individual and community transformation," exploring concepts of inclusion, individual escape, and political activism, and highlighting social complexities and issues of inclusion and exclusion.
Equity & displacementCommunityPolicyHealthFood sovereignty & justiceAlternative to what? Reassessing Northern AFNs through a Southern Lens
2026Carla Galán-Guevara, Francesca Forno · Agriculture and Human Values · Italy (Trentino)
This qualitative study in Trentino, northern Italy, examined how alterity is conceptualized and enacted across nine Alternative Food Network (AFN) initiatives, using a decolonial analytical lens. Findings indicate that AFNs create meaningful opportunities for collective organization, ecological learning, participatory governance, and solidarity-based exchange, yet are simultaneously shaped and constrained by regulatory frameworks, certification regimes, economic pressures, and uneven organizational capacities. The study interprets AFNs in the Global North as spaces where partial openings and socio-ecological experimentation coexist with broader structures of coloniality, capitalist market relations, and institutional constraint.
CSA & TeikeiCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceEconomicsFrom Crisis to Opportunity
2025Chris Blythe, Silvio Caputo, Michael Hardman, Paul Milbourne, Mina Samangooei, Victoria Schoen · · United Kingdom
This chapter provides a narrative review of how urban food growing in the UK responded to past crises and during the COVID-19 pandemic. It discusses the positive impacts of urban food growing on individual, household, and community resilience, well-being, environment, and local food systems during the pandemic. The chapter suggests that further recognition and support for urban food growing would improve its ability to respond to future crises.
CommunityHealthFood sovereignty & justiceClimate changeInfrastructuring for caring food practices: learnings from an Alpine community academy
2025Bianca Elzenbaumer, Flora Mammana, Carmen Gonzalez Miranda, Irene Manfrini · Local Environment · Italy
This paper explores grassroots infrastructuring supporting communal learning projects focused on caring food practices, from the perspective of practitioners at La Foresta community academy in the Italian Alps. It presents four interdependent activities—a community garden, a participatory drinks initiative, a mobile bread oven, and a forest school—demonstrating how food fosters community economies and empowers eco-social transformation.
CommunityFood educationEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceExamining inclusive governance of community gardens: lessons from European cities
2025Patricia Abrantes, Luís Moreno, Maria Lucinda Fonseca, Burcu Borhan Türeli, Christos Stergiadis, Gábor Szüdi, Martin Felix Gajdusek, Carolin V. Zorell · City and Environment Interactions · Europe
This study examined how governance influences inclusion and long-term viability in seven community gardens in Portugal, Türkiye, Austria, Hungary, and Greece. Using a qualitative comparative design with 65 semi-structured interviews and policy analysis, findings showed that community gardens with stronger relational and procedural governance demonstrate higher levels of inclusion, particularly for women, migrants, and low-income residents. However, weak vertical policy integration across local, national, and European levels in most cases limits their broader systemic impact.
CommunityPolicyFood sovereignty & justiceWelfareEstrategias de alimentación sostenible de los mercados de Madrid. Implicaciones urbanas
2025María Antonia Fernández Nieto, Jose Rodriguez, Jorge Gallego Sánchez-Torija · ZARCH · Spain (Madrid)
This article examines how Madrid's municipal markets are adopting new strategies linked to sustainable food systems in response to competition from supermarkets and online commerce. It highlights how citizen movements and municipal policies, including urban gardens and agroecological cooperatives, are fostering circular economies, responsible consumption, and urban resilience. The research positions markets as social mediators that connect diverse actors and balance economic interests with collective benefits, serving as instruments for regenerative urbanism and food equity.
PolicyCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceEconomicsAn Agroecological Perspective on Early Urban Forms and their Sustainability in Western Eurasia
2025Amy Bogaard · Journal of Urban Archaeology · Europe
This paper frames agroecological expectations for different urban forms based on Roland Fletcher’s model of settlement population scale and density. It hypothesizes that low-density urbanism allows labor-intensive land management, while high-density urbanism requires lower inputs per unit area and stress-tolerant crops. The study applies these expectations to early urban forms in western Eurasia, finding that diverse farming strategies in high-density areas and flexible low-density urban agroecology offer lessons for future urban farming.
Urban–rural linkageClimate changeFood sovereignty & justiceFair food futures UK: Protocol for a mixed methods study exploring what approaches adopted by community food organisations are more likely to prevent the need for emergency food in two multicultural communities in Northern and Southern England
2025Laura Sheard, Giorgia Previdoli, Wendy Burton, Rachel Benchekroun, Maddy Power, Bob Doherty, Philip Hadley, Ariadne Beatrice Kapetanaki, Shahid Islam, Sairah Mirza, Claire Cameron, Kate E. Pickett, Angela Hutton, Charlotte Edwards, Maria Bryant · PLoS ONE · United Kingdom
This research protocol describes a mixed-methods study aiming to understand which approaches adopted by community food organizations are most likely to prevent the need for emergency food in two multicultural communities in Bradford and Tower Hamlets, England. The study will create a typology of community food organization approaches through surveys, system mapping workshops, and stakeholder interviews, and will conduct a 12-month ethnographic study in up to 10 organizations and longitudinal qualitative research with up to 35 families.
CommunityWelfareFood sovereignty & justiceHealthFrom crisis to opportunity: exploring urban food growing in the UK during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.
2025Chris Blythe, Silvio Caputo, Michael Hardman, Paul Milbourne, Victoria Schoen · Kent Academic Repository (University of Kent) · United Kingdom
This chapter examines the impact of urban food growing on individual, household, and community resilience, well-being, environment, and local food systems in the UK during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, drawing on survey and research data. It discusses the potential role of urban food growing in post-pandemic food security, environment, health, and society, and considers how "crisis gardening" experiences are leading to calls for new approaches to urban food growing in the UK.
CommunityHealthFood sovereignty & justiceClimate changeFood banks, food diversion, and other responses
2025Dennis Raphael · Policy Press eBooks · Canada; United Kingdom
This chapter documents the growth of charitable non-governmental responses to food insecurity in Canada and the UK, including food banks, food diversion schemes, and community gardens. It is shown that these responses are problematic as they fail to address the economic and political causes of food insecurity. Further failures associated with charitable responses include the experience of stigma and degradation by food bank users and the promulgation of the belief that food insecurity is being addressed.
Equity & displacementCommunityWelfareFood sovereignty & justicePolicyUrban farming as a form of the future food security in the Czech Republic
2025Jan Szturc, Tomáš Mašíček, Adéla Navrátilová, Jana Kozlovský Dufková · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · Europe
This study explored the production potential of urban farming in Olomouc, Czech Republic, using spatial analysis to identify suitable spaces. Results indicated that 408.04 hectares of currently unused land could be repurposed for urban farming, yielding 7,099.9 tons of vegetables. This production could meet 42.68% of the city's total vegetable demand, though detailed analysis is always necessary for specific areas due to varying potential.
Food sovereignty & justiceEconomicsPolicyPeri-urban agricultureEVALUATION OF THE FEASIBILITY OF URBAN AGRICULTURE IN EDIRNE CITY CENTER
2025Beyza Aleyna Bayram, Selin ARABULAN · Pamukkale University Journal of Social Sciences Institute · Turkey (Edirne)
This study aimed to identify and evaluate the urban agriculture potential in Edirne, Turkey, based on the hypothesis of transforming passive areas into urban agricultural areas. It conducted a literature review, reported on climate, topography, vegetation cover, and land use conditions, and used SWOT analysis to evaluate potential in technological, economic, demographic, sociological, and ecological contexts. The study determined that urban agriculture practices in Edirne, where the existing structure is quite favorable, can be evaluated as a strategic development tool with proper planning and management.
Food sovereignty & justiceClimate changeBiodiversityCommunityCommunity farming in Northern Ireland: Definitions and impacts
2025Jonathan H. Hanson, C Lynn Collins, Tiziana O'Hara, Matthew Williams · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · United Kingdom
This study explored community farming in Northern Ireland, defining it as a collaborative transformation process at the intersection of land, community, and enterprise. Using Social Return on Investment (SROI) methodology over two years, it quantified the cumulative impacts of nine diverse community farming projects. The overall SROI ratio was 3.52:1, with 90% of the value being social, 8% environmental, and 2% economic.
CommunityCSA & TeikeiFood sovereignty & justiceEconomicsTransformar a partir dos interstícios: hortas urbanas comunitárias face à crise ecossocial
2025Sara Sama Acedo, David Berná Serna, Patricia Homs Ramírez de la Piscina · Scientific Repository of Open Access of Portugal (RCAAP) · Spain (Madrid)
A study analyzed the challenge faced by community urban gardens in Madrid, Spain, in remaining transformative spaces amidst an ecossocial crisis. These gardens are initiatives situated between community and public institutional management, with their expansion and institutionalization involving practices and relationships among diverse agents. The study points out the difficulty for these gardens to maintain their transformative role—updating community ties, reciprocity, and mutual care, and reformulating relationships with "nature" in the city and food supply—without being absorbed by market logics or marginalized into welfare or community volunteering spaces.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyFood sovereignty & justiceThe EArTh System: A Community Food Sovereignty Blueprint
2025F. A. Abd El Hamid · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · United Kingdom (Glasgow)
This paper presents the complete operational blueprint for the EArTh System, a community-led model designed to establish food sovereignty in post-industrial areas. The system integrates a decaying digital currency, democratic assemblies, and urban agriculture to create a parallel 'commons' for essential goods. Detailed as a pilot implementation for Glasgow East, UK, the document outlines its currency mechanics, legal structure, governance, and launch strategy.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justicePolicyTransformando desde los intersticios: huertos urbanos comunitarios ante la crisis ecosocial
2025Sara Sama Acedo, David Berná Serna, Patricia Homs Ramírez de la Piscina · Etnografica · Spain (Madrid)
This paper analyzes the case of community urban gardens in Madrid integrated into the Municipal Program of Community Urban Gardens. These initiatives are situated in the interstices between community management and public institutional management, generating new demands on the management of urban green commons and enabling forms of shared governance. The study reveals that these gardens face the challenge of maintaining themselves as transformative spaces without being absorbed by commercial logics or marginalized into welfare-oriented or community volunteer spaces.
Governance failureCommunityFood sovereignty & justicePolicyCommunity Readiness for Agro Living Lab (ALL) Projects: Factors Influencing Engagement of Young Urban Residents
2025Wojciech Sroka, Karol Król, Jakub Kulesza, Marcin Stanuch, Sławomir Lisek · Agriculture · Poland (Kraków)
This study analyzed factors influencing young urban residents' readiness to participate in agro living lab (ALL) projects in Kraków, Poland. Based on a literature review and a survey among university students, it found that readiness to engage in ALL projects is strongly associated with respondents’ field of study, interests, individual experiences, positive attitudes toward urban agriculture, and personal relationships with farmers.
CommunityFood educationFood sovereignty & justiceThe food-water-climate nexus of green infrastructure: Examining ecosystem services trade-offs of peri-urban agriculture
2024Ricard Segura, Johannes Langemeyer, Alba Badía, Sergi Ventura, Jaime Vila-Traver, Gara Villalba · The Science of The Total Environment · Spain (Barcelona)
A study in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, Spain, investigated the impacts of peri-urban agricultural expansion on the food-water-climate nexus using urban metabolism and atmospheric-biosphere models across four land-use scenarios. While expansion increased food production and irrigation water requirements, replacing natural non-forested and forest areas for peri-urban agriculture was predicted to reduce net ecosystem productivity by up to 18.5% and total carbon stocks by 3.3%. Irrigated peri-urban agriculture potentially reduced near-surface temperatures by 0.7°C, though reductions in the densest urban areas were minimal.
Environmental trade-offsPeri-urban agricultureClimate changeBiodiversityFood sovereignty & justice