Psychosocial outcomes as motivations for urban gardening: A cross-cultural comparison of Swiss and Chilean gardeners

The range of benefits provided by urban greenspaces is reasonably well understood and a broad consensus has been reached that they provide habitats along with social ecosystem services, such as restoration, health and food. Domestic gardens, which are a primary node of contact between city residents and nature, typically represent a significant portion of the urban greenspaces, so the gardeners who manage them play an important role in maintaining the greenspaces within a city. In this way, gardeners voluntarily provide a public service so should be encouraged, but the motivations of individual gardeners have not been sufficiently studied. In this study, we address this research gap by using a 14 item ‘motivations for gardening’ scale to evaluate the motivations for gardening held by gardeners in different cultural contexts. We used questionnaires to collect data in three Swiss cities (Lausanne, Bern and Zürich; N = 409) and one Chilean city (Temuco; N = 167) and analysed the responses at both item and scale levels. Although significant differences between Swiss and Chilean responses were found for all individual scale items, a principal component analysis revealed nearly identical component structures for both the Swiss and Chilean samples. Three clear components were identified; restoration as the motivational component receiving the strongest agreement, followed by socialization, and then food production. Nearly identical component structures were found, with the same scale items loading against the same components, when the sample was divided according to age, gender, education and income. These results suggest that motivations for gardening are not context dependant but rather represent an inherent human condition that frames how gardeners manage and interact with their gardens. Acknowledgement of these human needs: especially regarding the restoration benefits that people gain from these spaces, in public policies related to management and regulation of green urban areas has the potential to contribute to the survival of urban gardens

Studying learning and innovation networks – a conceptual and methodological framework

This paper outlines the main concepts and methodology that the SOLINSA project uses in its study of learning and innovation networks. This project aims to identify barriers to the development of Learning and Innovation Networks for sustainable agriculture (LINSA). In such networks, social learning processes take place, and knowledge about sustainable agriculture is co-produced by connecting between the different frames and social worlds of the stakeholders with the help of boundary objects. Studying such processes at the interface between different knowledge spheres of research, policy and practice requires a specific methodology. A transdisciplinary reflective learning methodology addresses the complex question of understanding learning and innovation. The paper highlights the challenges of this approach that involves stakeholders already in the phase of defining the research objectives and strategies. Results from a first round of application of the conceptual and methodological framework will be presented and discussed

Report on the demand for data by end users of organic market data (= Deliverable 1.1 of the OrganicDataNetwork project. Survey of the organic market data needs of end users)

High quality organic market data is desirable and important for both economic and societal reasons. Currently, important market data do not exist in most European countries, standardization is missing and data are seldom comparable within one country over time and between countries. Furthermore, detailed information on specific commodities is missing. The goals of this report are to identify the needs and demands of end users of organic market data, and to find areas of information asymmetry, which involves undertaking an appraisal of the quality of the existing available data that is used. However, many different data collection methods are currently used and the variety of agencies collecting data in the various European countries mean that gaining a European level overview of the quality of existing data is difficult. Despite these difficulties, this report presents an overview of end users demands for different data types at a European level, and offers an overview of the end users demand for various data types in five European countries: France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. An online survey was conducted in which demand and use was assessed for 15 data types. Furthermore, the quality of each of these data types was rated against a set of quality criteria. It was found that relevance of data is the fundamental quality criteria, and relevant data will be used; even if it considered as being of poor quality against other quality criteria. Many respondents report using data that is considered by experts to not exist, which suggests that data users make use of whatever data they can find if it considered relevant. Many respondents report that existing data does not exist, which suggests that the users cannot find the data and therefore points to dissemination problems

Survey of the Demands of End Users in Europe for Organic Market Data

Few European countries produce complete coverage of important market data, standardization is missing, and data are seldom comparable within one country over time and between countries. Furthermore, detailed information on specific commodities is missing. Many different data collection methods are currently used and the variety of agencies collecting data in the various European countries mean that gaining a European level overview of the quality of existing data is difficult. As part of the EU research project “OrganicDataNetwork”, a survey was carried out in 2012 to identify the needs and demands of end users of organic market data, and to find areas of information asymmetry. A further goal of the survey was to undertake an appraisal of the quality of the existing available data that is used. This contribution presents some of the highlights of the results, which will be published in full during 2013

Soziale Faktoren der Umstellung auf Biolandbau in der Deutschschweiz

The number of organic farms in Switzerland fell between 2005 and 2009, and has remained stable since then. Several studies show that financial arguments should mean that more farms convert to organic production, which means that other reasons inhibit farmers from conversion. In this study, 24 organic and non-organic Swiss farmers were interviewed with the aim of identifying the barriers to conversion and learning how these have been overcome. The results suggest that the structural conditions for conversion are in place but a range of social factors create barriers. These factors include negative attitudes towards organic farming held by family members; problems with mutual acceptance between organic and non-organic farmers; technical reasons such as fear of weed infestation; and a fear of losing independence. Organic farmers however suggested that these barriers are overestimated. Farmers who are considering conversion are reluctant to ask for advice because this is seen as an irreversible step to conversion. This allows the conclusion that informal events and platforms that enable communication between organic and non-organic farmers could inspire farmers to take the first steps

Land titling and urban development in developing countries: the challenge of Hernando de Soto's 'The Mystery of Capital'

Hernando de Soto’s global best-seller, The Mystery of Capital, has transformed the previously obscure topic of land titling into an apparent cure for the world’s ills. His achievement has been to focus attention on the relationship between sustainable capitalist economic development and the need of the Third World poor for secure land tenure. He challenges lawyers (and other professionals concerned with land management) to recognize the centrality of land to issues of social justice and development. The article links de Soto’s call for integrated property systems with current cross-disciplinary academic discourses on urban law and development and postcolonialism. Specific themes (illustrated with country examples) are cadastral reform (Southern Africa), adverse possession (Israel/Palestine) and usucapio (Brazil), the relationship of customary and individual land tenure (Botswana), and land assembly and infrastructure provision for urban development (land readjustment in Japan and India)

Assessment of Farmers’ Plant Disease Knowledge in Organic Cacao Cultivation

The Alto Beni region on the eastern foothills of the Andes accounts for 90% of certified organic cacao production in Bolivia and other tropical products for the city of La Paz. In the region more than 2200 households strongly depend on the cultivation of cacao. Cacao is cultivated on small holder farms mostly in diversified agroforestry systems. These systems contribute to both the conservation of biodiversity and the food security of the farmers. An outbreak of the frosty pod disease caused by Moniliophthora roreri in 2011 is now threatening these relatively sustainable production systems. Examples all over Latin America showed the abandonment and elimination of cocoa systems and the loss of biodiversity and local revenues after its attack. Frosty pod rot is an extremely invasive and destructive disease causing yield losses of 30–80% after establishment in a region. An efficient and applicable disease management strategy should address both, ecologic and socioeconomic conditions of the entire agro-ecological system. Scientific knowledge must therefore be complemented with the local farmers’ knowledge in general and especially their local knowledge on disease management. The aim of this qualitative study was to gather farmers’ local disease knowledge to building a fundament for the participatory development of a disease management strategy. Data was collected by combined 24 in depth interviews with on-farm field visits. We found that there is a certain lack of ecosystem knowledge among the ethnically diverse farmers group, which might be due to the recent colonisation of the area. Cacao cultivation knowledge is present on a basic level but is unequally distributed and the level of performance of disease prevention and control practices lags behind their level of awareness. It was also found that the process of knowledge formation is ongoing and co-evolving with the active adaptation of the cultivation system. Most sustainable practices related to an additional labour input are strictly challenged by the lack of skilled labour and the migration out of the region into the bigger cities. These constraints should be considered when designing an efficient disease management strategy

Land dispute resolution and the right to development in Africa

The United Nations Declaration on the Right to Development supports equality of opportunity in access to basic natural resources. This article explores the legacy of past colonial interventions, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa under the British dual mandate policy associated with Lugard, in creating tensionsbetween private, public and customary land tenure in Africa, which have given rise to conflicts and  disputes over land. Soft law and policy agendas from international development agencies have changed substantially in the present century, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the New Urban Agenda agreed at the Habitat III conference in 2016, with UN Habitat’s Global Land Tools Network promoting innovatory practices such as land readjustment and participatory mapping, as well as reform of urban planning laws. With land disputes notorious for creating complex and lengthy legal proceedings, some African states have applied alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanisms as a potentially quicker and cheaper option than approaching the courts. The article examines different land and property tribunals in the United Kingdom and sub-Saharan Africa,  especially involving traditional authorities on customary land. It applies concepts of historic institutionalism, path dependency and isomorphism to the subject and proposes improvements to land and property tribunals

Book Review: African Union law: the emergence of a sui generis legal order

Book Title: African Union law: the emergence of a sui generis legal orderBook Author: Olufemi AmaoRoutledge (London and New York) ISBN: 978- 1-138-91494-0 (HBK), 978-1-315-69055-1 (EBK

Lusaka:

This short account of the planning of Lusaka as the new capital of Northern Rhodesia, written for its offi cial opening in 1935 as part of jubilee celebrations for King George V, was printed in a limited edition specifi cally for that event, and is now very scarce and diffi cult to obtain, but deserves to be made more widely available for scholars of planning and urban history, and especially all interested in African urban development. The planning of Lusaka was a prestige project for British indirect rule administration in Africa during the 1930s, in the recovery from the Great Depression, and was claimed as an example of British garden city and town planning expertise being applied overseas to its imperial territorial acquisitions. Particular features of Lusaka’s planning were the attention to public buildings, echoing on a smaller scale the grand imperial designs of Baker and Lutyens in South Africa and India, the importance attached to landscaping and tree planting, and the priority given to the new airport refl ecting the great expansion of air networks during the 1930s. The historical context also includes Lusaka’s place on the projected ‘Cape to Cairo’ railway, and its importance as a colonial project at a time of rapid development by American and South African capitalism of copper mining in the Copperbelt. Town planning was seen in the Colonial Offi ce as an important tool of colonial management, and successive colonial governors in Northern Rhodesia were associated with planning initiatives. Lusaka capital city was seen as a demonstration project which infl uenced negotiations over planning the new Copperbelt mining townships. Lusaka’s colonial origins are of increasing interest to present-day planners in Zambia, concerned with problems of rapid urbanisation and the recent recovery of the copper mining industry; it is also of wider interest for both its place in the history of town planning and garden city concepts beyond Europe and as a planned new capital in the Third World