Valuing Physical and Social Output: A Rapid Assessment of a London Community Garden

The value of urban farms and gardens in terms of their potential for supplying a healthy diet to local residents is well known. However, the prime objective of these spaces often differs from one of food production with this being the means by which other outputs are achieved. Valuing these spaces that provide diverse benefits is therefore a complex exercise as any measure needs to incorporate their physical as well as their social outputs. Only through such an integrated approach is the true value of these gardens revealed and the scale of their potential for contributing to health agendas made apparent. Social return on investment studies can be heavily resource dependent and the rapid cost benefit approach advanced here suggests that with limited expertise and minimal invasion of volunteer and beneficiary time and space, a public value return on investment ratio can be estimated relatively rapidly using an ‘off the shelf’ tool. For the food growing area of a London community garden, a return on investment of £3 for every £1 invested is calculated. This demonstrates the contribution that community gardens can make to social wellbeing within cities and justifies a call for further recognition of these spaces in urban planning polic

Urban gardens in Bogotá: services and motivations beyond food production

This paper takes its cue from a PhD fieldwork investigation that gathered detailed information for 15 urban gardens in Bogotá together with a large dataset developed by the Bogotá Botanical Garden to further explore the values and motivations that bring people to grow food in this city. The database includes 1,216 private and community gardens over the entire urban area, hence representing a unique opportunity to evaluate motivations for urban food production for diverse communities. The analysis of the database followed by a comparison with the fieldwork findings enables the identification of clusters of urban farmers, defined by aims behind their practices and socio-economic conditions. It offers a nuanced understanding of the role of urban agriculture in this context and contributes to further define food security

Urban Agriculture: Models-in-Circulation from a Critical Transnational Perspective

Urban Agriculture (UA) is practiced around the globe (Biel, 2016), supported and advocated by a diversity of actors ranging from local neighbourhood groups to supra-national bodies (e.g. FAO, 2014; Mougeot, 2006; UN Habitat, 2014). As such, UA must be understood as one of planning’s current “models-in-circulation” (Roy and Ong, 2011), characterised by the traveling of ideas and policies in a globalised world (Healey, 2013). UA operates at a diversity of scales and engages a variety of actors. Yet, as a model-in-circulation, only some of the ways in which UA is practiced are promoted globally and influence the way UA is perceived, thus disregarding UA’s highly specific manifestations in different social/economic/political contexts around the world. We use a critical transnational perspective for a qualitative analysis of collective (rather than individual) UA practices happening in small-scale, left-over public spaces in three very different locations in Latin America and Europe (Bogotá and Medellin in Colombia, and Vienna in Austria) to gain insights into how policies and initiatives inspired by typical models-in-circulation affect the situation on ground. The analysis shows that the reliance on such models can act like a filter impeding the acknowledgment that actors, objectives and barriers for UA practices are more complex, nuanced and multifaceted than those that a simple model can contain. As a result the benefits UA can yield are only partially attained. The conceptual device of translocal is subsequently formulated as one conveying the traveling of ideas locally, which can enrich and root models-in-circulation

Sustaining the Liveliness of Public Spaces in El Houma through Placemaking. The Case of Algiers

This paper takes Algiers as a case study, highlighting the social use of urban spaces in El Houma, in the Algerian capital, as a form of placemaking, a people-centred approach aimed at improving urban spaces within a neighbourhood. El Houma is a word for neighbourhood in North Africa synonymous with Hara and Mahalla in the Middle East. El Houma is not a typical neighbourhood that only houses people, it is a socio-spatial product formed by social relations between residents of the same neighbourhood. It is, therefore, a way of representing urban space though social practices, creating a strong sense of community, a sense of place and social interaction. Based on theories and mapping techniques from urban sociology and urban design, the research applies a methodology of activity mapping, in order to investigate patterns of outdoor social activities in public spaces and their correlation with the physical design of the neighbourhood. The research will measure the liveliness of public spaces exploring how people adapted their lifestyle to the built environment and vice versa. The findings demonstrate how the different social activities are spatially distributed, and their impact on the liveliness of el Houma

SOURCE: Urban Circular Economy Bioresource Management: A Guide for Local Authorities and Developers

This publication presents a blueprint to implement SOURCE: a circular bio-economy system that combines food waste management and food production, designed for social housing estates. The blueprint is the outcome of a collaboration between industry and research partners, funded under the Design Exchange Partnership (DEP), an initiative promoted by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Future Observatory / Design Museum. The initiative offers the opportunity for early career researchers to work with SMEs, exchange knowledge and address specific industry problems through design thinking

“I like to get my hands stuck in the soil”: A pilot study in the acceptance of soil-less methods of cultivation in community gardens

The aim of this paper is to investigate the role that soil-less methods of food production can play in urban agriculture, particularly in projects that are run by community groups. Over the last years, a drive by people to engage in sustainable lifestyles has resulted in a surge in urban agriculture.Typically, on-soil horticulture is greatly appreciated by urban farmers for its invaluable contribution to urban ecology. Yet, some community projects across Europe are experimenting with indoor soilless methods, which offer an opportunity to reduce the waste of resources such as water and space, including valuable green space. Against this backdrop, the paper investigates the drivers and barriers that may facilitate or hinder soil-less methods for urban farmers. We triangulate information from the literature with a small-scale pilot study, based on interviews in a community garden in Portsmouth, UK, in which a small hydroponic unit was utilised by a group of experienced farmers.We subsequently compare results with a previous pilot study, similar in design but with interviewees who have limited experience in growing food. Qualitative results show a general appreciation of the environmental advantages that the hydroponic unit can yield and at the same time diffidence towards a hydroponic produce which is perceived as non-natural in both groups. Quantitative analysis showed that 90% of experienced farmers had prior knowledge of soil-less methods against 42% of the wider sample group. We conclude that, for the participants to the pilots, higher knowledge of soil-less systems does not necessarily lead to higher acceptance. Yet, feedback gathered suggests that there is interest in soil-less methods, which appears to be linked to the propensity of community gardens to test new arrangements and techniques within their projects