Cultivating Civic Ecology

Abstract

Urban gardens are a form of self-provisioning, leisure and activist practice that is cropping up in cities around the world (Mougeot 2010). We present the history and contemporary terrain of Lisbon’s urban gardens and discuss the cultural values that gardeners attach to the practice of growing food in interstitial urban spaces. We present initial findings from our research with an urban gardeners’ association as it attempts to transform informal or clandestine garden spaces into an ‘urban agricultural park’. This coalition of gardeners from diverse socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds is reclaiming land and using a participatory design process to create a shared space. They hope to grow vegetables and to re-grow ‘community’ by forging shared experiences in the neighbourhood. We describe how we used Photovoice as a process for exploring residents’ motivations in planting informal and community gardens on public land. What visions of sustainability and the contemporary city emerge from the practice of urban gardening? What kinds of urban gardening practices produce ‘communities of practice’ that cross ethnic, socioeconomic, and generational lines? The Photovoice approach allowed us to examine how gardeners conceptualise their use of urban space as they build new civic identities around gardening and make political claims to gain access and control over vacant land.

The Rich Diversity of Urban Allotment Gardens in Europe: Contemporary Trends in the Context of Historical, Socio-Economic and Legal Conditions

“…Although the motivations behind the decision to have a plot, as well as modes of use and gardening practices, are well recognised in the literature, these issues are mainly considered in relation to particular case studies within a single city within a country, such as Dublin, Ireland [39], Ljubljana, Slovenia [12], Salzburg, Austria and some German cities [11], the United Kingdom [16], Paris, France [40], Łódź, Poland [27,41], Lisbon, Portugal [42] and urban regions [43]. The regional diversity of European allotment gardens, however, is still poorly understood.…”

Food self-provisioning: a review of health and climate implications

“…Practices of sharing and gifting food with family, friends, neighbours, and co-workers is widely discussed and noted in the literature (Ančić et al, 2019; Balázs, 2018; Córdoba et al, 2021; Daněk & Jehlička, 2020; Feola et al, 2020; Hendrickson et al, 2020; Jehlička & Smith, 2011; Jehlička et al, 2013, 2019; Pinto-Correia et al, 2021; Piras, 2020; Pungas, 2019; Smith et al, 2015; Sovová, 2015; Sovová et al, 2021; Vávra et al, 2021; WinklerPrins & de Souza, 2005). The element of sharing not only food but knowledge, a traditional way of life, and company of others seems to be important (Harper & Afonso, 2016; Mincytė et al, 2020; Pungas, 2020; Sovová & Krylová, 2019; Sovová & Veen, 2020; WinklerPrins & de Souza, 2005). Smith et al (2015, p. 241) found that ‘it is in the relationships around the nurturing and sharing of produce and skills as much as in the getting and consuming of food that the significance of these practices lies, both for the practitioners and the world beyond’.…”

“…FSP may be deep-rooted in family traditions (Kirkpatrick & Davison, 2018) and strengthen ties between generations (Ivanova et al, 2021). The importance of FSP education in enhancing vulnerable communities' diet and community health (Colby & Kennedy, 2017) or passing on traditional ecological knowledge and care-taking skills to children at community gardens (Harper & Afonso, 2016) are also discussed. FSP may be part of the preservation of a shared local culture related to cuisine and local edible plant species (Ivanova et al, 2021) and has significance in terms of local cultural wellbeing.…”