Strategies of self-organising communities in a gentrifying city

Abstract

While commonly pitched as potential spaces for the empowerment of marginalised minority groups, self-organised projects such as community gardens are also susceptible to neoliberal discourses and governance mechanisms. While relationships between community gardening and gentrification are now well established, less is known about the grassroots strategies of garden groups in the context of such conditions and the ways in which gentrification changes the community gardening movement itself. This paper combines conceptual approaches to community gardens as shaping citizen-subjectivities and as projects positioned in networks to offer detailed insight into strategic responses of community gardeners to a gentrifying environment. The paper highlights how demographic change, neighbourhood densification and changes in the attitude of local government shape three community gardens in Sydney, Australia. The paper reveals that, more than government policy, changes that gardeners observe in the neighbourhood and their perceptions of local government’s attitude towards different community gardens in the vicinity, shape how they manage community gardens. Interactions and responses of garden groups to perceived threats, as well as changes in the projects’ social composition, can lead to the emergence of conflict and competition. As it becomes increasingly clear that inequalities in the surrounding urban environment manifest as part of the social fabric of community spaces, the paper demonstrates that communities are differently positioned to articulate strategies in response to perceived precarity and that these strategies can amplify unequal opportunities for distinct garden groups to persist into the future.

Order and openness in community-driven urban initiatives: Insights from a ‘spot-fix’

“…Many studies have linked informal urban initiatives to gentrification (Mould, 2014; Pinder, 2008) and have shown that the recruitment of social capital in these initiatives involves both the retreat of the welfare state and the entrenchment of market forces (Mayer, 2003). Thus, they might become instrumental in neoliberal governance, and manifest associated inequalities in the process (van Holstein, 2020). The balance of decided and emergent orders explored in this study might help DIY initiatives to achieve more equitable arrangements through a careful maintenance of certain aspects as comparatively structured and organised and other aspects as open and inclusive.…”

“…These developments can result in a democratic deficit, leading to the empowerment of some actors and constraining the openness that characterises self-organisation (Swyngedouw, 2005). These outcomes sabotage the radicality, counter-hegemonic stance and subversive potential of these initiatives and negatively impact associated grassroots-based self-organisation processes (Bach and McClintock, 2021; Elder and Gerlak, 2019; Hou, 2020; van Holstein, 2020).…”

Correlation between Elderly Migrants’ Needs and Environmental Adaptability: A Discussion Based on Human Urbanization Features

“…At the community level, provision of agricultural production factors mainly consists of the installation of a certain percentage of green space for planting and construction of production service facilities [ 40 , 41 ]. Small-scale planting sites can be established in combination with green spaces between houses and alongside public facilities [ 42 ].…”

Community gardens as third places

“…The focus of the research on community gardens as third places was guided by the literature review on community gardens and third places. When studying community gardens as a case study, there are a multitude of directions one could take including: social justice (Lyons et al, 2013); alternative food movements (Cameron & Wright, 2014); urban revitalisation (Thornton, Lyons & Sharpe, 2018); gentrification (van Holstein, 2019); bio-diversity (Maller & Farahani, 2018); addressing urban food deserts (Lewis, Galloway-Gilliam, Flynn, Nomachi, Keener and Sloane, 2011); food security (Singh-Peterson & Lawrence, 2015); and sustainability (Houston, MacCallum, Steele & Byrne, 2016). This thesis builds on an extensive body of literature on community gardens.…”