Urban gardening and the quest for just uses of space in Europe

Abstract

The chapter investigates the relationship between urban gardening– as political gesture- and socio-spatial justice. In search for an actually existing just city, gardeners’ everyday initiatives advance a substantive micropolitics of life that point out to less visible and sometimes ignored sides of urban governance and planning; and unveil the articulation of different forms of power, dominance and resistance to the unequal distribution of benefits and burdens in space. The critical analysis proposed specifically revolves around the question of whether (and how) urban gardening practices are able to tackle social and spatial injustices. It outlines the consequences, potentialities and contradictions in the constitution of urban spaces and urbanity; and its capability to mitigate material, political and social exclusions, unfairness and inequalities effects. This is complemented with an overview of the contributions comprised in the book.

Fences, seeds and bees: The more-than-human politics of community gardening in Rotterdam

“…Referring to the examples of the more-than-human relations with bees, pulling weeds, birds and snails, we could argue that more-than-human urbanism allows us to see new ways in which morethan-human lives are governed, regulated and let die (Margulies, 2019). Such a necropolitical frame to more-than-human urbanism raises new questions about the 'dark side' of practices associated with community gardening, and urban sustainable/resilient policies (Certoma`, 2015).…”

Planting a seed: Sustainable education for students with Additional Support Needs

“…Urban agriculture has become a vehicle for community organising and the reclamation of space (Certoma, Sondermann & Noori 2019, MacKeen 2011. There is a danger of urban agriculture becoming co-opted by neoliberal aims (van Holstein 2020), leading to a "privatisation of the urban realm" (Tornaghi 2014:553), as noted by one community gardener: "There are initiatives in the council where they are keen to be supporting free spaces and green space work.…”