IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i13p3641-d245072.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Community Self-Organizing and the Urban Food Commons in Berlin and New York

Author

Listed:
  • Oona Morrow

    (Rural Sociology Group, Wageningen University & Research, 6706KN Wageningen, The Netherlands)

Abstract

Food sharing and food commons have both been raised as possible solutions to unsustainable and unjust urban food systems. This paper draws upon ethnographic research conducted in Berlin and New York to examine self-organizing in community food initiatives that are to varying degrees creating urban food commons by opening up urban space and its fruits to community use, sharing, and governance. In New York, the organization 596 Acres has developed an interactive map of vacant land to help community members self-organize to gain access to, steward, and protect the “lots in their life” for urban growing. In Berlin, the organization foodsharing.de has developed an interactive web platform to decentralize and democratize the logistics of food rescue and redistribution through peer-to-peer gifting and community fridges. The paper examines the possibilities and limitations of socio-technical innovations as “tools for commoning,” for self-organizing imagination, access, care, and governance in urban food commons. The paper contributes to debates on the role of socio-technical innovation in urban food sharing and practices of self-organizing in urban food commons.

Suggested Citation

  • Oona Morrow, 2019. "Community Self-Organizing and the Urban Food Commons in Berlin and New York," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-17, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:13:p:3641-:d:245072
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/13/3641/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/13/3641/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marit Rosol, 2010. "Public Participation in Post‐Fordist Urban Green Space Governance: The Case of Community Gardens in Berlin," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(3), pages 548-563, September.
    2. Karin Bradley & Daniel Pargman, 2017. "The sharing economy as the commons of the 21st century," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 10(2), pages 231-247.
    3. Tom Hargreaves & Noel Longhurst & Gill Seyfang, 2013. "Up, Down, round and round: Connecting Regimes and Practices in Innovation for Sustainability," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(2), pages 402-420, February.
    4. Euler, Johannes, 2018. "Conceptualizing the Commons: Moving Beyond the Goods-based Definition by Introducing the Social Practices of Commoning as Vital Determinant," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 10-16.
    5. Anna R. Davies & Betsy Donald & Mia Gray & Janelle Knox-Hayes, 2017. "Sharing economies: moving beyond binaries in a digital age," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 10(2), pages 209-230.
    6. Colding, Johan & Barthel, Stephan, 2013. "The potential of ‘Urban Green Commons’ in the resilience building of cities," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 156-166.
    7. José Luis Vivero-Pol, 2017. "Food as Commons or Commodity? Exploring the Links between Normative Valuations and Agency in Food Transition," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-23, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alice Marie Yamabe-Ledoux & Osamu Saito & Keiko Hori, 2023. "Exploring the Opportunities and Challenges of ICT-Mediated Food Sharing in Japan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-23, March.
    2. Giaime Berti & Claudia Giordano & Mariavaleria Mininni, 2021. "Assessing the Transformative Potential of Food Banks: The Case Study of Magazzini Sociali (Italy)," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-20, March.
    3. Sara A. L. Smaal & Joost Dessein & Barend J. Wind & Elke Rogge, 2021. "Social justice-oriented narratives in European urban food strategies: Bringing forward redistribution, recognition and representation," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 38(3), pages 709-727, September.
    4. Caroline Ruiner, 2021. "Voluntary Work in Digital Contexts as Gift Exchange," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-13, November.
    5. Charlotte A. Spring & Robin Biddulph, 2020. "Capturing Waste or Capturing Innovation? Comparing Self-Organising Potentials of Surplus Food Redistribution Initiatives to Prevent Food Waste," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-19, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dennis, Matthew & James, Philip, 2017. "Ecosystem services of collectively managed urban gardens: Exploring factors affecting synergies and trade-offs at the site level," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 26(PA), pages 17-26.
    2. Paul Swagemakers & Maria Dolores Dominguez Garcia & Johannes S. C. Wiskerke, 2018. "Socially-Inclusive Development and Value Creation: How a Composting Project in Galicia (Spain) ‘Hit the Rocks’," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-21, June.
    3. Nicole Rogge & Insa Theesfeld & Carola Strassner, 2018. "Social Sustainability through Social Interaction—A National Survey on Community Gardens in Germany," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-18, April.
    4. Hamid El Bilali, 2019. "The Multi-Level Perspective in Research on Sustainability Transitions in Agriculture and Food Systems: A Systematic Review," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-24, April.
    5. Hamid El Bilali, 2019. "Research on agro-food sustainability transitions: where are food security and nutrition?," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 11(3), pages 559-577, June.
    6. Stefanie Sievers-Glotzbach & Anja Christinck, 2021. "Introduction to the symposium: seed as a commons—exploring innovative concepts and practices of governing seed and varieties," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 38(2), pages 499-507, June.
    7. Contesse, Maria & van Vliet, Bas J.M. & Lenhart, Jennifer, 2018. "Is urban agriculture urban green space? A comparison of policy arrangements for urban green space and urban agriculture in Santiago de Chile," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 566-577.
    8. Dennis, M. & James, P., 2018. "Urban Social-ecological Innovation: Implications for Adaptive Natural Resource Management," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 153-164.
    9. Stefanie Sievers-Glotzbach & Johannes Euler & Christine Frison & Nina Gmeiner & Lea Kliem & Armelle Mazé & Julia Tschersich, 2021. "Beyond the material: knowledge aspects in seed commoning," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 38(2), pages 509-524, June.
    10. Stefanie Sievers-Glotzbach & Johannes Euler & · Christine Frison & Nina Gmeiner & · Lea Kliem & Armelle Mazé & Julia Tschersich, 2020. "Beyond the material: knowledge aspects in seed commoning," Post-Print hal-02979800, HAL.
    11. Thomas J.M. Mattijssen & Arjen A.E. Buijs & Birgit H.M. Elands & Bas J.M. Arts & Rosalie I. van Dam & Josine L.M. Donders, 2019. "The Transformative Potential of Active Citizenship: Understanding Changes in Local Governance Practices," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-16, October.
    12. Hamid El Bilali, 2020. "Transition heuristic frameworks in research on agro-food sustainability transitions," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 1693-1728, March.
    13. Filippo Corsini & Rafael Laurenti & Franziska Meinherz & Francesco Paolo Appio & Luca Mora, 2019. "The Advent of Practice Theories in Research on Sustainable Consumption: Past, Current and Future Directions of the Field," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-19, January.
    14. Avelino, Flor & Wittmayer, Julia M. & Pel, Bonno & Weaver, Paul & Dumitru, Adina & Haxeltine, Alex & Kemp, René & Jørgensen, Michael S. & Bauler, Tom & Ruijsink, Saskia & O'Riordan, Tim, 2019. "Transformative social innovation and (dis)empowerment," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 195-206.
    15. Mamen Cuéllar-Padilla & Ernesto Ganuza-Fernandez, 2018. "We Don’t Want to Be Officially Certified! Reasons and Implications of the Participatory Guarantee Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-15, April.
    16. Meyer, Camille, 2020. "The commons: A model for understanding collective action and entrepreneurship in communities," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 35(5).
    17. Thomas Krikser & Ingo Zasada & Annette Piorr, 2019. "Socio-Economic Viability of Urban Agriculture—A Comparative Analysis of Success Factors in Germany," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-12, April.
    18. Schäffler, Alexis & Swilling, Mark, 2013. "Valuing green infrastructure in an urban environment under pressure — The Johannesburg case," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 246-257.
    19. Judith Schicklinski, 2015. "Civil Society Actors as Drivers of Socio-ecological Transition? Green Spaces in European Cities as Laboratories of Social Innovation. WWWforEurope Working Paper No. 102," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 58259.
    20. Zahran, Sammy & Iverson, Terrence & McElmurry, Shawn P. & Weiler, Stephan & Levitt, Ryan, 2019. "Hidden Costs of Blight and Arson in Detroit: Evidence From a Natural Experiment in Devil's Night," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 266-277.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:13:p:3641-:d:245072. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.