IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v57y2020i2p350-365.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Urban Agriculture in shared spaces: The difficulties with collaboration in an age of austerity

Author

Listed:
  • Rebecca St Clair

    (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK)

  • Michael Hardman

    (University of Salford, UK)

  • Richard P Armitage

    (University of Salford, UK)

  • Graeme Sherriff

    (University of Salford, UK)

Abstract

The expanding critical literature on Urban Agriculture (UA) makes links between the withdrawal of state services and the institutionalisation of volunteering, while observing that challenging funding landscapes can foster competitive environments between third-sector organisations. Where these organisations are forced to compete for survival at the expense of collaboration, their ability to collectively upscale and expand beneficial activities can be compromised. This paper focuses on a lottery-funded UA project and draws predominantly on observations and interviews held with project staff and growing group volunteers. Research conducted in Wythenshawe, Manchester (UK), highlights difficulties experienced by organisations attempting to function in an environment disfigured by depletion, illustrating conflicts that can arise between community groups and charitable organisations competing for space and resources. Inter-organisational dynamics are considered at two scales: at the grassroots level between growing groups, and at a structural level between project partners. In a landscape scarred by local authority cutbacks and restructures, a dearth of funding opportunities and increasingly precarious employment, external initiatives can be met with suspicion or hostility, particularly when viewed as superfluous interventions. The resulting ‘siege mentality’ reflects the need for organisational self-preservation but perhaps paradoxically results in groups with similar goals and complementary ideologies working against each other rather than in cooperation.

Suggested Citation

  • Rebecca St Clair & Michael Hardman & Richard P Armitage & Graeme Sherriff, 2020. "Urban Agriculture in shared spaces: The difficulties with collaboration in an age of austerity," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(2), pages 350-365, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:57:y:2020:i:2:p:350-365
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098019832486
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098019832486
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0042098019832486?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nathan McClintock & Michael Simpson, 2018. "Stacking functions: identifying motivational frames guiding urban agriculture organizations and businesses in the United States and Canada," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 35(1), pages 19-39, March.
    2. Megan Horst & Nathan McClintock & Lesli Hoey, 2017. "The Intersection of Planning, Urban Agriculture, and Food Justice: A Review of the Literature," Journal of the American Planning Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 83(3), pages 277-295, July.
    3. Church, A. & Mitchell, R. & Ravenscroft, N. & Stapleton, L.M., 2015. "‘Growing your own’: A multi-level modelling approach to understanding personal food growing trends and motivations in Europe," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 71-80.
    4. Cynthia Hardy & Nelson Phillips, 1998. "Strategies of Engagement: Lessons from the Critical Examination of Collaboration and Conflict in an Interorganizational Domain," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 9(2), pages 217-230, April.
    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. Donghyun Kim & Hyunnam Sim, 2023. "Study of Plans to Ensure the Sustainability of Urban Farming in Apartment Complexes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-27, December.
    2. Evans, Alicejane & Hardman, Michael, 2023. "Enhancing green infrastructure in cities: Urban car parks as an opportunity space," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).

    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. Nathan McClintock & Christiana Miewald & Eugene McCann, 2021. "GOVERNING URBAN AGRICULTURE: Formalization, Resistance and Re‐visioning in Two ‘Green’ Cities," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(3), pages 498-518, May.
    2. Kelsey Ryan-Simkins, 2021. "The intersection of food justice and religious values in secular spaces: insights from a nonprofit urban farm in Columbus, Ohio," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 38(3), pages 767-781, September.
    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. Bill Harley & Cynthia Hardy, 2004. "Firing Blanks? An Analysis of Discursive Struggle in HRM," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(3), pages 377-400, May.
    5. Alexandra Titz & Sosten S. Chiotha, 2019. "Pathways for Sustainable and Inclusive Cities in Southern and Eastern Africa through Urban Green Infrastructure?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-27, May.
    6. Jan Eelco Jansma & Sigrid CO Wertheim-Heck, 2024. "A city of gardeners: What happens when policy, planning, and populace co-create the food production of a novel peri-urban area?," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 51(3), pages 705-720, March.
    7. Dickson, Geoff & Arnold, Trevor & Chalip, Laurence, 2005. "League Expansion and Interorganisational Power," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 145-165, September.
    8. M. Okimoto, 2020. "Optimal trade strategy of a regional economy by food exports," Papers 2003.04307, arXiv.org.
    9. Wittneben, B.B.F., 2007. "The Clean Development Mechanism: Institutionalizing New Power Relations," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2007-004-ORG, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    10. Baka, Anastasia & Mabon, Leslie, 2020. "Assessing equality in neighbourhood availability of quality greenspace in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom," SocArXiv d9jeh, Center for Open Science.
    11. Daniel C. Kelly, 2023. "Committing to change? A case study on volunteer engagement at a New Zealand urban farm," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 40(3), pages 1317-1331, September.
    12. Todeva, Emanuela & Fu, Yan, 2010. "Multinational investment projects in the petrochemical industry in China," MPRA Paper 67615, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Sarvenaz Pakravan & Shahin Keynoush & Ehsan Daneshyar, 2022. "Proposing a Pedagogical Framework for Integrating Urban Agriculture as a Tool to Achieve Social Sustainability within the Interior Design Studio," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-32, June.
    14. Bliss, Sam & Egler, Megan, 2020. "Ecological Economics Beyond Markets," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    15. Mabon, Leslie & Shih, Wan-Yu, 2018. "What might ‘just green enough’ urban development mean in the context of climate change adaptation? The case of urban greenspace planning in Taipei Metropolis, Taiwan," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 224-238.
    16. Alex Nicholls & Benjamin Huybrechts, 2016. "Sustaining Inter-organizational Relationships Across Institutional Logics and Power Asymmetries: The Case of Fair Trade," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 135(4), pages 699-714, June.
    17. Alban Hasson, 2019. "Building London’s Food Democracy: Assessing the Contributions of Urban Agriculture to Local Food Decision-Making," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(4), pages 154-164.
    18. Leelanayagi Ramalingam & Juwaidah Sharifuddin & Zainal Abidin Mohamed & Fazlin Ali, 2018. "Community Garden Programme: The Volunteers’ Satisfaction," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 8(5), pages 436-443, May.
    19. Joshua F. Ceñido & C. Freeman & Shahrzad Bazargan-Hejazi, 2019. "Environmental Interventions for Physical and Mental Health: Challenges and Opportunities for Greater Los Angeles," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(12), pages 1-14, June.
    20. L A Franco, 2007. "Assessing the impact of problem structuring methods in multi-organizational settings: an empirical investigation," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 58(6), pages 760-768, June.

    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:sae:urbstu:v:57:y:2020:i:2:p:350-365. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    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.