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The nature of urban gardens: toward a political ecology of urban agriculture

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  • Michael Classens

Abstract

With a few notable exceptions, urban garden scholarship tends to be either celebratory or critical of the role urban gardens play in wider political, social, cultural, economic and ecological dynamics. Drawing on urban political ecology scholarship, this article explores the question of nature within scholarship on urban gardens. I argue that failing to adequately scrutinize the co-constitutive character of nature and society has led some scholars to overlook the potential for urban gardens to achieve broader socio-political goals, and led others to overstate the potential. Employing a political ecology approach to urban garden analysis clarifies the material and discursive role of nature in urban garden practice, and ultimately contributes to untangling the potential and limits of urban gardens as sites of socio-political change. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

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  • Michael Classens, 2015. "The nature of urban gardens: toward a political ecology of urban agriculture," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 32(2), pages 229-239, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:32:y:2015:i:2:p:229-239
    DOI: 10.1007/s10460-014-9540-4
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Benjamin Hennchen & Michael Pregernig, 2020. "Organizing Joint Practices in Urban Food Initiatives—A Comparative Analysis of Gardening, Cooking and Eating Together," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-18, May.
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    4. Claire E Bach & Nathan McClintock, 2021. "Reclaiming the city one plot at a time? DIY garden projects, radical democracy, and the politics of spatial appropriation," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 39(5), pages 859-878, August.
    5. Pingyang Liu & Paul Gilchrist & Becky Taylor & Neil Ravenscroft, 2017. "The spaces and times of community farming," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(2), pages 363-375, June.
    6. Manganelli, Alessandra & Moulaert, Frank, 2019. "Scaling out access to land for urban agriculture. Governance hybridities in the Brussels-Capital Region," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 391-400.
    7. Leslie Gray & Laureen Elgert & Antoinette WinklerPrins, 2020. "Theorizing urban agriculture: north–south convergence," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(3), pages 869-883, September.
    8. Colleen Hammelman & Elizabeth Shoffner & Maria Cruzat & Samantha Lee, 2022. "Assembling agroecological socio-natures: a political ecology analysis of urban and peri-urban agriculture in Rosario, Argentina," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 39(1), pages 371-383, March.
    9. 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.

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