From small-scale agriculture to urban agriculture: women, subsistence economy, and the question of the commons

The article presents an historical panorama of the importance of small-scale, subsistence farming, mainly by women, over two centuries: from the loss of the commons associated with the abolition of the ‘second serfdom’ in Prussia in the early nineteenth century to urban farming and gardening in twenty first century cities of Europe, America and Africa. On the way it addresses subsistence farming in towns, new communities and garden cities at the turn of the twentieth century and similar initiatives following both world wars, including the vexed question of the unacknowledged but vitally significant subsistence family production in both socialist eastern Europe in general and eastern Germany in particular. Waves of urban and community gardening in the 1970s and 1990s are also discussed, as are recent ‘food sovereignty’ movements such as La Campesina and Nyéléni. It concludes with a call not only to reclaim the commons but to reintroduce the commons as part of a new socio-ecological policy which will feed people and counter unemployment and urban slum development.