- Hynes, P. H., G. Howe. 2004. “Urban Horticulture in the Contemporary United States: Personal and Community Benefits.” ISHS: 171-181.
Abstract: “The early history of urban gardens in the United States of America is one of food production in response to war, economic depression, and short-lived civic reform movements. During the past thirty years, a broad-based community garden movement has spawned a wide variety of social, economic, health, and educational benefits in more than 250 cities and towns across the country. A companion food security movement has promoted urban-rural linkages, urban agriculture, and farmers’ markets. Studies have shown that community gardens and nearby green space in cities are an important response to needs for nutritious and affordable food, psychological and physiological health, social cohesion, crime prevention, recreation, and life satisfaction, particularly in low-income communities.”
This study relates to our project through the exploration of urban community gardens as a wide-spread response to certain aspects of life that are generally lacking for people living in cities. This background helps us create a better understanding of the affects that urban gardens have on people’s lives and the broader reasons for which they have been implemented.
2. Gottlieb, Robert and Andrew Fisher. 1996. “Community food security and environmental justice: Searching for a common discourse.” Agriculture and Human Values: 23-32.
Abstract: “Community food security and environmental justice are parallel social movements interested in equity and justice and system-wide factors. They share a concern for issues of daily life and the need to establish community empowerment strategies. Both movements have also begun to reshape the discourse of sustainable agriculture, environmentalism and social welfare advocacy. However, community food security and environmental justice remain separate movements, indicating an incomplete process in reshaping agendas and discourse. Joining these movements through a common language of empowerment and systems analysis would strongly enhance the development of a more powerful, integrated approach. That opportunity can be located in the efforts to incorporate community food security and environmental justice approaches in current Farm Bill legislation; in particular, provisions addressing community food production, direct marketing, community development, and community food planning.”
This study relates to our project by providing a background on community food production in relation to environmental and social justice movements. Understanding the broader relations of urban community gardening with socio-economic factors including community food security helps us delve further into factors of motivation.
3. Firth, Chris, Damian Maye, and David Pearson. 2011. “Developing “community” in community gardens.” Local Environment: 555-568.
Abstract: “Community gardens are enjoying a renaissance, thought to be due to people’s desire to reconnect with food, nature and community. This paper presents results from an exploratory investigation of two community gardens in Nottingham, supported by regional and national contextual analysis. It examines the nature and construction of “community” in community gardens and how they benefit their local communities. Results from case-study work show how community gardens help to build cohesion and vitality in a community, contributing to the generation of bonding, bridging and linking social capital. The composition of these capitals varies between the case-study gardens, dependent on the type of community formed. Two categories of community garden are identified in the paper: “place-based” and “interest-based”. The former are more territorially embedded in the local community, while the latter may span across diverse communities, with the social capital generated remaining within an “interest community”. These categories may not always map neatly on to one community garden, although one category may be more immediately evident. The article also suggests directions for future research, including complementary research frameworks to further develop understandings of social capital metrics.”
This study relates to our project by providing a framework to understand how community is actually created in community gardens and in what ways this sense of community can impact a broader region. This study on the production and process of community building within community gardens provides for our project a more general understanding of what types of relations we will be exploring.
4. Lawson, Laura. 2004. “The Planner in the Garden: A Historical View into the Relationship between Planning and Community Gardens.” Journal of Planning History: 151-176.
Abstract: “A historical review of community garden programs in the United States since the 1890s reveals an ambivalent relationship between community gardens and the planning profession. On one hand, garden programs are praised and supported as local action to serve environmental, social, and individual objectives. On the other hand, because they are perceived as opportunistic and temporary, community gardens are largely ignored in long-range planning. Socially constructed as public catalyst and private resource, community gardens illustrate unresolved tensions between planning as a profession and as a civic concern and between comprehensive planning and interim, local interventions.”
This study relates to our project through providing a framework that critically examines the impacts community gardens have on long-term civic planning. Understanding the potential downfalls of community gardens is important to understand the impacts they have on quality of life from a different perspective.
5. Guitart, Daniela, Catherine Pickering, and Jason Byrne. 2012. “Past results and future directions in urban community gardens research.” Urban Forestry and Urban Greening: 364-373.
“Globally, rapid urbanisation has substantially reduced the amount of viable agricultural land – a food security issue. Food security is bringing a renewed scholarly interest in community gardens. This paper reviews the extent of English academic literature on community gardens, including: who has undertaken the research, where it has been published, the geographical location of the gardens studied, and the various methods used to undertake the research. The characteristics of the community gardens are summarised, including what types of plants are grown, who is involved in the gardens, and who owns the land. The motivations, benefits and limitations of community gardening are also examined. Finally, potential directions for research into community gardens are highlighted. Academic literature on community gardens is dominated by studies investigating gardens in low-income areas with diverse cultural backgrounds. Research based in cities in the USA also dominates the literature. Scholars from a wide diversity of disciplines have examined community gardens but research is mostly concentrated in the social sciences. The natural sciences are notably under-represented, yet they have much to offer including assessing gardening practices to better understand the agro-biodiversity conservation potential of community gardens.”
This study also explores the relationship between urbanization, food security, and community gardens and is useful for our project because it provides detailed descriptions of land ownership, specific plants in the gardens, and which individuals are involved with the gardens.