| Kommentar |
Urban Agriculture
in Berlin, Dar es Salaam and Nairobi
Urban agriculture is at the core of a sustainable development agenda (see Nicholls et al. 2020). In the Global South, food security is a prime goal with shortened transportation routes, reduction of post-harvest losses, and responsible consumption and production being important elements (Sheahan/ Barrett 2017). In the Global North, the focus shifts more towards strengthening links between the city and nature, promoting social cohesion and fostering health (see a.o. Dobele/ Zvirbule 2020; Pinheiro/ Govind 2020; Tornaghi 2014). In the face of climate change, urban agriculture can be an adaptation strategy.
To understand and analyze urban agriculture projects and programs, it is first of all important to develop theoretical concepts and frameworks. The literature spanning the field of urban agriculture relies on many different framings and conceptual definitions. In a first block, an introduction will provide the background to the various concepts and approaches in the Global South and North. In discussions and working groups we will develop a common understanding and frame of analysis for the rest of the course.
In the second block, some case studies will be introduced for the city of Berlin, Dar es Salaam and Nairobi - in group discussions we will reflect on how this relates to what we framed in the previous blocks and whether we see regional heterogeneity with respect to objectives, design and outcomes. Afterwards, teams will adopt cases, for which they will do some first research - visiting the sites, documenting first insights for all course members and presenting and discussing the cases in class. Together, we will work out how the cases map onto the framings developed in the first block.
The presentations may already have resulted in ideas for the project work. We will brainstorm and further develop possible research questions in class in the third block. The fourth block will provide a set of tools to tackle these research questions, including review techniques, qualitative methods based on interviews, remote sensing approaches, etc.
Based on the first four blocks, the project teams will develop their research designs and present their projects in class. Mutual feedback between groups will be encouraged, as it is a very good learning experience to scrutinize each other’s research design. Subsequently, each project team will write a short expose, on the basis of which the project will be carried out. The MAP is a written report. |
| Literatur |
Dobele, M.; Zvirbule, A. (2020): The Concept of Urban Agriculture – Historical Development and Tendencies. In: RURAL SUSTAINABILITY RESEARCH 2020, VOLUME 43 (338). https://doi.org/10.2478/plua-2020-0003
Nicholls, E.; Ely, A.; Birkin, L.; Basu, P.; Goulson, D. (2020): The contribution of small‑scale food production in urban areas to the sustainable development goals: a review and case study. In: Sustainability Science (2020) 15:1585–1599. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-020-00792-z
Pinheiro, A.; Govind, M. (2020): Emerging Global Trends in Urban Agriculture Research: A Scientometric Analysis of Peer-reviewed Journals. In: Journal of Scientometric Res. 2020; 9(2):163-173. https://doi.org/10.5530/jscires.9.2.20
Sanyé-Mengual, E.; Specht, K.; Grapsa, E.; Orsini, F.; Gianquinto, G. (2019): How Can Innovation in Urban Agriculture Contribute to Sustainability? A Characterization and Evaluation Study from Five Western European Cities. In: Sustainability 11 (15), S. 4221. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11154221
Sheahan, M; Barrett, C.B. (2017): Review: Food loss and waste in Sub-Saharan Africa. In: Food Policy 70 (2017) 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2017.03.012
Tornaghi, C. (2014): Critical geography of urban agriculture. In: Progress in Human Geography 2014, Vol. 38(4) 551–567. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132513512542 |
