Allotment Garden Communities and their contribution to Neighbourhood Development

• Research unit: COST
• Project number: C14.0089

Key words (English)

Allotment gardens; communities; neighbourhood development; social change; ethnographic research

Research programs (English)

COST-Action TU1201 - Urban Allotment Gardens in European Cities - Future, Challenges and Lessons Learned

Short description (English)

Starting point for the planned research project is the observed, but rarely studied relationship between Allotment Gardens and the phenomenon of community. In Allotment Garden areas, differentiated and complex communal lives involving specific social practices develop, that in many cases have spanned across generations, and which can be understood as constituting a specific way of everyday life. Recently however allotment gardens in Switzerland are being re-discovered by a new, younger generation of users, who bring in new social practices and ideas of community to the allotment garden areas, initiating transformations within the community as well as potentially changing the role of allotment garden areas for the wider neighbourhood. By conducting in-depth explorative and ethnographic research of two transforming allotment gardens in the cities Basel and Bern, this research project will analyse how allotment garden communities are being (re-) produced in the studied gardens and how the communities incorporate changes in meaning and function of the gardens brought in by new users. It will also look into the wider context of the neighbourhood and ask which (potential) contribution allotment garden communities play for the surrounding neighbourhood development.

Further information (English)

Full name of research-institution/enterprise: University of Applied Arts Northwestern Switzerland School of Social Work Inst. of Social Planning + Urban Development

Partners and International Organizations (English)

AT; BE; HR; CY; CZ; DK; EE; FI; FR; MK; DE; EL; IE; IL; IT; LV; LT; LU; MT; NL; NO; PL; PT; RS; SK; SI; ES; SE; UK; NZ

Abstract (English)

Starting point for this research project is the observed, but rarely studied relationship between Allotment Gardens and the phenomenon of community. In Allotment Garden areas, differentiated and complex communal lives involving specific social practices and attachments develop, that in many cases have spanned across generations, and which can be understood as constituting a specific way of everyday life. Recently however allotment gardens in Switzerland are being re-discovered by a new, younger generation of users, who bring in new social practices and ideas of community to the allotment garden areas. By conducting in-depth explorative and ethnographic research of two transforming allotment gardens in the cities Basel and Bern, this research project will analyse how allotment garden communities are being (re-) produced in the studied gardens and how the communities incorporate changes in meaning and function of the gardens brought in by new users. It will also look into the wider context of the neighbourhood and ask which (potential) contribution allotment garden communities play for the surrounding neighbourhood development.

References in databases (English)

Swiss Database: COST-DB of the State Secretariat for Education and Research Hallwylstrasse 4 CH-3003 Berne, Switzerland Tel. [phone] Swiss Project-Number: C14.0089