MAKING SPACE FOR FOOD: EVERYDAY COMMUNITY FOOD GARDENING AND ITS CONTRIBUTION TO URBAN AGRICULTURE MIKEY TOMKINS

Transcription

1 MAKING SPACE FOR FOOD: EVERYDAY COMMUNITY FOOD GARDENING AND ITS CONTRIBUTION TO URBAN AGRICULTURE MIKEY TOMKINS A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Brighton for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy April 2014

2 Abstract Abstract This thesis presents research on community food gardens as an example of urban agriculture that aims to provide evidence on the factors that influence their ability to produce food. Drawing on participant observation research and interviews with community food gardeners on six London housing estates in 2010, this thesis explores the everyday community food garden practices of residents. It explores the factors that influence food growing, from discourse, everyday practice, and spatial interactions of those who garden. Key results show that the process of transforming, constructing, and inhabiting material space occupies residents time, leading to a reduced emphasis on food production. The research concludes that food harvests as an edible outcome are only sort in quantities relative to confirming the embodied situation of social practices, a key aspect of which is the need to gain spatial sovereignty over estate s landscape. This thesis therefore concludes that these community food gardens play a minor role within urban agriculture, where an agricultural accent seeks a consolidated harvest in order to feed cities. However, they do contribute to residents sense of dwelling through cultivation, creativity, and community, arguably a major contribution in our understanding of urban agriculture where accessing space is a precursor and barrier to growing food in cities.

3 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Chapter one... 1 Introduction Introduction to research concepts and written approach Introduction Urban agriculture and global food The Global North Urban agriculture example: Communal food growing Making a space for food Research evolution: scoping to primary Thesis overview Chapter two Literature review and conceptual approach Section one: Definitions and literature Introduction Definitions Urban agriculture, community gardens, and community food gardens Spatial and temporal aspects of urban agriculture and communal growing Historical aspect of spatial tension Key issues: embodiment, spatial creation, and food harvests Methodological implications Summary: food, spatial transformation, and the everyday Section two: Conceptual approach Lefebvre and the production of space The everyday Dwelling Security and sovereignty Research questions and aims Chapter three Methods, and primary case studies i

4 3.1 Section one: Methods and primary sites Introduction Participant observation Influencing methods: constructivist grounded theory and hermeneutic phenomenology Challenges Using multiple case studies Primary research case studies Summary Section two: Data, analysis, and positionality Approach to data collection Data collection and data gathering Research as continual process Interviews, field notes, and artefacts Transcription, analysis and interpretation Reflexivity Postionality Summary Chapter four Transforming, contesting, and imagining space Introduction Section one: Results and analysis The landscape Against conceived space Transformative agents Motivations Imaginations Summary Section two: Discussion Contesting landscape Connecting and disconnecting The contingent garden ii

5 4.3.4 The mutability of community food gardening Gardens as compressed social spaces Conclusion Chapter five Making spaces for food Introduction Section one: Results and analysis Fusing construction and cultivation Qualitative aspects of making space Borrowing: between design and everyday making Why grow food? Variable harvest Bracketing Summary Section two: Discussion Dwelling Building: demolition and entanglement community food gardens and everyday creativity Food gardening as catalyst Food-(es)scapes Conclusion Chapter six Embodiment, enacting, and harvesting Introduction Second one: Results and analysis Performance Making marks, walking and routes Material resources: soil, wood and water The harvest The influence of community on harvest Summary Section two: Discussion iii

6 6.4.1 A tangle rather than a totality Temporality of food Making space for bodies, performance and food Contextualising food harvest Scaling up: Making space for food Conclusion Chapter seven Conclusions Section one: Aims and questions, summary, and reflecting Thesis aims and questions Summary Reflexivity and positionality Section two: Conclusions Introduction Harvest as embodied, contextual, abstract Making space for food Scaling Borders, brackets, and borrowing Dwelling and the everyday Urban agriculture literature Spatial sovereignty Further work, limitations Bibliography Appendices Edible Map of Surrey Street, Croydon Initial site visits Interview database Participant information sheet Consent form Summary description of estates, research period and data collection iv

7 LIST OF FIGURES All figures within this thesis are by author unless stated. Figure 1: A topology of urban agriculture types... 8 Figure 2: Surry Street Croydon showing the Garden in the Sky circled in red, Figure 3: Food gardening in public place, Pedley Street, Tower Hamlets, E Figure 4: Lefebvre's triangulation applied to community food gardens Figure 5 (left): View across De Beauvoir estate showing shopping precinct Figure 6 (right): St John s estate garden and low-rise blocks Figure 7 (left): Part of Haberdasher estate garden and adjoining street Figure 8 (right): Brownfield estate garden under construction Figure 9 (left): Lansbury estate community garden Figure 10 (right): Dirty Hands garden with a view towards the estate Figure 11: Screenshot of ExpressScribe software Figure 12: Examples of inappropriate interventions, incremental additions Figure 13: TICArchitects: photomontage of De Beauvoir estate Figure 14: Runner beans Haberdasher estate Figure 15: Dirty Hands (upper image) and Lansbury estate garden (lower image) Figure 16: The tonne bags, Haberdasher estate Figure 17: De Beauvoir estate, Left 1987 and right Figure 18: Ball court, Brownfield estate showing gardener placing palettes Figure 19: Haberdasher estate, showing the outline of the demolished pram shed Figure 20: Greening Brownfield East End Life newspaper story v