scholarly journals Sustainable Community Gardens Require Social Engagement and Training: A Users’ Needs Analysis in Europe

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (14) ◽  
pp. 3978 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesus Ochoa ◽  
Esther Sanyé-Mengual ◽  
Kathrin Specht ◽  
Juan A. Fernández ◽  
Sebastián Bañón ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Engagement ◽  
Community Gardens ◽  
Needs Analysis ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Management Skills ◽  
Urban Gardens ◽  
Community Gardening ◽  
Training Requirements ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Urban Community Gardens

Urban gardens are spreading in many cities across Europe, with community gardening being a fundamental form of urban agriculture. While the literature reveals the essential role that community gardens can play in terms of learning and education, no studies have investigated the training needs for participants in community gardens to ensure their successful development. The goal of this article is to evaluate the training requirements of urban community gardens to ensure their successful implementation and their contribution to sustainability in European cities. Two questionnaires of users’ needs analysis were designed and implemented in Berlin, Bologna, Budapest, and Cartagena. The results unveiled the need to re-enforce the training in the formation and community building phases of community gardens towards ensuring the creation of an engaged gardening community to maintain activity, particularly for top-down activities (e.g., research-related gardens). Users claimed their need for being trained on crop management skills (e.g., maintenance, bed preparation, organic practices) and on communication skills to further disseminate their activity, thereby increasing the potential for citizen engagement. Such requirements could be overcome with the creation of urban gardens networks, where experiences and knowledge are shared among practitioners. Policy recommendations are provided based on the outputs of this study.

scholarly journals Self-Organisation in Urban Community Gardens: Autogestion, Motivations, and the Role of Communication

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 2659 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Yap
Keyword(s):  
Urban Community ◽  
Community Gardens ◽  
Spatial Development ◽  
Urban Gardens ◽  
Participatory Video ◽  
Dynamic Relationship ◽  
Self Organisation ◽  
Urban Community Gardens

Urban gardens are continuously negotiated, contested, and remade. One of the primary ways that these spaces are negotiated is through the ways that communities self-organise to manage them. Drawing on critical urban scholarship, this article explores the ways in which the dynamics of self-organisation in urban gardens both shape and are shaped by the spatial development of the sites. Reflecting on two cycles of participatory video-making with urban gardeners in Seville, Spain, the article specifically examines how the motivations of the gardeners and the issue of communication influence the dynamic relationship between self-organisation and the spatial development of gardens.

scholarly journals Participation in community gardening: Sowing the seeds of well-being

2021 ◽  
pp. 000841742199438
Author(s):  
Melinda J. Suto ◽  
Shelagh Smith ◽  
Natasha Damiano ◽  
Shurli Channe
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Connectedness ◽  
Community Gardens ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Supported Housing ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Community Gardening ◽  
Mental Health Issues

Background. Sustaining well-being challenges people with serious mental health issues. Community gardening is an occupation used to promote clients’ well-being, yet there is limited evidence to support this intervention. Purpose. This paper examines how facilitated community gardening programs changed the subjective well-being and social connectedness of people living with mental health issues. Method. A community-based participatory research approach and qualitative methods were used with 23 adults living in supported housing and participating in supported community gardening programs. A constructivist approach guided inductive data analysis. Findings. Participation in community gardening programs enhanced well-being through welcoming places, a sense of belonging, and developing positive feelings through doing. The connection to living things and responsibility for plants grounded participants in the present and offered a unique venue for learning about gardening and themselves. Implications. Practitioners and service-users should collaborate to develop leadership, programs, places, and processes within community gardens to enhance well-being.

scholarly journals Total and Bioaccessible Soil Arsenic and Lead Levels and Plant Uptake in Three Urban Community Gardens in Puerto Rico

Geosciences ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Misenheimer ◽  
Clay Nelson ◽  
Evelyn Huertas ◽  
Myriam Medina-Vera ◽  
Alex Prevatte ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Puerto Rico ◽  
Plant Uptake ◽  
Urban Community ◽  
Community Gardens ◽  
Soil Arsenic ◽  
Lead Levels ◽  
Urban Community Gardens

scholarly journals Benefits of Community Gardening on Quality-of-Life Issues

1996 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 204-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tina M. Waliczek ◽  
Richard H. Mattson ◽  
Jayne M. Zajicek
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
New York ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Community Gardens ◽  
Nationwide Survey ◽  
Community Gardening ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
Human Needs ◽  
Life Issues

Abstract A nationwide survey of community gardeners found differences in rankings of the importance of community gardens related to quality-of-life perceptions based on Maslow' hierarchy of human needs model. Race, gender, and city sizes affected perceptions. When comparisons were made among the four racial/ethnic divisions, responses to 18 of the 24 questions were found to be statistically different. Community gardens were especially important to African-American and Hispanic gardeners. Male and female gardeners rated quality-of-life benefits from gardens similarly in importance. However, women placed higher value on the importance of saving money and the beauty within the garden. Gardeners in small, medium, and large metropolitan cities had similar quality-of-life perceptions with only 4 of the 24 statement responses showing significant differences. Significant differences were found in 10 of the 24 statement responses between gardeners of the two large cities of Los Angeles and New York. In most cases, mean ratings were higher for gardeners in New York than those in Los Angeles.

scholarly journals Impact of community gardening on lifestyles' sustainability: quantitative & qualitative evaluation of a natural experiment

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marion Tharrey ◽  
Ashby Sachs ◽  
Marlène Perignon ◽  
Chantal Simon ◽  
Caroline Mejean ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Design ◽  
Community Gardens ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Health ◽  
Lower Percentage ◽  
Independent Effect ◽  
First Year ◽  
Community Garden ◽  
Community Gardening ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background: Despite the increasing number of studies on gardening and health, evidence of health benefits of community gardening is limited by cross-sectional design. The “JArDinS” quasi-experimental study aimed to assess the impact of community garden participation on the adoption of more sustainable lifestyles in French adults. Methods: Individuals starting gardening in community gardens in Montpellier (France) in 2018 (N=66) were compared to pairwise matched individuals with no experience in community gardening (N=66). Monthly household food supplies, physical activity measured by accelerometers and questionnaires on physical, mental and social well-being, sensitivity to food waste, and connection with nature were used to explore sustainability of lifestyles in social/health, environmental and economic dimensions. Data were collected at baseline (t0) and 12 months later (t1). Linear mixed models were used to determine the independent effect of community gardening on investigated lifestyles components. In-depth interviews were conducted at t1 with 15 gardeners to better understand changes that may have occurred in gardeners’ lives during the first year of gardening.Results: At t0, gardeners had lower education level, lower BMI and reported lower percentage of meals consumed outside of the home in total household meals compared to non-gardeners (p<0.05). At t1, the mean weight of fruit and vegetables harvested from the garden was 19.5g/d/p. Participating in the community garden had no significant impact on any of the social/health, environmental and economic lifestyle components investigated. Qualitative interviews suggested the existence of pre-established health and environmental consciousness in some gardeners and revealed several barriers to the participation such as lack of time, lack of gardening knowledge, difficulty of gardening, health problems and conflicts with other gardeners. Conclusions: Using a longitudinal design allowing causality assessment, no impact was observed of the first year of community gardening on lifestyle sustainability. The pre-established sensitivity to sustainability and the various barriers encountered by new gardeners might explain the absence of community gardening impact. Further rigorous longitudinal studies are needed to determine whether or not community gardening is a relevant public health tool.Trial registration: The study was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT03694782. Date of registration: 3rd October 2018, retrospectively registered.

Qualifying human capital in the context of socialization of the economic system of the area

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (11) ◽  
pp. 2071-2085
Author(s):  
Ramil’ M. SADYKOV
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Social Development ◽  
Economic System ◽  
Social Engagement ◽  
Human Factor ◽  
Economic Wealth ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Main Determinants ◽  
Conditions Of Work

Subject. This article discusses the role of the employee as an object and subject of the flow of work. Objectives. The article aims to analyze the modifications of human capital and identify the main determinants and factors of these modifications. Methods. For the study, I used logical, functional, comparative, systemic, statistical, and sociological methods. Results. The article identifies determinants and factors of modification of human capital in the conditions of social engagement of the economic system and determines the main characteristics and sources of its development. Conclusions. Qualitative renewal of human capital is determined primarily by changes in the nature and conditions of work, the type and characteristics of the employee, the employee’s role in the creation and accumulation of economic wealth. The human factor becomes the main source and impetus of economic and social development.

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