Glasgow's Community Gardens: Sustainable Communities of Care

Abstract

Drawing upon new approaches to thinking about care, as summarised in the above quote, this research set out to explore the inter-relationships between sustainability, health, well-being and the urban environment. Through actively engaging with existing grassroots projects involved in community gardening in Glasgow, the project goes beyond existing top-down public policy initiatives, to explore bottom-up and collaborative models of urban regeneration. The research project underpinning this report was designed in collaboration with grassroots community garden groups in the city. Bringing together the experiences and opinions of volunteers and staff working in these gardens and a number of experts and activists in the related areas of Urban Agriculture (UA) and urban green space use, the report identifies a number of ways in which gardens benefit communities. It also assesses a number of challenges faced by community groups as they try to construct a sustainable future for community gardening in Glasgow.After a brief introduction to community gardening in Glasgow, this report outlines a range of benefits accrued to individuals that participate in community garden activities and the wider communities that live in relative proximity to the gardens. The report then considers the main challenges faced by community garden groups in the city. Definition of Community GardensIn this study we employed a standard definition of community gardens -one that differentiates this form of organisation from allotments, which are frequently more formally organised and have greater ownership rights over their sites of activity."Community gardens are locally managed pieces of land that are developed in response to and reflect the needs of the communities in which they are based. They may be associated with other community resources such as community centres or schools, but often are 'stand-alone'. Not all community gardens are involved in growing -some are focused on amenity and recreation, others prioritise biodiversity or therapeutic gardening. Many include elements of fruit and vegetable growing within their activities and some focus strongly on these activities" (Greenspace Scotland 2011).

Penerokaan aset manusia dalam kalangan peserta projek kebun komuniti

“…Kebun komuniti merupakan suatu kawasan tanah yang diurus oleh penduduk setempat dengan pengurusan aktiviti berkebun mengikut cara tersendiri. Oleh itu, tindakan komuniti merupakan suatu keperluan untuk menubuhkannya (Crossan et al, 2015). Sebanyak 250 buah PKK telah diwujudkan di seluruh negara semenjak program pertanian bandar dilaksanakan pada tahun 2014.…”