Urban Agriculture in shared spaces: The difficulties with collaboration in an age of austerity

Rebecca St Clair, Michael Hardman, Richard P Armitage and Graeme Sherriff
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Rebecca St Clair: Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
Michael Hardman: University of Salford, UK
Richard P Armitage: University of Salford, UK
Graeme Sherriff: University of Salford, UK

Urban Studies, 2020, vol. 57, issue 2, 350-365

Abstract: The expanding critical literature on Urban Agriculture (UA) makes links between the withdrawal of state services and the institutionalisation of volunteering, while observing that challenging funding landscapes can foster competitive environments between third-sector organisations. Where these organisations are forced to compete for survival at the expense of collaboration, their ability to collectively upscale and expand beneficial activities can be compromised. This paper focuses on a lottery-funded UA project and draws predominantly on observations and interviews held with project staff and growing group volunteers. Research conducted in Wythenshawe, Manchester (UK), highlights difficulties experienced by organisations attempting to function in an environment disfigured by depletion, illustrating conflicts that can arise between community groups and charitable organisations competing for space and resources. Inter-organisational dynamics are considered at two scales: at the grassroots level between growing groups, and at a structural level between project partners. In a landscape scarred by local authority cutbacks and restructures, a dearth of funding opportunities and increasingly precarious employment, external initiatives can be met with suspicion or hostility, particularly when viewed as superfluous interventions. The resulting ‘siege mentality’ reflects the need for organisational self-preservation but perhaps paradoxically results in groups with similar goals and complementary ideologies working against each other rather than in cooperation.

Keywords: community growing; critical geography; neoliberalism; Urban Agriculture; urban farming; ç¤¾åŒºå ‘å±•; æ‰¹åˆ¤åœ°ç †; 新自由主义; 都市农业; 城市农业 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:57:y:2020:i:2:p:350-365

DOI: 10.1177/0042098019832486

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