Resolving differing stakeholder perceptions of urban rooftop farming in Mediterranean cities : promoting food production as a driver for innovative forms of urban agriculture
Sanyé Mengual, Esther (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals)
Anguelovski, Isabelle (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals)
Oliver i Solà, Jordi (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament d'Enginyeria Química, Biològica i Ambiental)
Montero Camacho, Juan Ignacio (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals)
Rieradevall, Joan (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament d'Enginyeria Química, Biològica i Ambiental)

Date:	2015
Abstract:	Urban agriculture (UA) is spreading within the Global North, largely for food production, ranging from household individual gardens to community gardens that boost neighborhood regeneration. Additionally, UA is also being integrated into buildings, such as Urban Rooftop Farming (URF). Some URF experiences succeed in North America both as private and community initiatives. To date, little attention has been paid to how stakeholders perceive UA and URF in the Mediterranean or to the role of food production in these initiatives. This study examines the promotion and inclusion of new forms of UA through the practice of URF and contributes to the nascent literature on the stakeholder and public perceptions of UA. It seeks to understand how those perceptions shape the development of new urban agriculture practices and projects. Barcelona (Spain) was used as a Mediterranean case study where UA and URF projects are growing in popularity. Through semi-structured interviews with 25 core stakeholders, we show that UA is largely perceived as a social activity rather than a food production initiative, because the planning of urban gardens in Barcelona was traditionally done to achieve leisure and other social goals. However, several stakeholders highlighted the potential to increase urban fertility through URF by occupying currently unused spaces. As a result, the positive valuation of URF depends on the conceptualization of UA as a social or food production activity. In turn, such conceptualization shapes barriers and opportunities for the development of URF. While most UA-related stakeholders (e. g. , food co-ops, NGOs) preferred soil-based UA, newer stakeholders (e. g. , architects) highlighted the economic, social and environmental opportunities of local and efficient food production through innovative URF.
Grants:	Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad CTM2013-47067-C2-1-R
Rights:	Tots els drets reservats.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió acceptada per publicar
Subject:	Rooftop farming ; Rooftop greenhouses ; Urban self-sufficiency ; Local production
Published in:	Agriculture and human values, Vol. 33 Issue 1 (March 2016) , p. 101-120, ISSN 0889-048X

DOI: 10.1007/s10460-015-9594-y

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA) > The Barcelona Lab for Urban Environmental Justice and Sustainability
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA) > Sustainability and Environmental Protection (Sostenipra)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles