Foreword by Runrid Fox-Kämper
1 Urban gardening and the quest for just uses of space in Europe - Chiara Certomà, Martin Sondermann and Susan Noori
2 Conflation in political gardening: concepts and practice - Lucy Rose Wright and Ross Fraser Young
3 City wastelands: creating places of vernacular democracy - Beata J. Gawryszewska, Maciej Lepkowski And Anna Wilczynska
4 Temporary urban landscapes and urban gardening: re-inventing open space in Greece and Switzerland - Sofia Nikolaidou
5 Urban gardening and spatial justice from a mid-size city perspective: the case of Ortobello Urban Garden - Giuseppe Aliperti and Silvia Sarti
6 Community gardening for integrated urban renewal in Copenhagen: securing or denying minorities’ right to the city? - Parama Roy
7 Limits to growth? Why gardening has limited success growing inclusive communities - Hannah Pitt
8 Is urban gardening a source of wellbeing and just freedom? A Capability Approach based analysis from the UK and Ireland - Alma Clavin
9 Food for all? Critically evaluating the role of the Incredible Edible movement in the UK - Michael Hardman, Mags Adams, Melissa Barker and Luke Beesley
10 The foreseen future of urban gardening - Efrat Eizenberg
Index

This is the first book which explicitly addresses the issue of urban gardening and spatial justice. As urban gardening initiatives have mushroomed worldwide, they have targeted a wide range of disparate goals, the majority of which are proven to be socio-political, rather than merely environmental, ecological or economic. By combining scholarly perspectives with real cases, the essays in this collection focus on how urban gardening practices are able to address the most fundamental issues of spatial justice, social cohesion, inclusiveness, social innovations and equity in cities.

The first section of the book focuses on the political reading of urban gardening by presenting a comprehensive overview of the different trajectories and forms it takes. Sitting in the broader context of political gardening, the second section presents a rich and insightful array of real-life cases. These explore the daily practices of urban gardeners in transforming neglected spaces into vibrant and inclusive spaces of justice in the city. The third section critically scrutinises the consequences of urban gardening initiatives in terms of injustice mitigation in the city, by assessing their potential for place revitalisation and community engagement.

The book will be of particular interest to the research community and engaged scholars. It will also appeal to civic associations, gardeners, urban policy-makers and planners outside academia who want to gain a more nuanced understanding of the phenomenon of urban gardening, and look at its potential beyond an idea of simply greening the city.