Experimental urban commons?: Re-examining urban community food gardens in Cape Town, South Africa
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Date
2023
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Abstract
Contemporary literature on urban agriculture often analyses urban community gardens as ‘existing’ commons with the capacity to counter neoliberal urban development and resource management practices. However, the existing literature on ‘political gardening’ generally focuses on cities in North America and Europe, despite the prevalence of urban community gardens and neoliberal planning across other regions, including Southern cities. This paper examines urban community gardens in Cape Town, South Africa to assess their capacity to function as urban commons in six areas: infrastructure, inputs, land, produce, labour and immaterial components. This mixed‐methods study employed questionnaires, semi‐structured interviews and observations across 34 urban community gardens in the city. The findings and analysis demonstrate how the urban community gardens counter neoliberal privatisation and individualisation processes. However, their capacity to function as urban commons is significantly curtailed by an entrenchment within the neoliberal context. Thus, the urban community gardens are framed as ‘experimental’ commons, a valuable re‐conceptualisation of alternative resource utilisation in neoliberal Southern cities.
Description
Keywords
Cape Town, community gardens, experimental-commons, mixed-methods study, neoliberalism, urban agriculture
Citation
Kanosvamhira, T.P., Follmann, A. and Tevera, D., 2024. Experimental urban commons?: Re‐examining urban community food gardens in Cape Town, South Africa. The Geographical Journal, 190(2), p.e12553.