Greening the post crisis. Collectivity in private and public community gardens in València (Spain)

Abstract

Unlike other Western European countries, community gardens have appeared very recently in Spain, and they have rapidly increased during the last decade. Community gardens have adopted different forms –rental, municipal and associative– with contrasted managerial practices. This paper analyzes collectivity of community gardens in València (Spain), including private initiatives, through semi-structured interviews conducted in different gardens of the València Metropolitan Area. Results show how the financial crisis has acted as a catalyst for urban greening latent demands, causing the expansion of community gardens. Despite the different structure, practices and rules of private and public gardens, all of them share aims and actions related to urban greening, food sovereignty, organic farming and community building, and show similar benefits to those observed in other countries. Moreover, the rental gardens allow farmers to expand their services and to engage directly with consumers.