Integration of knowledge systems in urban farming initiatives: insight from Taipei Garden City.

Abstract

There is growing interest globally in the potential of urban farming to respond to a breadth of urban sustainability challenges. Yet it is also recognised that the policy and implementation of this nature-based strategy is influenced by an underlying science–policy–practice community. The aim of this paper is to understand how different actors and knowledges come together to form a science–policy–practice community for a citywide urban farming initiative—Taipei Garden City. The result shows that the science–policy–practice community was formed in a dynamic ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ process. This allows long-term public–private partnership to be developed and enables different knowledges and experiences to co-exist in policies and practices. This study argues that in-between spaces and actors, who can cut across different fora, are vital to make urban farming interventions happen. Nonetheless, we also question the extent to which embodied and experiential knowledge is sufficient to support environmentally and socially appropriate outcomes for attaining urban sustainability.