Social Sustainability through Social Interaction—A National Survey on Community Gardens in Germany

Nicole Rogge,Insa Theesfeld,Carola Strassner

doi:10.3390/su10041085

Nicole Rogge, Insa Theesfeld + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su10041085

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Abstract

Community gardening has become a growing movement in cities all over the world, where these diverse collectively managed spaces provide various economic, ecological, and social benefits for urban residents. Particularly in developed countries such as Germany, social benefits are the motivation to participate in community gardens more so than the harvests. Although research on community gardens has grown, including the question of their benefits to a sustainable development, there is little literature studying the social importance and social sustainability of community gardens. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine social interaction, participation, and perceived success as a concept to assess social sustainability. The paper further aims to examine the conditions influencing social sustainability within community gardens. With the help of an online survey, we collect data from 123 community gardens throughout Germany, with which we assess diverse degrees of social sustainability. Causalities of gardens’ social sustainability are analyzed with a multiple linear regression model. Results indicate that there is no significant relationship between size of community and social sustainability, rather aspects of trust and management have a strong effect on social sustainability. Findings like these lead to a better understanding of social interaction in urban communities that contribute to more social sustainability.

Highlights

In the last three decades, the importance of urban agriculture has increased to become a growing international movement [1,2,3]
While we find professional and sometimes very technical urban agriculture activities focusing on food production and food provision for the urban population, we further find small social-orientated gardening activities as an expression of self-determination, self-experience, social interaction or social change
Referring to the increasing number of studies discussing the social benefits of community gardens, this paper provides a new methodological approach to evaluate the social sustainability of community gardens according to their social interaction, often referred to as social capital

Summary

Introduction

In the last three decades, the importance of urban agriculture has increased to become a growing international movement [1,2,3]. The necessity to move towards sustainable development is underlined by the global Agenda 2030 and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by the United Nations in 2015. These 17 SDGs are integrated and consistent with the three dimensions of sustainable development: the environment, focusing on the conservation of natural resources [5]; the economy, focusing on prosperity for all human beings [6]; and society, focusing on people’s basic needs [5,7]. There are no widely acknowledged definitions for these dimensions

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