“Who Needs Money if You Got Hands, if You Got Plants” Forming Community Resilience in Two Urban Gardening Networks in South Africa

Abstract

Community resilience is influenced by the structure of social networks in a community. In urban areas, social networks tend to be fragmented and diverse, and hence building community resilience is a challenge. Our objective is to shed light on how social network structures affect community resilience in two urban gardening groups in South Africa. The results of this qualitative study show that the two non-hierarchical groups place a strong emphasis on key personalities as leaders. The common motivation and shared values of the group help individuals overcome social heterogeneity and form trust. A decentralized network structure with different kinds of leaders helps group members divide power and responsibility; it also promotes a sense of ownership and capacity building in its members. Moreover, a no-money policy supports independence from access to financial resources, makes the group self-sufficient, and prevents conflict. Our results suggest that for a certain size of group, working in local clusters can create a decentralized network and a redundant leadership structure.