Today, 20 percent of the global food supply relies on urban agriculture: social-ecological systems shaped by both human and non-human interactions. This book shows how urban agroecologists measure flora and fauna that underpin the ecological dynamics of these systems, and how people manage and benefit from these systems. It explains how the sociopolitical landscape in which these systems are embedded can in turn shape the social, ecological, political, and economic dynamics within them. Synthesizing interdisciplinary approaches in urban agroecology in the natural and social sciences, the book explores methodologies and new directions in research that can be adopted by scholars and practitioners alike.
With contributions from researchers utilizing both social and natural science approaches, Urban Agroecology describes the current social-environmental understandings of the science, the movement and the practices in urban agroecology. By investigating the role of agroecology in cities, the book calls for the creation of spaces for food to be sustainably grown in urban spaces: an Urban Agriculture (UA) movement. Essential reading for graduate students, practitioners, policy makers and researchers, this book charts the course for accelerating this movement.
The Role of Agroecology in Cities.1. An expanded scope of biodiversity
in urban agriculture, with implications for conservation
2. Complex
ecological interactions and ecosystem services in urban agroecosystems
3.
Climate factors and climate change in urban agroecosystems
4. Restoring soil
and supporting food sovereignty in an urbanizing world: An interdisciplinary
perspective
5. Urban foraging: Where cultural knowledge and local
biodiversity meet
6. Agroecology as Public Health: The island example of
Tasmania
7. From individual seeds to collective harvests: urban agroecology
as political action
8. Surveying the landscape of urban agricultures land
politics: Civic, ecological, heritage-based, justice-driven, and
market-oriented fields
9. Co-producing agro-food policies for urban
environments: towards agroecology-oriented local food systems
10. Holistic
pedagogies for social change: reflections from an urban agroecology farmer
training
11. Growing Together: Participatory Approaches in Urban Agriculture
Extension
12. How to study the ecology of food in the city: an overview of
natural science methodologies
13. Navigating Urban Agroecological Research
with the Social Sciences
14. Agroecological transformations in urban
contexts: transdisciplinary research frameworks and participatory approaches
in Burlington, Vermont
15. Multidimensional challenges in urban agricultural
research.Future Directions in Urban Agroecology
Monika Egerer is a tenure-track professor in Urban Productive Ecosystems in the School of Life Sciences at the Technical University of Munich. Her research investigates relationships between biodiversity conservation, ecosystem service provision, and human wellbeing in urban agroecosystems. Her work aims to bridge theory and practice to create productive systems in cities that offer food, habitat and community.
Hamutahl Cohen is a postdoctoral researcher in Entomology at the University of California, Riverside. Her research investigates drivers of insect declines in changing urban landscapes and the subsequent impacts to ecosystem services in farms and gardens. She leverages natural ecology and molecular and microbial methodologies to address questions of applied significance for promoting food security.
