Thesis (M.Arch.)--University of Detroit Mercy, 2007. / "28 April 2008". Includes bibliographical references (p. 82-86).

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As cidades têm desempenhado um papel importante para a reprodução do sistema capitalista, sendo planejadas pelo capital financeiro, pelo capital empresarial e por um aparato estatal sob a ótica da manutenção de um sistema que frequentemente colapsa. Este processo tem consequências práticas e destrutivas nas cidades, que perdem muito de suas qualidades e que, ainda, perdem de vista os ideais de cidadania e de uma política urbana efetiva e coerente. É no contexto da crise das cidades, porém, que surgem diversos movimentos de busca por alternativas urbanas para a construção de outra cidade. Uma das práticas sociais oriundas deste momento é a ressignificação da agricultura urbana, prática que tem se difundido no espaço das cidades e que dialoga com a crescente insatisfação urbana decorrente do modelo capitalista de cidades. O cultivo de alimentos dentro das cidades não é uma novidade. Desde que as cidades existem, há relatos de agricultura dentro de seus limites, mesmo que tenha havido, principalmente com a introdução dos ideais da modernidade, uma separação progressiva entre a prática da agricultura e as cidades, tornando a existência de agricultura dentro da modernidade urbana um elemento estranho, um resquício de outro tempo. A novidade sobre a agricultura urbana parece residir justamente na sua ressignificação, sendo utilizada como ferramenta multifuncional para a transformação de diferentes aspectos do espaço urbano, por meio das ações do poder público e dos agricultores ativistas. Nosso objetivo é compreender o significado da agricultura urbana, como ruralidade, nas transformações de ordem ambiental, social, econômica e cultural nas cidades a partir das experiências de São Paulo e Bogotá no período de 2004 a 2018. Para a consecução do objetivo proposto, utilizamos, como fontes primárias, as entrevistas realizadas com os atores envolvidos com a agricultura urbana das duas cidades, além de um material fotográfico colhido nas investigações de campo. Como fontes secundárias, utilizamos obras de referência sobre o direito à cidade, a agricultura urbana e a agroecologia, que foram a base do debate teórico desta dissertação. A partir de diferentes experiências de agricultura urbana em São Paulo e em Bogotá, destacamos que a agricultura, enquanto ruralidade, desempenha um papel importante na transformação da realidade das cidades. Além disso, por meio de sua prática e consolidação, combinando a ação dos agricultores e das políticas públicas, a agricultura urbana pode se tornar uma urbanidade, tendo aproveitado o seu potencial e servindo como instrumento para a busca de novas sociabilidades urbanas e para a construção de um novo ideal de cidades. / Cities play an important role in the reproduction of the capitalist system, and are planned by finance capital, business capital, and a state apparatus under the view of maintaining a system that often collapses. This process has practical and destructive consequences in the cities, which lose much of their qualities and which also lose sight of the ideals of citizenship and an effective and coherent urban policy. It is in the context of the crisis of the cities, however, that there are several movements of search for urban alternatives for the construction of another city. One of the social practices arising from this moment is the re-signification of urban agriculture, a practice that has spread in the space of cities and that dialogues with the growing urban dissatisfaction resulting from the capitalist model of cities. The cultivation of food within cities is not new. Since the cities exist, there are reports of agriculture within its limits, even though there has been, mainly with the introduction of the ideals of modernity, a progressive separation between the practice of agriculture and cities, making the existence of agriculture within urban modernity a strange element, a remnant of another time. The novelty about urban agriculture seems to lie precisely in its re-signification, being used as a multifunctional tool for the transformation of different aspects of the urban space, through the actions of the public power and the activist farmers. Our objective is to understand the meaning of urban agriculture, as rurality, in the transformations of environmental, social, economic and cultural order in the cities from the experiences of São Paulo and Bogota in the period from 2004 to 2018. In order to achieve the proposed objective, we use, as primary sources, the interviews with the actors involved with the urban agriculture of the two cities, as well as a photographic material collected in the field investigations. As secondary sources, we used reference works on the right to the city, urban agriculture and agroecology, which were the basis of the theoretical debate of this dissertation. From different experiences of urban agriculture in São Paulo and Bogotá, we emphasize that agriculture, as a rurality, plays an important role in transforming the reality of cities. In addition, through its practice and consolidation, combining the action of farmers and public policies, urban agriculture can become an urbanity, taking advantage of its potential and serving as an instrument for the search of new urban sociabilities and for the construction of a new ideal of cities.

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The burgeoning of subsistence agriculture in the townships of Bulawayo, the second largest city in Zimbabwe symbolizes a change in the use of urban space in many cities of the global South. The activity of subsistence agriculture, which in both colonial and post-colonial Zimbabwe has been highly regarded as a rural activity is now a common sight in most townships of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe (RAUF, 2007). Indeed the rise of subsistence agriculture in the residential areas of Bulawayo particularly in the township of Gwabalanda is leading to what I refer to as the ‘ruralization of urban space’, where through practises of subsistence agriculture, elements of rural life have slowly seeped into the everyday life of urbanites (cf. Rogerson, 1993:33; Zeleza, 1999:45). The thesis uses Lefebvre’s (1974) theory of Production of Space to investigate some of the conditions and factors that have influenced the ruralization of urban space in the township of Gwabalanda, as seen in the intensification of a rural-oriented activity of subsistence farm. Using primary data from 17 semi-structured interviews with Gwabalanda residents involved in farming, the thesis intended to interrogate the perceptions and attitudes Gwabalanda residents hold towards the changes in the use of urban space and also examine the possible benefits of urban farming. The investigation of subsistence farming in Gwabalanda led me to identify three complementing and overarching themes or factors that drive urban farming and the ruralization of urban space. The first two themes are the political and economic factors which seem to operate on a macro-level, whereas the other theme of socio-cultural factors functions at an individual or household level. Economic and political factors such unemployment, lack of income, high transport costs of moving food, political alienation and freedom were identified by Gwabalanda residents as important drivers of urban agriculture. On the other hand, socio-cultural aspects which included identity, traditional religion, socialization and changes in migration patterns appeared to be crucial motivators for cultivating urban spaces. The research study also found out that urban households that are engaged in subsistence farming are more food secure and generate extra income from selling some of the produced crops. The income generated is used to pay school fees, pay bills and buy farming inputs for the next planting season. Furthermore some households were sending excess farm produce to their rural homes.

This exploratory research focuses on identifying the roles and perspectives of community gardens in the Dallas area. Results from semi-structured interviews reveal the social and political makeup of the neighborhoods where the garden projects in this study are located. While these findings highlight the benefits of gardening in the city, they can also be contested spaces. In advocating for the proliferation of garden projects in the city, community organizations would benefit from understanding the nuances of garden initiatives and the way in which they are perceived by members of the garden, nearby residents, and policy makers.