Communities of practice in urban gardening transitioning cities toward sustainability

Abstract

Urban gardening is linked to many urban eco-social challenges and their solutions. Increasing the opportunities and spaces for gardening is therefore a key means of promoting sustainable urban development in local scale. The article examines urban gardening in the light of co-management and communities of practice. I ask what kind of communities of practice emerge from urban gardening organized on the basis of co-management and how these communities of practice influence the continuity of urban gardening. The research approach is ethnographic, and the interview and observation data was collected among four urban gardens in Tampere. The analysis combines thematic analysis of gardening cases and the mirroring of these thematic categories to the theory of communities of practice. 

Communities of practice and mutual commitment among participants play an important role in the continuity of both individual gardening cases and city level gardening activities. The results highlight the agency of urban communities as part of the urban sustainability transition. Cooperation between the city and gardeners was highlighted. Communities of practice may also evolve in unexpected ways. The networks and constellations formed by distinct communities of practice can bring together different urban actors and enable the emergence of spontaneous eco-social sustainability practices.