Specificities of French community gardens as environmental stewardships
Community-based efforts are essential to address urban social-ecological challenges. Here, we focus on French community gardens. Through participant observation and semistructured interviews, this study seeks to provide empirical evidence on: (1) what motivates volunteer gardeners in French communi...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Resilience Alliance
2017-09-01
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| Series: | Ecology and Society |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol22/iss3/art28/ |
| _version_ | 1819120660402667520 |
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| author | Ana Cristina. Torres Sophie Nadot Anne-Caroline Prévot |
| author_facet | Ana Cristina. Torres Sophie Nadot Anne-Caroline Prévot |
| author_sort | Ana Cristina. Torres |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Community-based efforts are essential to address urban social-ecological challenges. Here, we focus on French community gardens. Through participant observation and semistructured interviews, this study seeks to provide empirical evidence on:
(1) what motivates volunteer gardeners in French community gardens to undertake this activity, (2) what practices take place in the gardens, and (3) which individual and collective processes are associated with gardeners' experiences in the gardens. Through these questions, we aim to understand how these initiatives relate to environmental stewardship. Our results show that environmental, social, and self-motivations are the drivers behind gardeners' participation in the gardens. It seems that involvement in the gardens provides opportunities to fulfill those needs and/or motives through different interrelated processes between the individual with him/herself, the human collective, and nature such as: contemplating nature and benefiting from sensory experiences, having access to environmental education, experiencing individual and collective organization, renewing social-ecological relationships, and facing local challenges. We note that French community gardens provide arenas for new experiences of nature. In addition, even if gardens' biophysical features and gardening practices allow a series of processes that provide social and ecological benefits and outcomes, these gardens refer to environmental stewardship practices by cultivating relational values. These values provide opportunities for innovative ways of creative conservation, reflecting how care for ourselves extends to care for others, for places, and for nature. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-22T06:24:12Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6627a1d043664a5abe23c336949400fa |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1708-3087 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-22T06:24:12Z |
| publishDate | 2017-09-01 |
| publisher | Resilience Alliance |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Ecology and Society |
| spelling | doaj.art-6627a1d043664a5abe23c336949400fa2022-12-21T18:35:52ZengResilience AllianceEcology and Society1708-30872017-09-012232810.5751/ES-09442-2203289442Specificities of French community gardens as environmental stewardshipsAna Cristina. Torres0Sophie Nadot1Anne-Caroline Prévot2Centre d'Ecologie et des Sciences de la Conservation (CESCO UMR7204), Sorbonne Université, MNHN, CNRS, UPMC, BP 135, 57 rue Cuvier, 75005, Paris, FranceEcologie Systématique Evolution, Université Paris-Sud, UMR 8079, CNRS, AgroParisTech, Université Paris-Saclay, 91400, Orsay, FranceCentre d'Ecologie et des Sciences de la Conservation (CESCO UMR7204), Sorbonne Université, MNHN, CNRS, UPMC, BP 135, 57 rue Cuvier, 75005, Paris, FranceCommunity-based efforts are essential to address urban social-ecological challenges. Here, we focus on French community gardens. Through participant observation and semistructured interviews, this study seeks to provide empirical evidence on: (1) what motivates volunteer gardeners in French community gardens to undertake this activity, (2) what practices take place in the gardens, and (3) which individual and collective processes are associated with gardeners' experiences in the gardens. Through these questions, we aim to understand how these initiatives relate to environmental stewardship. Our results show that environmental, social, and self-motivations are the drivers behind gardeners' participation in the gardens. It seems that involvement in the gardens provides opportunities to fulfill those needs and/or motives through different interrelated processes between the individual with him/herself, the human collective, and nature such as: contemplating nature and benefiting from sensory experiences, having access to environmental education, experiencing individual and collective organization, renewing social-ecological relationships, and facing local challenges. We note that French community gardens provide arenas for new experiences of nature. In addition, even if gardens' biophysical features and gardening practices allow a series of processes that provide social and ecological benefits and outcomes, these gardens refer to environmental stewardship practices by cultivating relational values. These values provide opportunities for innovative ways of creative conservation, reflecting how care for ourselves extends to care for others, for places, and for nature.http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol22/iss3/art28/community gardenconservationenvironmental stewardshipexperience of naturerelational valuesurbanwell-being |
| spellingShingle | Ana Cristina. Torres Sophie Nadot Anne-Caroline Prévot Specificities of French community gardens as environmental stewardships Ecology and Society community garden conservation environmental stewardship experience of nature relational values urban well-being |
| title | Specificities of French community gardens as environmental stewardships |
| title_full | Specificities of French community gardens as environmental stewardships |
| title_fullStr | Specificities of French community gardens as environmental stewardships |
| title_full_unstemmed | Specificities of French community gardens as environmental stewardships |
| title_short | Specificities of French community gardens as environmental stewardships |
| title_sort | specificities of french community gardens as environmental stewardships |
| topic | community garden conservation environmental stewardship experience of nature relational values urban well-being |
| url | http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol22/iss3/art28/ |
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