Urban Gardens-Pockets of Social-Ecological Memory

It is well known that urban allotment gardens provide important ecosystem services. Their potential to act as sources of local resilience during times of crisis is less appreciated, despite the role they have played as areas of food production during times of urban crisis. Their ability to provide such relief, however, requires that the skills and knowledge needed for effective gardening be transmitted over time and across social groups. In short, some portion of urban society must remember how to grow food. This chapter proposes that allotment gardens function as ‘pockets’ of social-ecological memory by storing the knowledge and experience required to grow food. Allotment gardeners operate as ‘communities of practice’ with ecosystem stewardship reflecting long-term, dynamic interactions between community members and gardening sites. Social-ecological memories about food production and past crises are retained and transmitted through habits, traditions, informal institutions, artifacts and the physical structure of the gardens themselves. Allotment gardens thus serve as incubators of social-ecological knowledge with experiences that can be accessed and transferred to other land uses in times of crisis, contributing to urban resilience. Conversely, failure to protect these pockets of social-ecological memory could result in a collective ‘forgetting’ of important social-ecological knowledge and reduce social-ecological resilience.

Keywords: allotment gardens, Community of practice, cosystem services, food production, resilience, social-ecological memory, Urban gardens

Barthel, S., J. Parker, C. Folke, and J. Colding. 2011. Urban Gardens-Pockets of Social-Ecological Memory. In: Tidball, K.G., and M.E. Krasny (eds.). Greening in the Red Zone: Disaster, Resilience, and Community Greening. Springer-Verlag. Pp. .