Community Garden As Political an Societal Activism

ABSTRACT: This paper aims to analyze the phenomenon of Community gardens, as
a nascent form of political and social activism in Europe and beyond, which is gaining
increasing importance and visibility. This movement is still a territory "largely unexplored
by social scientists" (Bergamaschi 2012), hence the need to bring forth discussion and
reflection of its direction. An essential feature of these forms of activism is undoubtedly
represented by the space. It is the space and the desire to preserve it in the face of
construction - an alternative thought to the idea of urban development - which is the focus
of these practices, the land on and through which gives rise to unusual "forms of urbanity
from the active involvement of the Dweller as political subject "(Bergamaschi 2012). The
production of a counter-space (Olivi 2012), therefore, emerges as a true "vindictive act,
[which] goes far beyond making a garden" (Coscarello 2012). Another common feature of
these experiences, at least in the European context, is the will to create active (usable,
modifiable) urban green spaces, capable of stimulating social relationships between
people who live unreleased and/or frequent places where there are these gardens and
shared gardens. In particular, the cases accounted for in the present study are the Italian
context (Bologna, Firenze, Rome) and the European one (Paris, Berlin and Barcelona).
Key words: community garden, space, urban activism, social relationships, urbanity