SPADING THE FIELD: REVEALING SOCIETAL LACKS THROUGH SOCIAL INNOVATIVE PRACTICE. A study of urban agriculture initiatives in Utrecht, the Netherlands

Abstract

Worldwide small groups of people living in cities are gathering to practice gardening together, an appearance that has been defined as urban agriculture. This thesis is the output of three-and-a-half-month field research amongst urban gardeners in the city of Utrecht, the Netherlands, answering the question: How do micro urban agriculture initiatives in Utrecht represent a social innovative movement offering a qualitative alternative to the contemporary capitalist mode of quantification of life? The gardening practice is studied as social innovation providing an answer to societal lacks. Urban agriculture in Utrecht is a response to processes of commodification, urbanization and individualization which are linked to a lack of socio-ecological connectivity, the inability to cope with an accelerated society and a loss of connection to self and the community. Using a Deleuzean method of tracing social practices into rhizomatic structures of interconnectivity between micro- and macropolitics, this thesis gives context and meaning to urban gardening within a local and global perspective. To expand the applicability of this research beyond the academic world, the position of the local government towards urban agriculture serves to incent a debate on the quantification of politics and the value of studying and supporting social innovative practice.