Urban community gardens and their ability to promote social cohesion amidst gentrification

Abstract

As cities continue to integrate urban renewal strategies that result in gentrification, neighborhood social cohesion stands to decrease. Social cohesion is important for neighborhoods as this creates more connected communities through social interaction and adds to residents’ quality of life. Gentrification has been shown to negatively impact social cohesion through decreased neighborhood attachment and social interaction between incumbent and new residents. Therefore, tools that increase social cohesion would be beneficial to cities that have policies which result in gentrification. Urban community gardens have previously been used as a strategy to encourage social cohesion through their ability to increase social connections, and create positive atmospheres. However, these studies were not placed in the context of a gentrifying neighborhood. This led to the development of the research question, How can urban community gardens promote social cohesion amidst gentrification? Based on this, a novel conceptual framework was formulated combining previous literature similar to this topic. This framework includes four causal mechanisms of Mood-boosting, Neighborhood Attachment, Expanded Social Networks, and Empowering Participation, which were posited to result in social cohesion. An urban community garden, Vredestuin Noord was selected as the subject of this case study as it is located in a gentrifying neighborhood of Liskwartier in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Interviews based on the conceptual framework took place with both staff and volunteers of the community garden. Results from this research suggest that an urban community garden that boosts volunteers’ mood, increases neighborhood attachment, expands social networks and empowers its participants has the ability to promote social cohesion amidst gentrification. This has implications for cities who have urban renewal strategies that result in gentrification, but still desire to maintain or improve the social cohesion of their city.