Culturalization and urban horticulture in two World Heritage cities

ABSTRACT

Horticulture features widely in research about urban agriculture. Interest is motivated by eco-technical challenges, such as improving household nutrition in expanding mega-cities, closing urban waste cycles through agricultural processes, and examining “SMART” potentials for the low-carbon production of fruits and vegetables. Studies also link participation in urban growing with political expressions of citizenship. These illuminations largely neglect socio-cultural insights, despite the important traditional contribution horticulture has played in shaping urban cultural landscapes and frequently culture appears as a faint backdrop to urban regeneration, or a proxy for consumption. To help illuminate the role of culture and its actor constellations within urban horticulture, the cases of two UNESCO World Heritage cities, Bath (UK) and Bamberg (Germany), are compared.

Drawing on Luhmann’s social systems theory and its derivatives, notably Nassehi’s concept of cultural contingency, the article examines cultural dimensions of urban horticulture in the two cities and identifies four types of culturalization, or empirically observable and complex bundles of practices that explain how urban horticulture is governed and executed. This indicates the local historical embeddedness of rivalry/competition and cooperation among urban gardeners, and the relevance of culture as a potential for innovation in urban horticulture.

KEYWORDS:

• Urban horticulture
• culturalization
• UNESCO World Heritage
• Luhmann’s social systems theory
• rivalry
• cooperation
• tradition
• innovation

Acknowledgments

Fieldwork funding was provided by the Bayerische Forschungsallianz through the BAYINTAN programme and the University of Gloucestershire’s research priority area Environmental Dynamics and Governance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. http://www.milanurbanfoodpolicypact.org/accessed April 30, 2018.

2. http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Statistics_on_European_cities accessed May 17, 2017.

3. http://www.ruralhistory.eu/newsletter/2013/rhn-2013-043.

4. Grant agreement 312126. See wwwsuburbfood.eu.

5. Gilmore’s map can be viewed online at the Museum of Bath Architecture http://museumofbatharchitecture.org.uk/explore/objects-from-the-collection/.

6. Zweidler’s map can be viewed online at Bamberg’s World Heritage website: http://medienportal.bamberg.info/image/nachstich_des_zweidlerplans_au-58/.

7. Investitionsprogramm Nationale UNESCO-Welterbestätten.

8. http://www.gaertnerstadt-bamberg.de/.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Bayerische Forschungsallianz [BaylntAn_Uni_Bamberg 2015_15]; University of Gloucestershire [Research Priority Area Environmental Dynamics and Governance].

Notes on contributors

Daniel Keech

Dr Daniel Keech is Senior Researcher at the University of Gloucestershire’s Countryside and Community Research Institute. His research interests include urban food, alternative food networks, and rural-urban synergies in relation to European food cultures.

Marc Redepenning

Professor Marc Redepenning holds the chair of Geography at Otto-Friedrich University in Bamberg, where he is also Dean of Studies within the Humanities Faculty. His research interests include the geopolitics of rural areas and rural futures, geographies of social justice and well-being, and the application of social systems theory in geography.