Urban community gardens as social innovation in turbulent times across diverse European contexts (GARDIN)

European countries are going through turbulent times (e.g., the COVID-19 outbreak, large-scale war in Ukraine), which, combined with ongoing global crises related to climate change, jeopardise European nations´ ability to achieve SDGs by 2030.

GARDIN aims to explore the contribution of publicly accessible urban community gardens (UCG) as social innovation (SI) to meet the significant context-specific challenges in urban development in Europe’s West and East.

Over three years, GARDIN will study the socially innovative role of UCG and their potential for broader societal impact in (re) building inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities in different European contexts (SDG 11).

A transdisciplinary social innovation framework with a complex systems approach will be used to explore the interdependent processes and outputs of UCG as SI, assess their outcomes and impacts at different levels, and analyse their scalability potential for sustainable urban development in Europe.

GARDIN will select UCG as case studies in Sweden, Georgia, and Ukraine, representing the diversity of European contexts and the most pressing challenges in urban development during turbulent times in Europe.

Communication with relevant stakeholders in three countries and dissemination of the outcomes will be a critical element of GARDIN in promoting UCG and raising awareness locally, nationally and internationally about the role of UGI in sustainable urban development.