Contemporary Urban Agriculture in European and Chinese Regions: A Social-Cultural Perspective

• Published in: Land (Basel) Vol. 13; no. 2; p. 130
• Main Authors: Jiang, Yichen, He, Fang, Li, Shihui, Lu, Hang, Zhang, Rouran
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01-01-2024
• Subjects: Agricultural production; Agriculture; Air pollution; Analysis; Case studies; China; Cities; Climatic changes; Consumption; Environmental impact; Europe; Farms; Food security; Gardening; Green infrastructure; Innovations; Open spaces; Population density; R&D; Research & development; Rural development; social-cultural perspective; Sustainable development; Urban agriculture; Urban areas; Urban farming; Urban planning; Urbanization; United Kingdom; China; Germany; Spain; Asia; Europe
• ISSN: 2073-445X; 2073-445X
• DOI: 10.3390/land13020130

With its early start in urbanization, Europe has accumulated a wealth of practical experience in urban agriculture (UA), exploring various development models. This paper compares and analyzes the characteristic patterns of UA in Europe and China through theoretical research, academic frontier exploration, and case analysis. In order to investigate and analyze theoretical developments and the current state of academic frontiers in a systematic, accessible, and comprehensive approach, the methodology of bibliometric analysis has been utilized. A bibliometric method is applied to analyze relevant data from the Web of Science (WoS) core collection database and 2230 CNKI publications. The case study section conducts separate field research on nine representative European practices of urban food gardening and urban farming. Additionally, the study scrutinizes UA research development and its implementation in Hangzhou, China. Based on the findings of this study, the authors recommend that European approaches to the development of UA in China’s future UA practice be taken into account, in particular their methods and strategies for realizing social and cultural benefits. It is imperative to integrate UA projects into urban green space system planning and to rationalize their construction types. Simultaneously, Chinese scholars are encouraged to explore the socio-cultural functions of UA, with a particular focus on urban agricultural heritage conservation.