Abstract
In academia as well as in the global agenda policy discourse, there is a greater recognition for the need to understand dimensions that contribute to the quality of life in cities beyond economic and growth indicators.
Part of this search for a more comprehensive perspective calls for a new understanding of the role of public space. In the realm of urban studies, there is, on the one hand, a tradition of more spatial-centred research of analysing morphological characteristics of public space. On the other hand, there is an increasing number of studies that focus on the usability and the production of space and are thereby more interested in agency. By combing both perspectives, the aim is to identify key characteristics that could ultimately influence planning and policy-making for improving quality of life through useable public space.
The paper seeks to narrow this reflection by unravelling the role of urban agriculture as one agency to activate public space and public life in the context of the Global South. In order to do so, it will discuss different examples in Cape Town, South Africa. Local government and various civil society organisations are concerned about the continuous social polarisation and fragmentation in the city. At the same time, there is a growing awareness of the need to foster more climate and environmentally sensitive approaches in order to address the unsustainable sprawl. Here, urban agriculture on public usable land is seen to play a catalytic role.
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Notes
- 1.
Particularly for informal settlements, it has been noted that public space serves as a ‘living room’ and strengthens social interaction, identity and belonging with related social and economic benefits for respective communities (UN-Habitat 2016, p. vii).
- 2.
In December 2017, OZCF was voluntarily liquidated as an independent legal entity to become part of the SA Urban Food and Farming Trust, which shares the same founders and establishment date as OZCF, created as a sister organisation pursuing a more expansive vision.
- 3.
Reclaim The City (supported by Ndifuna Ukwazi) is a campaign, which was started in 2016 to tackle spatial apartheid within inner city Cape Town by campaigning for desegregation and affordable housing developments. It began as a mobilisation to stop the sale of the Tafelberg site within the city. (https://www.lessonsforchange.org/reclaim-the-city/).
- 4.
ETC is a Netherlands based, not-for-profit organisation working worldwide to strengthen resilience in support of people-centred development in rural and urban settings.
- 5.
This organic fertilizer—named “Zenzele Bokashi”—consists of fermented and processed organic (food) waste that is dried and packaged.
- 6.
After writing this article, by the end of 2019, Abalimi stopped operating Harvest of Hope in order to focus on supporting farmers to enhance food security.
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Ley, A. et al. (2021). Public Usable Space as a Catalyst for Quality of Life Improvement: The Case of Cape Town’s Social Farming Projects. In: Martinez, J., Mikkelsen, C.A., Phillips, R. (eds) Handbook of Quality of Life and Sustainability. International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50540-0_24
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