ABSTRACT

The topic of Urban Agriculture as an integrated factor of climate-optimized urban development is – in many facets – related to the ‘larger wholes of global change’ such as rapid urbanization, globalizing agricultural land, food systems and climate change. Although the concept of agriculture as part of the city is becoming accepted more and more, the different issues brought together under the UAC project are still generally regarded as separate. Breaking them down within the context of a concrete urbanizing region and its life-world problems means to study their impact on site within a demarcated area. A number of disciplines approach the same question from different directions, aiming to better understand the underlying conditions, the mutual influences and interactions, not least in order to identify besides potentials and possible synergies conflicts and contradictions. At the same time, this involves disciplinary sub-questions that are bound up in very different social, economic and ecological sub-systems that in turn are examined by means of different methods corresponding to the different disciplines’ scientific cultures. From a spatial perspective, reference systems are thus examined that are involved at very different scales, from the local to the global. Many of the issues investigated to understand the problems of Grand Casablanca are also shaped by external conditions from outside the region, such as globalizing economies and agricultural markets. The diagnostic process involves different subsystems that overarch scales and methods. In addition to the different disciplinary knowledge, local knowledge of the actors involved in the transdisciplinary process is part of, and has to be integrated into, the analytical reflection. All in all, it has become clear that it involves a multiplicity of different approaches towards the research question as a whole and the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. Different scientific cultures and forms of knowledges encounter one another and must be integrated in a common language. The analysis from different perspectives and on different levels are to be summarized in a joint ‘narrative’ to aid better understanding. It also aids in the inclusion of interconnectivities and interdependencies and keeps the

process open for new insights. A cooperation of this kind is achieved through mutual acceptance of disciplinary cultures, permanent communication processes and the provision of technical communication platforms. The Chapter C2 is a digest and description of different methods used within the inter-and transdisciplinary research design. A mix of analytical methods is applied in each of the individual sub-processes and phases, creating the basis for extrapolating, deducing and integrating results for the phase of integrated problem solving. These processes do not run linearly. Much more, the steps involved in generating problem knowledge and later the target knowledge and transformation knowledge are connected with one another by means of reflexive and the spiral-formed work processes. This allows for the integration of incomplete knowledge (see A3) and for a readjusted definition of the knowledge required. ‘Future research’ (C2.7) and ‘Transdisciplinary design’ (C2.8) are examples of solution-oriented and integrated methods of examination that in turn bring to light new needs for analysis. In addition to the different quantitative and qualitative preferences in the disciplinary research approaches, another methodological challenge is to extend the reach of action research to include the establishment of pilot projects as a special form of transdisciplinary research and participative field research. Within the entire research process, many results were initially put in a temporary form. Through the continuous work we conducted together on the research topic, we aimed to strengthen the performance of disciplinary findings. It was another challenge to focus, work out and filter out problem oriented and problem solving oriented results. In addition to differences in the analytical work, there are numerous fields where content and methods overlap (see compilation in C3 and in C4). The different analytical approaches, it should be understood, shed light on each individual aspect of the whole concept and to some extent overlap, as Urban Agriculture is a multidimensional bridging concept that creates a multitude of interfaces (e.g. C 4.2, D1). While some of the different analytical approaches followed a disciplinary diagnostic, they were all merged to form one common of the research problem.