ABSTRACT
The Mediterranean urban landscape has been dotted with small to medium sized agricultural plots, since ancient times. They share common climatic conditions, crops, and livestock, but differ in spatial, social, cultural, and economic significance, as well as in policy aspects. While on the one hand, prevailing notions perceive the Mediterranean region as a distinct geo-cultural entity, on the other hand, various scholars emphasise its division into northern developed and southern developing countries. Accordingly, in the north, urban agriculture is practiced mainly as a leisure activity or as reflecting sustainability trends, and in the south, it is a subsistence activity. Based on Mediterranean urban agriculture (MUA) case studies presented herein, this chapter overcomes the common split between developing and developed countries and examines similarities, connectivity, and mutual influences along the Mediterranean shores. It argues that the geographical proximity between the two regions facilitates a constant movement of people, artefacts, and ideas. As part of these movement and exchanges, MUA is a distinct phenomenon that blurs the dichotomous perceptions of North and South. It is characterised by a transfer of modern agricultural knowledge and policies from developed countries to the developing ones, and in parallel, northward movement of people, crops, and more traditional lifestyles and ideas from the south.
