ABSTRACT
Even though community gardening has been a rather common practice in the Global South, in the era following the 2008 financial crash it has also experienced an important resurgence in several cities of the Global North. Greece is a characteristic case of a country that has experienced such an increase in urban community gardening in the post-2008 era without having a prior long history in similar initiatives. Here, by focusing on the two biggest Greek cities, namely Athens and Thessaloniki, I aim to explore and substantiate the historically geographically specific conditions that give rise to such initiatives and their relation to rising inequality in European cities at the aftermath of the 2008 financial crash. By drawing on the work of urban political ecologists, radical social and urban geographers, and qualitative social research, I pay particular attention to how community gardening relates to claims for the right to the city and discuss its potential to contribute both to short and long-term transformations of local communities’ relation to urban space inspiring and even initiating structural changes to the socio-economic conditions of the city. I conclude that the creation of community gardens often indicates not only an act of disobedience against the grabbing of public land, but also a demand for a different production of space opening a pathway for reclaiming the urban commons and materially transforming everyday lives in the city.
