ABSTRACT
Viewing community gardens as sites of collective social action enables a more nuanced and complete understanding of community gardening and its potential contributions to understandings of activism, community, democracy and culture. In North America and the United Kingdom, community gardens have caught the interest of scholars across a number of disciplines: leisure studies and health, urban and agrifood studies, sociology, economics and anthropology. Community gardens grow in the fertile intersections between food politics and agrifood studies, environmentalism and urban social movements, policy and planning, social work and social action. The development of my argument throughout the book follows a similar trajectory to the development of a community garden. Social action provides a useful frame for capturing some of the experiences and perspectives of community gardeners that lie beyond the bounds of policy discourse. Cultivating Community is a non-profit, non-government organisation that promotes and supports community gardening in Melbourne.
