How property relations shape experiences and transformative potential of urban growing spaces: Connecting land, food, and Earth justice perspectives

Abstract

This study uses both socio-legal and theoretical methods to examine the ambivalent role of property regimes in food system transformation. Combining an Earth justice perspective with a small-scale empirical study of how property and land-use laws affected experiences of growing spaces in an English city that included some element of collective ownership or management, we argue for greater diversity in formal legal structures (e.g., tenancy models), but also in concepts of land relationships. Our discussion diverts attention from individual entitlements to allocation of responsibilities and opportunities for human and interspecies collaboration. Growers’ experiences were shaped by productivist property narratives but provide a material basis to think beyond individual entitlement, reframing issues of security of tenure and public access in terms of responsibility and connection.