Toward sustainability: Novelties, areas of learning and innovation in urban agriculture

Abstract

Given the search for new solutions to better prepare cities for the future, in recent years,urban agriculture (UA) has gained in relevance. Within the context of UA, innovative organizationaland technical approaches are generated and tested. They can be understood as novelties thatbegin a potential innovation process. This empirical study is based on 17 qualitative interviewsin the U.S. (NYC; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Chicago, IL, USA). The aim was to identify: (i) the mostrelevant areas of learning and innovation; (ii) the drivers of innovation; (iii) the applied noveltiesand their specific approach to overcoming the perceived obstacles; (iv) the intrinsic challengesthat practitioners face in the innovation process; and (v) the novelties' potential to contribute tosustainability and societal change. As the results of the study demonstrate, learning and innovation inUA occur predominantly in four areas, namely, "financing and funding", "production, technology andinfrastructure", "markets and demands" and "social acceptance and cultural learning". The describednovelties include approaches to enhance the positive impacts of practicing agriculture within urbanareas, and some of them have the potential to contribute to societal change and open up opportunitiesfor social learning processes.