Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
significant to the presence and continuance of UA (Frayne, 2004). While such a
connection might be critical for urban agricultural practices in many cities,
there exist more diverse relations between human and environment in cities that
play an important role in UA.
Drawing on the current situation in Managua, Nicaragua, this research
examines existing relations between human and environment at the household
scale. It describes how humans interact with the environment in the
establishment and management of gardens and food production in urban
areas. Managua provides an especially interesting case study because it
represents in many ways a city that defies dominant notions of 'the urban'
(Wall, 1996). Managua has often been referred to as un-urban, primarily
because it was never fully rebuilt after the devastating earthquake in 1972, and
as a consequence the contemporary urban form does not resemble a typical
'urban' centre (McGuire, 1991; Wall, 1996; Rodgers, 2004). Most noticeably,
Managua's built landscape is unusually horizontal with very few buildings
exceeding five storeys. A large make-up of this landscape are houses, which
are the most common type of dwelling in the city. In fact, detached houses
account for 97 per cent of the dwelling types in the city (INEC, 2006).
2
The
majority of these houses have yards large enough to grow trees and plants,
and most have at least one tree. As a result, Managua's cityscape is
remarkably green. This research looked at the small-scale agriculture and
agro-forestry within home patios (yards) in San Augusto,
3
a marginalized
barrio of Managua. It examined the relations through which these forms of
UA and gardening are produced and what role they play in the development
of sustainable urban spaces. Additionally, the study examined whether the
human-environment relations used and created in UA assist in generating
community-based actions around social and environmental change in the
barrio. The concept of 'networks' is used to explain the interactions between
humans and the environment, which are referred to in this chapter as socio-
ecological networks.
O
BJECTIVES
,H
YPOTHESES AND
C
ONCEPTS
The objectives of this research were: (i) to better understand the human-
environment relations involved in UA by describing the socio-ecological
networks; (ii) to determine the importance of these networks and relations in
producing sustainable urban spaces; and (iii) how these networks and relations
impact on the livelihood strategies in poor barrios of Managua. The study
attempted to answer the two main questions. First, what socio-ecological
networks exist in UA and how important are these in creating liveable home
and community spaces? Second, do these socio-ecological networks in UA play
a role in development of social organizations or movements?
Based on the assumption that individuals create distinct socio-ecological
networks in household-scale UA activities, the hypothesis of this study was
that differences in household urban agricultural practices and forms do not
