Urban Agriculture: A Growing Field of Research
Abstract
Growing food presents diverse challenges and opportunities within
the urban environment. As cities develop, population density rises, land prices
rise, and the opportunity to use land for traditional farming and gardening diminishes.
Counter to this trend there are a growing number of community gardens,
city farms, guerrilla gardening, rooftop and vertical gardens, pot plants,
windowsill herbs, and other balcony or backyard gardens cropping up in cities,
all with a purpose to produce food. This workshop brings together practitioners
and researchers in the field of urban agriculture and Human-Computer Interaction
to explore and opportunities for technology design to support different
forms of growing practice and foster local food production in cities.
This 1-day workshop will serve as an active forum for researchers and
practitioners across various fields including, but not limited to, agriculture and
gardening, education, urban planning, human-computer interaction, and
community engagement. This workshop has three distinct points of focus: i) Individual
and small-scale gardening and food production, and how to connect
like-minded people who are involved in these practices to share their knowledge
ii) Communities involved in urban agriculture, either through community
gardens, city farms, or grassroots movements, often dependent on volunteer
participation, providing the challenge of managing limited resources iii) Environmental
and sociocultural sustainability through urban agriculture..
The participants will have an opportunity to present their own work. This
will be followed by a visit to a nearby city farm, which will provide a local context
for a group design exercise. Finally the workshop will conclude with panel
discussions to review opportunities for further research and collaborations
beyond the conference.
For more information, please visit the workshop website, at
http://www.urbaninformatics.net/resources/interact2013cfp/