JUSTGREEN Cities · Just and Green Cities: An Intersectional Perspective on Urban Agriculture and Roma Inclusion in Europe

Cities have become epicentres for confronting climate change worldwide. Widely acknowledged for its environmental benefits, urban agriculture is in particular blooming in Europe. However, by putting the emphasis on environmental progress rather than social justice, it may support social and spatial inequalities. Recent shifts in scholarship have started critically examining urban agriculture, but a clear evaluation of its social, economic and cultural impacts in European cities is still missing. This project intends to fill this gap by exploring the relationship between urban agriculture and social (in)justice in urban space. The project's research aims are threefold: 1) conceptually, it seeks to explore the compatibility between environmental sustainability and social justice from the ground up; 2) empirically, it will examine the relationship between urban agriculture and Roma integration in three European cities, Paris, Berlin and Sofia, where a number of community gardens actively support Roma populations and vulnerable groups; 3) methodologically, it intends to develop an intersectional analytical framework to explore environmental action. The account will centrally involve a novel perspective on how cities may become more socially just and environmentally sustainable. The project will adopt an interdisciplinary research strategy, based on ethnographic investigation, historical urban analysis and participatory research. The MSCA fellowship will allow the ER to become a leading researcher in the critical geographies of urban sustainability and progress in her academic career in order to secure a tenure-track position in the EU academic job market.